Dual eligibility is your sales opportunity

Seniors who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, otherwise known as dual eligibles, are truly an untapped market. It’s estimated that approximately 8.3 million people in the United States are covered by both Medicare and Medicaid, including low-income seniors and low-income individuals with a disability who are 18 or older. CMS recently reported that 11 percent of these dual eligibles nationwide are enrolled in a Dual Special Needs Plan, which agents can sell year-round as part of their portfolio of products.

Dual Special Needs Plans are a type of Medicare Advantage plan administered by private carriers like United Healthcare and often include extra benefits not covered by Medicare or Medicaid such as Dental, Vision, Hearing Aids, OTC and non-emergency medical transportation. In addition to these needed extra benefits, having a Medicare Advantage Special Needs plan simplifies things for the enrollee — he or she will have to worry about just one card instead of three to access health benefits and prescription coverage, and he or she will have just one customer service line to call should there be an issue. Another selling point is that Special Needs plans offer care coordination so clients have help managing multiple or chronic conditions.

One of the best ways to reach out to dual-eligible prospects is with community marketing. Community marketing simply refers to getting yourself in front of as many individuals who could use some advice about their insurance options as you can. Whether it’s volunteering at a food bank or a Special Olympics event (something I enjoyed doing when I lived in SLC), people see that you really care and are much more likely to send potential clients to you when you give back to your community and let people know you are there to help. So many families are looking for a helpful guide because they often don’t know where to start when it comes to benefits.

You can focus your marketing efforts at key places I’ll list below if you are interested in selling dual-eligible plans. Remember I’m just giving you a starting point — I’ve known agents who have expanded their community marketing beyond what I have here. Also, some carriers expect you to let them know you are marketing to potential beneficiaries in HUD or Section 8 housing.

Here are the Top 10 places for dual-eligible marketing and Lead generation:
1. Section 8 housing
2. County housing authorities apartment buildings or HUD housing
3. Senior centers
4. Area agency on aging or counseling groups
5. Faith-based organizations or churches
6. Food banks or pantries
7. Support groups for foster grandparents
8. Thrift stores like Goodwill
9. Senior expos and health fairs (Check out Senior Broker Trainer Tom O’Neil’s post on marketing yourself at these events)
10. Non-profit organizations supporting those with disabilities (Click here to read my community marketing story with Special Olympics Utah)

For more specific information about marketing to dual-eligible seniors as part of your senior insurance business, give me a call at (800) 997 3107 or email me with your questions. I’m happy to give you more specific advice for your market.

RB Insurance offers an incredible 2016 AHIP certification discount

Update: There’s a new AHIP Certification Discount for 2017!

What does the “it” in “We make it happen for you,” our slogan, mean?

This time of year, “it” means 2016 AHIP Medicare Training for many of our agents and for the first time ever, we make it happen for you at no cost (or at least at a discount)!

Through direct negotiation with America’s Health Insurance Plans, we are offering an exclusive $50 discount to our partners. Pay $125 for your 2016 AHIP certification discount with our no risk, no obligation offer.

To access our offer, all you need to do is subscribe to our blog by clicking this link.

We didn’t just work to save you $50 on your 2016 AHIP certification and connect you to our blog, where we go over how to fine tune your appointments for more sales and four simple ways to power through AHIP 2016.

RB Insurance will also cover the rest of your 2016 AHIP certification cost ($125) when you submit five Medicare Advantage enrollments (submitted between July 1, 2015 and January 1, 2016.)

That’s right, AHIP for free for just your five sales. This reimbursement is independent of any carrier offer, meaning if Cigna-HealthSpring, Aetna or any other carrier offer you an AHIP reimbursement for their sales, you’ll still qualify for our reimbursement program.

Here’s what you need to be reimbursed:

  • You must complete 2016 AHIP through RBI’s link first so we can verify you took the test.
  • Make five Medicare Advantage sales with our carriers.

For every five more sales you make after your initial five to receive full reimbursement on your 2016 AHIP certification, will earn you a 1,000-piece mailer for only $300. That’s a $145 discount off of our regular price and a great way to jump start your 2016 sales with fresh direct mail leads.

Our offer applies to Agencies and not just agents as well. For example, if you are an Agency of 10 agents and want to take advantage of our offer so each agent gets $125, the agency only needs to make 50 sales and all 10 agents would receive the reimbursement on their 2016 AHIP certification.

RB Insurance truly is your one-stop shop for all your senior insurance needs. We’ve already pioneered new technology for agents and agencies with Medicare Sales Engine, and we’ve supercharged our Marketing with our in-house Massive Response Mailers. Now we’re bringing mandatory sales training to you for nothing out of pocket.

 

Get out there and market yourself! Part Three

Here’s my last post in a series of three about different kinds of events you can be a part of to market your senior insurance business. Read Part One and Part Two.

Many agents are avoiding formal sales meetings because they’re anxious about CMS oversight, carrier rules and secret shoppers. However, they can be a compliant way to generate more Leads, and very few carriers will disallow agents from conducting formal Medicare marketing sales events.

Running one of these events can be fairly simple. Here’s how to get rolling:

Review the rules regarding formal sales events in the official Medicare Marketing Guidelines.

  • Always contact your carrier’s local Broker Sales Manager for rules and procedures for registering or reporting and conducting the event. I’ve noted lately that Humana, in some areas, will send their folks out to actually do the presentation for you while you still get the sales. Our local Cigna and Aetna broker managers in Arizona are always available to attend formal events and lend a hand at the meeting.
  • Find a centrally located meeting room. In my region, our city libraries rent meeting rooms to help balance their budgets. Don’t forget to consider the local VFW, American Legion, Moose or Elks Lodges for room rental as they also can be a good source of attendees. They’re all trying to raise some funds for their respective budgets. When all else fails, check some local restaurants and motels.

 

  • Always utilize the carrier-recorded presentation. Often these are available as a Power Point presentation or a link that can be easily replayed on screen at your event. These recordings usually cover all the points that need to be made to be CMS compliant. You almost certainly will be secret shopped, but don’t let that worry you. After getting through all that boring, but important compliant info you can start selling yourself by engaging the audience.
  • Use a voluntary sign-in sheet for your guests. Always have permission to call (PTC) and Scope of Appointment forms handy. If you’re anticipating a good crowd, take an assistant with you. They can gather PTC forms and Scopes, assist attendees to fill out enrollment forms and just be generally helpful. I doubled my sales at events when I started taking agent trainees with me. Most of those added sales were from follow-up home appointments my helpers set up.

I’ll give you a more complete rundown on secret shoppers in an upcoming post, so make sure you subscribe to our blog.  In the mean time, here is a check list
that can give you an idea of how they evaluate. It’s not rocket science. We understand that some agents experience trepidation at doing these events, that’s why we are here to make it happen for you.

RB Insurance-affiliated agents who have questions regarding the planning and execution of sales events or compliance issues can call me at (800) 997 3107 or email me. We make it happen for you, so ask how we can assist you with advertising your event.