Posts

Save Big: Medico + USA Senior Care Network

Medicare SEP

About the Author: With his signature common sense, quiet good humor, and brilliant customer service, Jim is an integral part of the RBI team — we’d go so far as to say we’d be lost without him! An Arizona native, Jim manages agent relationships for the East Coast and specializes in the RBI agent tools, especially the Agent Market Edge. Jim has been a licensed health insurance agent for 2 years, and has worked at RBI for almost 3 years. An accomplished bassoonist, he is known around the office for his amazing musical skills. In addition to keeping busy around the office, Jim frequently contributes to our blog, bringing a new agent’s perspective to the RBI online presence.

Save Big with Medico + the USA Senior Care Network

Medico is introducing a brand new program that is designed to save your client’s money. This new program, the USA Senior Care Network program, is a completely voluntary program designed to help save you money when you obtain inpatient services at a USA Senior Care Network hospital. Best of all, this new program costs absolutely nothing!

About the Program

USA Senior Care Network has contracted with hospitals across the U.S. to waive all or a portion of your client’s Medicare Part A deductible if they’re admitted into a participating hospital. This allows them to pass some of those savings on to your clients in the form of a $100 premium credit on their next months Medicare supplement premium payment. For a list of participating hospitals in your area, click here!

USA Senior Care Network

How do You Receive the Premium Credit?

Beginning on June 22nd, 2018, when your clients are admitted into a hospital in the USA Senior Care Network, show your new insurance card with the USA Senior Care Network logo on the back (mailed on June 7, 2018). When Medicare applies a Part A deductible to their claim, the hospital will waive all or a portion of that deductible and will notify your client that an upcoming premium payment will be reduced by $100.

There are two groups of policyholders who will not be eligible for this program:

  1. Medicare Supplement Plan A policyholders are not included, because Plan A does not pay the Medicare Part A deductible.
  2. For legal reasons, this program is not available in the state of Missouri.

Current Coverage

Your clients Medicare supplement policy will remain unchanged by this program. They are not required to use a participating hospital, and you can still go to any hospital you choose. Your clients can now access their policy information on Medico’s secure customer portal at www.gomedico.com or they can call Customer Care Center at 1-800-228-6080.

Medico offers a whole suite of products that are designed to protect your clients from a multitude of situations! If you would like to get contracted, or learn more about their product offering, give me a call directly at 1-800-997-3107!

CMS call recording
2022 AHIP
2020 ahip discount certification
OEP

Save Big: Medico + USA Senior Care Network

Medicare SEP

About the Author: With his signature common sense, quiet good humor, and brilliant customer service, Jim is an integral part of the RBI team — we’d go so far as to say we’d be lost without him! An Arizona native, Jim manages agent relationships for the East Coast and specializes in the RBI agent tools, especially the Agent Market Edge. Jim has been a licensed health insurance agent for 2 years, and has worked at RBI for almost 3 years. An accomplished bassoonist, he is known around the office for his amazing musical skills. In addition to keeping busy around the office, Jim frequently contributes to our blog, bringing a new agent’s perspective to the RBI online presence.

Save Big with Medico + the USA Senior Care Network

Medico is introducing a brand new program that is designed to save your client’s money. This new program, the USA Senior Care Network program, is a completely voluntary program designed to help save you money when you obtain inpatient services at a USA Senior Care Network hospital. Best of all, this new program costs absolutely nothing!

About the Program

USA Senior Care Network has contracted with hospitals across the U.S. to waive all or a portion of your client’s Medicare Part A deductible if they’re admitted into a participating hospital. This allows them to pass some of those savings on to your clients in the form of a $100 premium credit on their next months Medicare supplement premium payment. For a list of participating hospitals in your area, click here!

USA Senior Care Network

How do You Receive the Premium Credit?

Beginning on June 22nd, 2018, when your clients are admitted into a hospital in the USA Senior Care Network, show your new insurance card with the USA Senior Care Network logo on the back (mailed on June 7, 2018). When Medicare applies a Part A deductible to their claim, the hospital will waive all or a portion of that deductible and will notify your client that an upcoming premium payment will be reduced by $100.

There are two groups of policyholders who will not be eligible for this program:

  1. Medicare Supplement Plan A policyholders are not included, because Plan A does not pay the Medicare Part A deductible.
  2. For legal reasons, this program is not available in the state of Missouri.

Current Coverage

Your clients Medicare supplement policy will remain unchanged by this program. They are not required to use a participating hospital, and you can still go to any hospital you choose. Your clients can now access their policy information on Medico’s secure customer portal at www.gomedico.com or they can call Customer Care Center at 1-800-228-6080.

Medico offers a whole suite of products that are designed to protect your clients from a multitude of situations! If you would like to get contracted, or learn more about their product offering, give me a call directly at 1-800-997-3107!

CMS call recording
2022 AHIP
2020 ahip discount certification
OEP

United Healthcare 2018 Certification

RBI Senior Sales Coordinator/Independent Agent: James Gramp

With his signature common sense, quiet good humor, and brilliant customer service, Jim is the other half of the RBI phone answering dynamic duo! An Arizona native, Jim manages agent relationships for the East Coast and specializes in the RBI agent tools, especially the Agent Market Edge. Jim has been a licensed health insurance agent for over a year, and has worked at RBI for 2 years. An accomplished bassoonist, he is known around the office for his amazing musical skills. In addition to keeping busy around the office, Jim frequently contributes to our blog, bringing a new agent’s perspective to the RBI online presence.

United Healthcare 2018 Certification

Last year we created a super handy master certifications page on our blog so that agents could easily access all of their certification portals from one spot.  Fear not!  As we draw closer to AEP and more carrier certifications become available we will update our 2017 certifications page for the 2018 certification season.  United Healthcare is the first Medicare Advantage carrier to announce the opening of their 2018 certification, which will be June 26th.  Click the button below to access the UHC certification once it has been released.




Five reasons to not procrastinate this certification season!

If you’re like me, you are going to get your AHIP out of the way as soon as possible.  For me, that’s the day it comes out, June 19th.  I know what you’re thinking, “it’s your job to get it done ASAP,” and you wouldn’t be wrong.  So here are the top 5 reasons to knock out AHIP and carrier certifications as they become available.

  1. The closer you get to AEP to do your certifications, the longer it takes carriers to process paperwork and background checks.  I’ve seen it take up to 6 weeks before agents got their “Ready to Sell” status.

    2018 - Ace the AHIP Live Workshop

    Get ‘er done!

  2. The sooner you get your certifications done, the sooner you can start crafting your marketing plan for AEP (sending ANOC letters, calling all clients, scheduling events and so on).
  3. If you plan on doing any kind of events during AEP, the sooner you have your certifications done, the less likely the locations you have picked out will be booked.
  4. You will not be able to order or pick up any Sales Materials until you are marked as “Ready to Sell” with that particular carrier.
  5. And finally, the last reason you shouldn’t procrastinate when it comes to Medicare certifications: PEACE OF MIND.

That moment an agent tells me they finished AHIP before August

Webinar Wednesday – June 14th

Join RBI Director of Marketing, Justin Bever, on June 14th at 12pm ET to see how RBI Eliminates the Stress, Fear, and Anxiety of Certification and AEP Planning to learn how we’re going to approach the 2018 certification season.

If you don’t want to be frantically running around before the Annual Enrollment Period, then do yourself a favor and don’t procrastinate.  Just get it done, start planning for your AEP, and let RB Insurance Group make this your most successful Annual Enrollment Period yet!


Want to learn how RBI can take your Medicare business to the next level?  Get contracted today, or give us a call at 1-800-997-3107!



CMS call recording
2022 AHIP
2020 ahip discount certification
Medicare cost-sharing

Video: RBI Carrier Hall of Fame Week 2

Video: RBI Carrier Hall of Fame Week 2 (ICYMI)

So if you’ve been following along this week on all our emails and event calendar, you know that April is “Carrier Spring Training” month! We are so excited for this new initiative, and just finished up our second week of webinars! But if you missed these webinars and don’t have time to re-watch them, here’s the RBI sales team to break down the highlights of each carrier, and what they do for your portfolio. Watch the video below: RBI Carrier Hall of Fame Week 2!

This week, we collaborated with Aetna, Humana, and United Healthcare. A huge shout-out to our presenters, Daniel Santos (Aetna), Kirk Sanich (Humana), and our own Charlie Ferrell stepping in for Ken Colvard (United Healthcare), who did a fantastic job showcasing their products and what makes them compelling for members.

RBI Carrier Training Highlights:

  • Aetna by Rebecca Howard
  • Humana by James Gramp
  • United Healthcare by Charlie Ferrell
Video: RBI Carrier Hall of Fame Week 2

Look for this symbol on all our new “Carrier Hall of Fame” videos!

The RBI bottom line is that all three of these carriers offer something different and that they work together nicely to fill out your portfolio as a senior insurance advisor. We recommend that you contract with all three today because everyone is different and it’s important to have the products that fit the needs of your clients.

Watch the recording: Aetna Webinar. Watch the recording: Humana Webinar. Watch the recording: United Healthcare Webinar.

Click here to get contracted. Click here to see all our contracted carriers.

Sign up for next week’s webinars today!

  • Monday, April 17 at 9 AM MST/12 PM EDT“Hit a Homer with Mutual of Omaha” Register.
  • Tuesday, April 18 at 9 AM MST/12 PM EDT“Steal Second with GTL” Register.
  • Wednesday, April 19 at 9 AM MST/12 PM EDT“Bat 1.000 with RBI’s Quoting Tool” Register.
  • Thursday, April 20 at 9 AM MST/12 PM EDT“Out of the Ballpark with SilverScript” Register.

Subscribe to the the RBI Agent’s Advantage Blog today

Did you miss last week’s webinars? Watch the full recording: American Continental Webinar. Watch the full recording: Equitable webinar. Watch the full recording: Medico webinar.


All videos are for agent use only.




2022 AHIP
2020 ahip discount certification
OEP
Medicare cost-sharing

Mergers and Acquisitions

2019 United Healthcare

(Updated on February 9, 2017. ) I’m sure you have all heard the news that the Federal government is suing to stop 2 healthcare mergers and acquisitions from happening. The latest news has both Aetna/Humana and Anthem/Cigna at odds with the Justice department. Both cases should be wrapped up soon.

Aetna would potentially owe Humana a “break-up” fee of $1 billion if their deal is not closed by February 15th, 2017 while Anthem would owe Cigna a $1.8 billion fee if that deal is not done by April 30, 2017. Aetna and Humana are vigorously defending their position to allow the sale to proceed. The Anthem/Cigna merger has had several setbacks and is in question.

On the Aetna/Humana merger: (Blocked January 23, 2017)

  • Aetna/Humana released a statement announcing a sale of some of their Medicare Assets to Molina Healthcare. You can see the press release here. The asset sale is contingent upon the sale of Humana to Aetna being completed.
  • The DOJ called Molina a junk-bond-rated company and Molina responded they could easily shoulder the additional 290,000 members in addition to their current membership of roughly 4.3 million lives, and restated their position as the 10th largest health insurer in the country hardly qualifies it as “junk status.”
  • In its final argument, Aetna said, “The government has rested its case upon theory and speculation from beginning to end.”

On the Cigna/Anthem merger: (Blocked February 8, 2017 )

  • Attorneys for the federal government have said that the deal would harm competition in the national insurance market. Anthem countered they are only a regional player licensed in 14 states.
  • The merger would make the combined carrier number 2 nationally in overall lives insured second only to United Healthcare.
  • In some markets, the combined carrier would reduce the number of insures down to 3. The federal government says the competition between Cigna and Anthem in these markets is leading to innovation, while keeping prices down. Anthem and Cigna contend that the merger will decrease prices due to better bargaining power with large provider groups, lowering costs to the consumers even more.

Both of these were bench trials and final arguments have been made.  The Anthem/Cigna merger is expected to be blocked but there is no time frame for the ruling. The outcome of the Aetna/Humana merger was blocked today on Antitrust grounds. Aetna has said it plans to appeal the DOJ ruling.

We are continuing to follow these carrier mergers and acquisitions, and will bring you up-to-date information on our blog.  Click here to subscribe!   

Aetna certification
2019 Humana certification
Short Term Home Health Care
2019 United Healthcare