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Senior Insurance Acronyms for New Medicare Brokers

Senior Insurance Acronyms


RBI’s Senior Sales Coordinator: James Gramp

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.

Senior Insurance Acronyms

for New Medicare Brokers

Compiled by RBI’s Senior Sales Coordinator: James Gramp


Are you a newly licensed Health producer?  Can’t wrap your head around the seemingly endless list of Senior Insurance Acronyms? Look no further!  This post is just for you, a new agent who’s looking to get started in the Senior Health Insurance (Medicare) market.

Consider your options: Best Contracting Partners

A few things before we jump in that you should be thinking about when choosing to work with an agency or contract directly with the insurance company:

  1. Do new agents receive training opportunities?
  2. Does marketing support come with the contract?
  3. Are the most competitive products in my area available with this partner?
  4. Does this partnership include CRM systems or other tools to keep track of your clients and potential clients?

The bottom line is, your FMO should work for you.  In the post I just linked to, Justin Bever, our Director of Marketing, highlights exactly how your FMO should work for you and ultimately help you reach and exceed your business goals!

Without further ado, I present you with the ultimate abbreviation cheat sheet!

Senior Insurance Acronyms for New Medicare Brokers:

MA – Medicare Advantage

MAPD – Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug plan

HI – Hospital Indemnity

FE – Final Expense

SOA – Scope of Appointment form: Permission slip to talk to beneficiaries who aren’t already your clients about specific benefits of MA plans.  The SOA should be signed by the beneficiary 48 hours prior to appointment.

HMO – Health Maintenance Organization: Type of Health plan, must use plan doctors for covered services.  Members are assigned a Primary Care Physicians and require referrals to see Specialists (dermatologists, cardiologists, etc.)

PPO – Preferred Provider Organization:  Type of Health plan where members can go out of network for care.  Going to in-network providers offers better co-pays/co-insurance

PFFS – Private Fee For Service: type of MA plan that may or may not cover prescriptions.  Only MA plan that you can buy a stand-alone PDP as long as the PFFS doesn’t already cover prescriptions.

SNP – Special Needs Plan: Medicare Health plans for people with special needs.  There are 3 different kinds of SNP’s; I-SNP, D-SNP, and C-SNP.

I-SNP – Institutional Special Needs Plan: plan for beneficiaries needing treatment from a LTC facility for more than 90 consecutive days.

D-SNP – Dual Special Needs Plan: Designed for people with Medicare and Medicaid

C-SNP – Chronic Special Needs Plan: Designed for people with chronic health conditions

Med-supp/Medigap – Medicare Supplement: offers plans A through N.  These plans are standardized and offer the same benefits regardless of carrier.

PDP – Prescription Drug Plan: Rx coverage, typically sold with Medicare Supplements.

LIS – Low Income Subsidy: Federal program to help with Rx costs.  Need to make under 150% of the Federal Poverty Level to qualify.

MSP – Medicare Savings Program: Federal program designed to help with premiums, co-pays, and co-insurance. Different levels of help are: QMB, SLMB, QI-1. Make under 135% of the FPL to qualify.

AHIP – America’s Health Insurance Plans: company that provides the core medicare certification required to sell Medicare Advantage plans.

AEP – Annual Enrollment Period: 10/7 through 12/7, period when Medicare beneficiaries can enroll in a MA/MAPD or a PDP.

SEP – Special Enrollment Period: period that you can enroll in an MA/PDP plan outside of AEP

IEP – Intial Enrollment Period: 3 months before, the month of, and 3 months after your 65th birthday.  Can enroll in any Medicare Health Plan during this time.

OEP – Open Enrollment Period for Medicare Supplement: 6 months after a Medicare beneficiary is enrolled in Medicare Part B and is 65 or older.


If you’re looking for a partner to grow your new business, look no further! We love helping agents get started — whether you’re a brand new agent, or you’re getting back into the market after being away: welcome! Call us today to learn about opportunities to work together: 1-800-997-3107



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

Senior Insurance Acronyms for New Medicare Brokers

Senior Insurance Acronyms


RBI’s Senior Sales Coordinator: James Gramp

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.

Senior Insurance Acronyms

for New Medicare Brokers

Compiled by RBI’s Senior Sales Coordinator: James Gramp


Are you a newly licensed Health producer?  Can’t wrap your head around the seemingly endless list of Senior Insurance Acronyms? Look no further!  This post is just for you, a new agent who’s looking to get started in the Senior Health Insurance (Medicare) market.

Consider your options: Best Contracting Partners

A few things before we jump in that you should be thinking about when choosing to work with an agency or contract directly with the insurance company:

  1. Do new agents receive training opportunities?
  2. Does marketing support come with the contract?
  3. Are the most competitive products in my area available with this partner?
  4. Does this partnership include CRM systems or other tools to keep track of your clients and potential clients?

The bottom line is, your FMO should work for you.  In the post I just linked to, Justin Bever, our Director of Marketing, highlights exactly how your FMO should work for you and ultimately help you reach and exceed your business goals!

Without further ado, I present you with the ultimate abbreviation cheat sheet!

Senior Insurance Acronyms for New Medicare Brokers:

MA – Medicare Advantage

MAPD – Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug plan

HI – Hospital Indemnity

FE – Final Expense

SOA – Scope of Appointment form: Permission slip to talk to beneficiaries who aren’t already your clients about specific benefits of MA plans.  The SOA should be signed by the beneficiary 48 hours prior to appointment.

HMO – Health Maintenance Organization: Type of Health plan, must use plan doctors for covered services.  Members are assigned a Primary Care Physicians and require referrals to see Specialists (dermatologists, cardiologists, etc.)

PPO – Preferred Provider Organization:  Type of Health plan where members can go out of network for care.  Going to in-network providers offers better co-pays/co-insurance

PFFS – Private Fee For Service: type of MA plan that may or may not cover prescriptions.  Only MA plan that you can buy a stand-alone PDP as long as the PFFS doesn’t already cover prescriptions.

SNP – Special Needs Plan: Medicare Health plans for people with special needs.  There are 3 different kinds of SNP’s; I-SNP, D-SNP, and C-SNP.

I-SNP – Institutional Special Needs Plan: plan for beneficiaries needing treatment from a LTC facility for more than 90 consecutive days.

D-SNP – Dual Special Needs Plan: Designed for people with Medicare and Medicaid

C-SNP – Chronic Special Needs Plan: Designed for people with chronic health conditions

Med-supp/Medigap – Medicare Supplement: offers plans A through N.  These plans are standardized and offer the same benefits regardless of carrier.

PDP – Prescription Drug Plan: Rx coverage, typically sold with Medicare Supplements.

LIS – Low Income Subsidy: Federal program to help with Rx costs.  Need to make under 150% of the Federal Poverty Level to qualify.

MSP – Medicare Savings Program: Federal program designed to help with premiums, co-pays, and co-insurance. Different levels of help are: QMB, SLMB, QI-1. Make under 135% of the FPL to qualify.

AHIP – America’s Health Insurance Plans: company that provides the core medicare certification required to sell Medicare Advantage plans.

AEP – Annual Enrollment Period: 10/7 through 12/7, period when Medicare beneficiaries can enroll in a MA/MAPD or a PDP.

SEP – Special Enrollment Period: period that you can enroll in an MA/PDP plan outside of AEP

IEP – Intial Enrollment Period: 3 months before, the month of, and 3 months after your 65th birthday.  Can enroll in any Medicare Health Plan during this time.

OEP – Open Enrollment Period for Medicare Supplement: 6 months after a Medicare beneficiary is enrolled in Medicare Part B and is 65 or older.


If you’re looking for a partner to grow your new business, look no further! We love helping agents get started — whether you’re a brand new agent, or you’re getting back into the market after being away: welcome! Call us today to learn about opportunities to work together: 1-800-997-3107



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

Stay focused on earning money

RB Insurance Group Managing Member: Bob Bever

Bob is the managing member of RB Insurance Group, LLC, an FMO based in Arizona, specializing in providing senior insurance agents with family-style customer service, without sacrificing the tools and resources of a much larger corporation. Bob is an expert in direct sales and leadership, and a proud 4th generation Arizona Native! Bob has over 35+ years of experience in the health insurance industry, and his past experience includes working as a field agent for Intergroup, Health Net, Cigna and Farmers. Since 1978 when Bob first got licensed as an insurance agent, to now, his focus has been on bringing excellence to the senior health insurance industry. Bob has a heart for seniors, and his no-nonsense approach and dry humor have endeared him to the clients and the agents he works with. Bob is semi-retired now, but his values of hard work, a positive attitude, and being an advocate for the needs of his clients continue to be the guiding principles of RBI.

Stay Focused on Earning Money

RBI’s Managing Member, Bob Bever


At the beginning of the year, we talked about how to set realistic goals for the year, and how to make sure your opportunities from AEP didn’t slip away.  If you’ve been dedicated about working hard on your plan this whole time, chances are you’re getting a little worn-out. Not to mention, this time of year brings its own set of challenges. There’s so much sunshine and good weather all around, and fun events like graduations, vacations, baseball games, etc. Human nature being what it is, it’s easy to get busy on the things that don’t actually make you money. Everyone needs a break to get your motivation back, but be careful not to get caught up in the day-to-day of summer fun and forget to check in on your goals. Pull out the list from the first of the year every week and evaluate how you’re doing. Do you need to get back on track?

Stay focused on earning money

stay focused on earning money

This time of year is full of great activities, but stay focused on earning money!

My advice for this time of year is simple: return to the basics.  For those agents that work in the senior insurance market and are not “hobbyists,” you should be spending half to two-thirds of your time in your business. That’s between 30 to 40 hours of your week on work time. And there’s plenty to do this time of year.

Stay in touch with your clients

Don’t forget to be making an effort to stay in contact with your existing clients, whether through a friendly phone call, or a postcard. Your clients are your primary source for new business so be sure to take very good care of them, and ask them to refer others to you as well.  9 times out of 10 the hottest leads you get are referrals from someone the beneficiary trusts.  Over time, this will secure your future for years to come, I can assure you.

Look over your portfolio

Evaluate your contracts, make sure you’ve got all the plans that are competitive in your market. Do you have all the product training that you need to serve your members?

Look for new opportunities

Stay focused on earning money

Grow your business with new opportunities.

If you’re looking for other opportunities, it’s a great time of year to start to make additional contacts with providers, nursing homes, and other community resources for seniors. Many agents will be going on vacation or slacking off this time of year, and if you are able to build a relationship now, or sponsor community events, you’ll be able to reach more potential clients later. Something to keep in mind is that with the changes in government and the rumblings about a new under-65 healthcare roll-out, many beneficiaries are concerned about their coverage. Now is a good time to meet with members to provide some reassurance, and hold educational events to explain how Medicare works with Medicare 101 classes.

Want some ideas of new and different ways to market in your community?

Check out our “Community Marketing” webinar where we talk about the different events and ideas you can do to generate new business! RBI can teach you how to “own your own backyard” and become known as the Medicare expert in your community. Have you completed a contract yet? Call our team at 1-800-997-3107 or click here to complete the Fast-Track and get appointed even quicker!



Certifications
Stay Focused on Earning Money
Unlock Your Best AEP Yet

Looking for an Insurance CRM? 5 Reasons to love the Medicare Sales Engine

Charlie Ferrell

RBI National Sales Manager: Charlie Ferrell

Charlie started his senior insurance career after a brief 30-year stint in the restaurant industry. In the 12 years since then, he has been blazing trails and setting standards for excellence all over! A native son of Utah, he has been a state manager for RBI as well as a managing general agent for UHC, Coventry, Molina and other carriers! Charlie came to RBI as the National Sales Manager in 2015, and is an invaluable resource for our agents and staff for marketing, compliance, and sales topics! Charlie’s field experience with senior insurance sales has made him an expert in our insurance CRM: Medicare Sales Engine. If all of that wasn’t enough, Charlie specializes in the Dual-Eligible market and is leading the charge behind RBI’s new “Dual Eligibles for Newbies” seminars!

Insurance CRM

Looking for an Insurance CRM?

5 Reasons to love the Medicare Sales Engine

National Sales Manager: Charlie Ferrell


If you have been looking for a reliable, convenient and easy-to-use insurance CRM, look no further! Today I want to tell you more about RB Insurance’s flagship sales and lead management system: the Medicare Sales Engine (MSE). You may have already read about our Massive Response Mailers and partnership with Touchstone Marketing to bring you the best prices and deals on print and fulfillment.  Why are mailers and marketing connected to the MSE? Because we have seamlessly integrated your leads from mailers to the MSE! 

“So, RBI, what exactly is the Medicare Sales Engine?”

Simply put, the MSE is RBI’s proprietary CRM system to help our agents manage their leads, clients, commissions, appointments and much more! You can get a lot out of the MSE, especially if you really take the time to learn how to use all of the features.  Let’s take a closer look!

#1 – Built to serve senior insurance agents:

First off, when we began to develop the Medicare Sales Engine over 10 years ago, we started with our own group of senior insurance agents and asked “what would make your life easier?” As a result, the MSE is built around the needs of an agent who is out in the field selling, with features to make you more efficient and to cut back on your busy-work. You can view the Medicare Sales Engine on your tablet, phone, laptop, desktop – any device with an internet connection. With our on-going commitment to excellence, if you have a feature you’d like to see implemented in the MSE, you can call us and we’ll see about adding it to the MSE!

#2 – At-a-glance updates on your business

We recognize that your time is valuable, so we have made sure that the Medicare Sales Engine is very simple and easy to use. When you login, the first thing you see is your dashboard, a snapshot of your business. The dashboard breaks your business into clients and leads sorted by temperature, and displays information so you know exactly where you left off.  This helps you identify your next tasks, trends in your business, or areas of opportunity!

#3 – Seamlessly integrates with lead mailers

Remember when we said that the MSE seamlessly integrates with lead mailers?  Well, we have developed a partnership with Touchstone Marketing and one of the benefits of this relationship is behind-the-scenes system integration. What does this mean for you? Any leads from mailers you purchased from Touchstone Marketing will show up inside your Medicare Sales Engine account. All the lead response information from the mailer, and a copy of the mailer itself will be uploaded to your account. An added bonus? You’ll get an SMS text notification that you have new leads so you can start working on your hottest leads right away!

#4 – An Insurance CRM with the right price tag

Most insurance CRM systems have a drawback — whether it’s a must-have feature like tracking commissions, or the ability to upload your existing book of business, or a bit of sticker-shock when you see the price tag. With RBI’s insurance CRM, the Medicare Sales Engine is free to contracted agents. It’s that easy: when you’ve completed the contracting process, and are ready-to-sell, your MSE portal is generated. You can log in right away, and get started!

# 5 – HIPAA Compliant record keeping, free Quoting Tool, and more!

We only have time for 1 more awesome thing that the Medicare Sales Engine can do, so this one’s a combo. The Medicare Sales Engine is HIPAA Compliant so your records are protected. It’s easy to upload notes, applications, and other records to have an online back-up for your office. We recommend that you take a few minutes each day to update actions you have taken with each lead, such as calling to schedule an appointment. An additional feature that agents love is the built-in quoting tool.  The RBI quoting tool gets real-time CMS updates, so you know you’re getting the most recent information about product availability and pricing. You can use the quote tool to research best plans for your leads and clients, and add notes inside their record about special medical or financial considerations.

We love to talk about the MSE, so if you have any questions call us at 1-800-997-3107! You can also catch up on some of the basics by watching this recorded webinar. To learn more about the quoting tool, watch this recorded webinar.

The Medicare Sales Engine is just one more way that RBI commits to make it happen for you! Get contracted today to get your own free access to this fantastic insurance CRM!




Sales Champion Summit
Senior Insurance Acronyms
2018 Anthem Certification

5 Ways to Empower Your Sales with RBI

James Gramp

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.

5 Ways to Empower Your Sales with RBI

Senior Sales Coordinator/Independent Agent: James Gramp


Our industry is full of Field Marketing Organizations that don’t provide anything in the way of marketing.  In other words, they hold your contract while they watch the sales roll in.  At RBI we believe your FMO should work for you by not only providing you the sales training you need to help you make as many sales as possible, but also partnering with your marketing. That’s why RB Insurance Group has developed one of the best co-op programs, and developed the tools and technology necessary for you to be as successful as you want to be! Here are 5 ways to empower your sales with RBI, because we want to energize your business!

#5 – Introducing the “Every 5 Sales Drive”5 Ways to Empower Your Sales

Every year CMS sets the maximum allowable commission on MA enrollments and we cannot legally pay you more per enrollment.  So how do we legally make your enrollments worth more at RBI?  We allocate marketing dollars for our producing agents so that we can reimburse their marketing costs.  Here’s how the “Every 5 Sales Drive” works!

  • For every 5 Medicare Advantage applications you submit under RBI, you will earn marketing credit
  • Credits expire at the end so make sure you make a MAPS plan to make use of all of your marketing credits
  • Marketing credits are handed out at the end of the effective date’s month (i.e. If you write 5 MA apps for a 2/1 effective date, you will be given your credit at the end of February.)
  • Program available for direct contracted agents only
  • Similar programs available for agencies, but credit amounts will differ

#4 – Print & Fulfillment Partners

We’ve partnered with Touchstone Marketing to provide print and fulfillment services at cost to our contracted agents.  Through the Agent Market Edge portal (RBI’s marketing website) agents can order materials to drive sales.  We get discounts and exclusive pricing on anything from business cards to tablecloths.

We generated and distributed over 12,000 leads to our agents and agency partners this past AEP alone.  Whether you are hosting an event that needs advertising or want to try some of our Direct Mail pieces we can help! Oh, and those Direct Mail pieces? We have guaranteed response rates on our tested mailers.

#3 – Technology and Tools!

Every RBI agent gets their own free account in our proprietary CRM called the Medicare Sales Engine (MSE).  This powerful tool lets you manage your current book of business as well as potential clients.  Here are some key features:

  • Built-in quote tool – with market data like rate increase/decrease history, lives insured, and market penetration
  • Sync appointments with your Google calendar
  • Receive leads in real-time via text and email
  • Two factor authorization for added security
  • 100% HIPAA compliance
  • Spend less time managing data and more time selling!


#2 – Training and Support

The biggest reason new agents struggle in this industry is inadequate training and lack of support.  We believe that every agent should have a business plan they can follow each day to help them reach their goals. At RBI we like to create a MAPS business plan with each of our agents.  What does MAPS stand for?

Your business plan should be:

M – measurable

A – actionable

P – profitable

S – scaleable

Charlie Ferrell, our National Sales Manager, has well over 1,000 enrollments under his belt and knows more about Medicare than most people know about themselves.  We host weekly webinars ranging in topics from how to effectively market in your community, specific cross-selling techniques, and in-depth product knowledge.  We pride ourselves on our knowledge of the Medicare Market and our ability to make a difference in seniors’ lives, as well as our agents.

#1 Reason to Choose RBI – Accessibility! 

We pick up the phone!  I know, I know, you were probably hoping for “free” leads or some other nonsense. It has been my experience that “free” leads are worth exactly what you paid for them… NOTHING!  On the other hand, I can’t tell you how invaluable our accessibility is, especially during AEP when dealing with an automated directory is frustrating to say the least.  We prioritize agents that are in an appointment and have questions about eligibility or coverage.  There’s nothing like losing a sale because you couldn’t get an answer to your client’s questions in a timely manner.

How is your FMO working to make it happen for you?  If they simply aren’t, maybe it’s time to re-evaluate that relationship.  Get contracted with RBI now and make the most out of your FMO relationship! Give us a ring at 1-800-997-3107 or visit us online.



Short Term Home Health Care
2019 United Healthcare
USA Senior Care Network
2019 Medicare Broker Compensation

Zero interest in selling Medicare Advantage? Think again.

James Gramp

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.

Zero interest in selling Medicare Advantage?

Think again!

RBI Senior Sales Coordinator/Independent Agent: James Gramp


As a Senior Sales Coordinator at RB Insurance Group, I talk with agents from all over the country.  Every now and then I’ll talk to an agent who has zero interest in selling Medicare Advantage(MA). These agents usually fall into 1 of 2 camps, either they don’t like the product, or they are afraid of the certifications to be ready to sell.  But MA products are proving to be a really good fit for many beneficiaries and members continue to enroll into the plans. Market penetration for MA plans is growing, and the excuses could be costing you money. Let’s take a look:

Market Penetration for Medicare Advantage

According to Mark Farrah and Associates, in 2015 Medicare Advantage covered over 18 million members or about 33% of the Medicare population and is still showing growth year over year. Medicare Supplement beneficiaries account for just under 12 million.  You can educate people all you want on why you think Medicare Supplements provide superior coverage (and I would agree in a lot of situations) but the fact is Medicare Advantage is here to stay.

Reasons Why Members Choose an MA Product

Zero interest in selling Medicare Advantage

Some members like the additional benefits with an MA plan, like dental or vision.

We recently hosted a webinar about Aetna by Daniel Santos, the Medicare Broker Manager for Arizona. (If you missed the webinar, watch the recording here) If you aren’t aware, Aetna has some great MA plans in Arizona, but also across the nation in other markets. Daniel’s presentation highlighted a few reasons that members like MA plans: many folks prefer to have full coverage in 1 plan, with predictable out-of-pocket costs, and a lot of the time with a $0 premium. Some people like that there is no underwriting with an MA plan. And some folks like the extras that you can qualify for with an MA plan, such as dental or vision benefits.

Overcoming Objections: “I don’t believe in the product”

In my day-to-day conversations with agents, I’ve come across one objection very consistently. “Well, Jim, I just don’t believe in the product.” Or “I just don’t want to sell a product I don’t believe in.”  This usually leads into how a Medicare Supplement plan F or G is the best coverage you can buy. While I agree that plan F and G provide excellent coverage, not everyone is the same. As we saw above, a lot of people are choosing Medicare Advantage for their coverage and the market is growing.  The bottom line is a lot of people (especially healthy people) can’t stomach paying for a Medicare Supplement policy and if you don’t sell them an MA plan then somebody else will.

Overcoming Objections: “There are so many certifications”

The second most common reason agents tell me they don’t sell Medicare Advantage is because of all the certifications involved with MA.  I’ll be the first to tell you how much I LOVE doing my annual AHIP test. (I’m kidding of course.)  I have good news for you though, it gets easier!  I’ve only been in this business for 2 years and if I had to put a number on it, it probably takes me a couple hours at most to knock out my AHIP plus my 5 carrier certifications.  With most carriers doing lifetime commissions for MA, I will gladly set aside 2 hours of my time every 365 days to collect my renewals. 

Now that I’ve convinced you to sell MA, why should you contract with RB Insurance Group? Stay tuned for my next article, “The RBI Difference” and learn how to get your AHIP reimbursed as well as how to earn $25 in marketing credit for each of your MA enrollments!


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

2 Simple Sales Tips: Listen and Observe

Senior Agent Contributor: Tom O’Neil

Tom O’Neil has been in the Medicare industry since the 1970s!  Whether the topic is selling Dual Eligibles, or how to increase business cash flow, or simply the craziest Medicare Advantage home appointment he’s ever been on, he has a wealth of stories and enjoys sharing them. When he isn’t running appointments, writing for our blog, or planning his next sales, he enjoys spending time with his canine companion, Molly.

Pictured above: Tom’s sweet pup!

2 Simple Sales Tips:

Listen and Observe

Senior Agent Contributor: Tom O’Neil

This humble offering is directed at those brave souls who have decided recently to enter the rewarding and challenging Senior Insurance Market.


Let me preface this brief sales tip with a story:

Back in the 70’s I was lucky to score an Army school slot at Fort Rucker, Alabama, the home of Army Aviation.  The course of study was for those being awarded the designation of Air Traffic Control Specialist (ATC).  It was by no means a slam dunk.  About 25% of my enlisted classmates washed out during initial academic testing, live tower operations or by failing the FAA final exam. 25% was an unusually high failure rate for an Army school.  We all had to pass the same FAA ATC test taken by civil service controllers as well as completing the military portion of the training.  Almost all the soldiers had at least one or two years of college and a few were degreed.  The Army had only recently reclaimed the ATC training program from the Air Force ATC school at Lackland AFB.  To say the least, the Army was going through some growing pains getting things up and running.

Moving on to the sales tie-in:

Redstone Airfield Air Traffic Control Tower

This tower, at Redstone Field, is identical to the training tower I was assigned to, while at Ft. Rucker. — Tom O’Neil

In the initial academic training my scores and evaluations were excellent.  The staff awarded me and one other student a special “honor graduate” designation for stage one of training.  I was assigned to a cramped training tower with another soldier where we worked with American student pilots.  It was a very busy airfield from dawn to dusk.  We were both doing great as student controllers until the pilots from South Korea came in for my last week of live training.  The Koreans, speaking English, were hard for me to understand.  I was starting to panic and lose some confidence.  If I didn’t pass this final portion of my training I would be off to Jeep mechanic school!  My training partner, another “PFC,” was doing great with the Korean flyers.

When I asked my buddy how he was excelling he gave me some great advice: “Don’t just listen to them, look at the aircraft to see what they are doing.  By observation determine exactly where they are coming in from and anticipate in advance what they are doing and it will be easy to understand what they are transmitting and requesting.  They are all flying the same damn patterns!”  Wow.  By the next afternoon I was as comfortable as a minnow in a mountain stream.  We both graduated and went on to our unit assignments.  My old ATC buddy now runs a chain of pizza places back East.

The 2 simple sales tips: listen and observe

Our senior clients are “all flying the same damn patterns” as my buddy noted about the Korean pilots.  They have different starting points, may want a different runway, need to refuel, or might even have what they consider an emergency.  By listening and observing (body language, medical devices, meds) before we start the sales process we can identify where they’ve been and where they want to go.  As independent agents we can offer them a lot of different options (runways?) and add-ons.  Let them transmit what they want before YOU decide where to send them.  They always transmit the info, we just have to listen, observe, communicate, and then “control.”

NEVER ASSIGN A RUNWAY UNTIL YOU KNOW THE DESTINATION.

For access to the RBI library of great sales training and industry expertise, call 1-800-997-3107 or click here to get contracted. We do things differently: see the RBI difference in action in your business today! 



Short Term Home Health Care
2019 United Healthcare
USA Senior Care Network
2019 Medicare Broker Compensation

Targeting Your Ideal List — the most misunderstood Direct Mail concept

Justin Bever

Director of Marketing: Justin Bever

About the Author: In his 9 years since joining the family business in 2008 as a Broker Support Representative, Justin has made innovation his top priority. Justin is passionate about bringing technology into the agent’s toolbox, and has developed tools such as a direct mail program for lead generation (2011); Medicare Compare (2013), an online tool for beneficiaries complete with its own brand identity; and the Medicare Sales Engine (2014), a fully integrated Client Relationship Manager for agents.  Justin’s most recent accomplishment is the Agent Market Edge (2016), an online portal that integrates RBI and their print + fulfillment partners to make marketing accessible to agents. When he is not leveraging technology to produce exciting new tools for agents, Justin’s hobbies are skiing, hiking, and cooking exquisite meals in the company of his high school sweetheart and wife, Cassie. 


Targeting your ideal list

Targeting Your Ideal List:

the most misunderstood Direct Mail concept

Director of Marketing: Justin Bever


When you think about marketing for Medicare, you probably think of Direct Mail. Thanks to CMS Guidelines restricting outreach methods for Medicare Advantage, Direct Mail is a popular way to find new leads.  What you may not know is that Direct Mail is also very effective to reach other types of prospects in the senior insurance market. If you have been following our webinars this month, you’ll know that we tackled the basics of how Direct Mail works last week. Let’s take a closer look at the single most important part of a Direct Mail campaign: targeting your ideal list.

Targeting your ideal list matters

Building a list is not only the most important part of any Direct Mail campaign, but also the most misunderstood concept in Direct Mail. You can have the best copy, the best offer, the most beautifully designed postcard and if you send it to a list that isn’t relevant to what you are selling, you’ll get a 0% response. Think about this for a moment. Talk about a waste of marketing dollars.

Relevance drives sales

Why does this happen? Simply put, prospects buy what is relevant to them. Television ads are a great example of this: big companies pay lots of money to know what demographics are watching so they can target their ads to those consumers. In our business this concept is pretty obvious: you wouldn’t send a Medicare lead piece to an 18-year-old college student, because it is completely irrelevant to their needs and desires. So, how do you select a list that will be relevant to the piece you are sending?

Types of lists for Direct Mail

Targeting your ideal list

How do you select a list that will be relevant to the piece you are sending?

There are four primary types of lists that you can target in Direct Mail:

  1. House lists (your clients, past and present, and your previous responders)
  2. Consumer Lists (rented or purchased)
  3. Business lists (rented or purchased)
  4. Specialty lists (think specific magazine subscribers, for example)

Each type of list is going to require a different type of mailer or outreach. For finding new prospects specifically, in our industry we rent or purchase consumer lists. There are a number of ways that you can rent or purchase consumer lists, but the retail price you’ll find is typically between $0.05 – 0.08 per record. (Stay tuned for RBI discounts available to contracted agents!)

Not all lists are created equal!

When you purchase a consumer list, you want to look at three demographics (or selectors as list brokers call them): age, income and geography. Using geography as a selector makes sense: you don’t want to get leads that are out of state, for instance. Age and income are a little trickier, but a rule of thumb for a higher success rate is to target ages 64.5 to 85 for Medicare Advantage, and 64.5 to 75 for Medicare Supplement. Replacement Medicare Supplement plans are more effective up to the age of 75; beyond age 75 most beneficiaries choose a Medicare Advantage as a replacement. Why you ask? After age 75 there are higher costs on a supplement and stricter underwriting as well. Ultimately, targeting your ideal list dictates the success of your direct mail campaign.

Are you ready to get started?

We can help you! We work with print and fulfillment companies to bring you discounts and exclusive pricing on mailers. At RBI, we will make sure you get the right list for every mailer you send and the cost of the data is included in all our mailers. If you do feel the need to purchase a list separately, our cost to contracted agents is only $0.025 per record. Give us a call at 1-800-997-3107 if you want help selecting the right list for your campaign.

Still not convinced? Watch the webinar! “Direct Mail Madness” covered the basics of Direct Mail marketing, and “Medicare Marketing Madness” covered how to use Direct Mail for your senior insurance business! 


Short Term Home Health Care
2019 United Healthcare
USA Senior Care Network
2019 Medicare Broker Compensation

Spotlight on Outstanding Community Referral Sources

James Gramp

James Gramp

Sales Coordinator / Independent Insurance Agent

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.

Spotlight on Outstanding Community Referral Sources

Sales Coordinator/Independent Insurance Agent: James Gramp


My focus for this part of the year is on the Dual Eligible population, something you would know if you read my last post (shame on you if you didn’t!), “Your Best Month Yet.”  The most successful ways I’ve reached this population are Direct Mail and Community Marketing.  Both methods are very effective but today I’ll be focusing on community marketing by building outstanding community referral sources, especially in the Dual Eligibles/Low Income Subsidy (LIS) market.

Community Referral Sources - do your homework!

To gain community referral sources, do your homework!

Do your homework: Prepare for the meeting

Effective referral leads are worth their weight in gold.  Think about it: they’re almost always referred to you by someone they trust, which helps you break through the most important barrier between you and making the sale; earning trust. If you want to succeed in gaining community referral sources, and then in appointments from these referral relationships, you must build a name for yourself as the “Medicare Expert” in your community. The first step is to obviously have the knowledge to be an expert. This means not just the ins and outs of Medicare, but also research the focus group you’re targeting. For instance, I’m targeting Dual Eligible/Low Income Subsidy members, and locations in the community that interact with them. I need to research both. Hint: If you don’t know where to start for your target market, call us! That’s what we’re here for.

Where’s Waldo? Find the Decision Maker

There’s a lot more to community marketing than going to provider offices/food banks and asking if you can put up a flyer in their office. The trick is to find and educate the decision maker or influencer, that is, the person or people that interact with the potential members on a daily basis. Community Referral SourcesThe influencer will be doing the actual referral, so they need to know what you do. How do you help seniors save money? The answer in my case is by helping enroll members in the ‘Extra Help’ or the state Medicaid (AHCCCS in AZ) program. Influencers also need to understand that your consultations are 100% free of charge. You do not want to go in to a networking meeting looking like a typical salesman looking for your next sale — that’s a great way to get shown the door. You want your “pitch” to be centered around the value you bring to the table: the education and extra financial help you provide your clients.

Show me the money! What’s in it for the influencer?

Not only do you have to show the benefit you provide to your clients, you also have to show the decision makers or influencers the benefit they have of working with you.  A lot of what you say at this point is specific to the type of facility. Take a dental office, for instance. Dental office patients who are on Medicare and Medicaid qualify to enroll in Dual Special Needs Plans, which can give them up to $xxxx.xx in dental coverage as long as that particular doctor ins “in-network” for that carrier.  If these potential members enroll, you’re literally putting money in their pockets that they can only use to fix their teeth.  In my appointments with dental office influencers, I make this statement: “Not only do I help my clients save money with these federal and state programs, but for my clients that qualify I can get them on a plan that gives them $xxxx.xx in comprehensive dental coverage. That would be additional dollars to your top line with minimal effort on your part. If I can get your patients more money to get their teeth fixed would you refer your patients that have questions about Medicare/Medicaid to me?” Patients will be more likely to schedule appointments for major work if they don’t have to cover the costs out of pocket, and the dental office will see this value. The decision for the influencer is very straightforward at this point, because I have shown them how the referral relationship will impact their bottom line.

At RB Insurance Group, we pride ourselves on our ability to help the Dual Eligible population! Our staff has personally enrolled thousands of individuals in Dual Special Needs Plans.  Trying to get into the D-SNP market? Watch this webinar! Give RBI a call today to get contracted and learn about the incredible opportunity you have to truly make a difference.


Short Term Home Health Care
2019 United Healthcare
USA Senior Care Network
2019 Medicare Broker Compensation

RBI Agent’s Advantage Blog: guaranteed to energize your business (updated 2017)

Agent's Advantage Blog

Meet the RBI Agent’s Advantage Blog Team:

  • Charlie Ferrell, National Sales Manager
  • Rob Bever, Director of Compliance
  • Bob Bever, RBI Founder/Managing Member
  • James Gramp, Sales Coordinator/Independent Agent
  • Elizabeth Spann, Senior Agent Contributor
  • Tom O’Neil, Senior Agent Contributor
  • Shannon Bever, Graphics/Freelance Copywriter
  • Rebecca Howard, Managing Editor

RBI’s Agent Advantage Blog:

Guaranteed to energize your business


We’re proud to be offering original, practical content through the RBI Agent’s Advantage Blog, updated to be easier to use than ever before. Now you can search posts with our keyword search, or click on related content by using the “tags.” As always, the blog is YOUR go-to for sales help, marketing support, Medicare information, and more! If you haven’t already, you can visit our blog page or sign up to get a weekly digest of the blog, just click here.

Blog Focus No. 1: Medicare agent training by experts, so you can become an expert!

Don’t read Medicare policy news from sources geared toward seniors, read it from the RBI Agent’s Advantage blog, written specifically for agents like you! Our Agent’s Advantage Blog team combines over 50+ years of Medicare insurance experience, so we bring you the latest in Medicare policy news, industry changes, and compliance issues. No more guessing about how these will affect your senior insurance business — our team breaks it down for you!

Have you seen the updated articles from National Sales Manager, Charlie Ferrell, about Medicare Supplements? What about this article by Director of Compliance, Rob Bever, which covers top compliance mistakes in MA home visits and how to avoid them?  Or you can stay up to date on the latest mergers and acquisition news that affects your business’ bottom line. Get involved in a different type of client base with Bob Bever’s post about how Hospital Indemnity can be right for your ACA clients.

Blog Focus No. 2: Practical sales training and advice to generate more sales.

We’re not here to get you to click on things. We’re here to deliver helpful information and actionable tutorials that you can implement right now to increase your sales.  Learn strategies for building a referral base within your clients, or building a partnership with other professionals in your community.

Want to multiply your revenue? Get your book of business in order and watch it stack up! Want to make sure you secure Medicare Advantage and Medicare supplement commissions? In an ever-changing retirement climate, it’s important to have the best information! Our advice on preventing disenrollment from month to month? Read how to get it done here.

Blog Focus No. 3: Marketing support/learning opportunities grow your business beyond AEP. 

RB Insurance Group specializes in helping agents sell year-round as a career agent. That means making marketing support available year-round too! Whether you need to watch some of our video roll-ups on our blog, or you are more of a word-nerd and prefer articles, or you want to participate in our live Medicare Intensives, the blog has all the details.

Learn more about Special Election Periods, community marketing and selling complementary senior insurance products to your Medicare Advantage clients.

Blog Bonus Content: Stories from the Field by RBI Contributing Agents

RBI Founder, Bob Bever, shares stories from his 30+ years in the field, including the simple strategy that helped him submit 1,800 applications during his best AEP. Our other agent contributors include 6 Hours to 6 Figures author Brandon Clay, as well as top producing agents in some of our major markets.

Like what you see? Click here to register for the weekly round-up email from RBI! Want to learn more about our contracting opportunities? Click here for a list of our carrier-partners.


Updated 3/20/2017; originally published 10/8/2015


Medicare cost-sharing
Short Term Home Health Care
2019 United Healthcare

Medicare Supplements 201 Revisited for 2017

If you read our Medicare Supplements 101 Revisited article last week, you know that we are all about understanding supplements. This week it’s time to go deeper: Medicare Supplements 201 covers more about the unusual or specialized plans you might need. This article has also been revisited for 2017, so you’re getting the latest of fresh updates.

Part 1 of our series went over what the different Medicare Supplements cover and how they work with Original Medicare.

Medicare Supplements 201 coverage A-N chart

In Part 2 of our series we are going to discuss the different enrollment periods for Medicare supplements as well as some of the underwriting criteria major carriers use in pricing their plans. Remember, in order to enroll into a Medicare Supplement policy, beneficiaries must have Medicare Parts A and B.

Open enrollment for Medicare Supplements is the 6 months following a beneficiaries Part B effective date. No health questions asked. Full commission paid according to contracted rates.

Guaranteed issue. According to federal guidelines, carriers must issue a Medigap Plan A, B, C, F, K, or L that’s sold by any insurance company in the state under the following conditions;

  • During a Medicare Advantage members 12 month trial period
  • A beneficiaries’ current Medicare Advantage plan is leaving the area either due to financial reasons or is no longer going to offer that plan.
  • Beneficiaries’ employer group plan that pays after Medicare is ending. This includes retiree and COBRA coverage
  • Beneficiaries leave a Medigap or Medicare Advantage plan because the company hasn’t followed the rules

Underwritten policies can be issued at any time after the open enrollment period and beneficiaries are able to pass underwriting questions. Some policies have relaxed underwriting for a higher premium. Full commissions paid according to contracted rates.

Underwriting guidelines vary from carrier to carrier. Some carriers allow diabetics with no issues and other carriers will not issue policies at all for diabetics. Almost all Medicare Supplement carriers have a “prohibited prescriptions” list that tells you the application will be declined if a member takes the medication on the list for a specific condition. Some carriers include this list in every kit they send out.

Medicare Supplements for Beneficiaries under age 65. Not all states require Medigap plans to cover beneficiaries under age 65. In some cases states may only require carriers to offer certain plans for those under age 65 or cover certain conditions such as ESRD. In all cases, under 65 policies are more expensive than a regular Medigap policy since carriers know the beneficiaries will be using more benefits than those over 65 on original Medicare.

This is just brief overview of Medicare Supplements. For an in depth explanation and more, click the button below for the recording of Part 2 of our webinar series on Medicare Supplements: “Medicare Supplements 201.”

Contact us today to get contracted with the highest rated carriers in your area. Many plans are only competitive in certain zip codes so don’t be fooled by all their hype. Call us at 1-800-997-3107 and let us help you with all of your Medicare Supplement contracting needs.

Updated 3/13/2017; Originally Published 5/16/2016