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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.

Corner the Arizona senior market with RB Insurance

Snowbirds love to nest in Arizona — you know, retirees who flock to our state during winter to escape the polar vortex. And we’re all familiar with Sun City, the town northwest of Phoenix and Peoria that was planned just for seniors. More of our neighbors are relocated Michiganders or Illinoisans than true natives.

Many of these folks plan a road trip to see the country and end up moving here because they fall in love with our warm — We’ll go with “warm” —temperatures and breathtaking sunsets. However they get here, Arizona welcomes a steadily aging population, and that means a great selling opportunity for those in the senior insurance market.

According to the Census Bureau’s American Fact Finder, 14.4 percent of Arizona’s population is 65 or older, which is just slightly above the national average of 14 percent. Over 1 million people in Arizona are eligible for Medicare, with over 100,000 new beneficiaries being reported in the last five years, according to Census 2013 estimates.

How many of these prospective clients have you served?

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the Medicare market, Medicare Supplements are available to help with medical costs not covered by Original Medicare. Nationally standardized Plans A through N have monthly costs ranging from $37 to $300. The more coverage you want, the more expensive the policy will be. Plans C and F are the most popular and have reasonable premiums for the benefits they provide.

Medicare Advantage plans are a great alternative to a Medicare Supplement, but have cost sharing that varies widely between carrier plans. There are Special Needs plans available to help those with chronic conditions, and Special Needs plans cover those who have both Medicare and Arizona Medicaid, whose short name is AHCCCS. These deserving populations are generally underserved. Most of them make below the federal poverty guideline of $980.  The Census bureau estimates there are over 120,000 people over 65 making less than $1,200 a month in Arizona.

If all you sell is Medicare Advantage or Medicare Supplements, you’re missing a major revenue stream. I know of only two certainties in this life: death and taxes. This is why a final expense or burial policy can help you go the extra mile for your clients out while expanding your Book of Business. We all know that at some point in time we pass on, so if you, as an Agent, can help someone understand the costs associated with a funeral and plan for those costs, you’ve truly made the world a better place.

As someone who has had to plan two funerals in the last 18 months, I can’t tell you how much a burial policy helped out. If you can eliminate the cost of the casket, funeral service, etc., it makes a loved one’s passing much easier for your client — financially at least — to deal with. However, these important considerations are only part of the final expense equation. When you sell one of these policies, make sure you include something that empowers your clients to either start a dialog with their loved ones so they can go over what they want to have happen when they pass on, or let them put their wishes in writing. If you work with a funeral home as an Agent, you can get some of their folders they hand out to write down who your clients want notified, where important papers are located, what music they want at their service, if they want a service and who they want to be their pallbearers. These are all great opportunities for showing clients you offer insurance products that can take care of all their needs.

Welcome to the Arizona market. Bring your sunscreen.

This is the first in a series of posts about RB Insurance’s recruitment efforts in our home state as we prepare an exciting series of events for potential Agents. Next week I’ll post some examples of successful Agents serving the Arizona market before we launch our campaign.