Humana axed the agent reward program

[Bevo]

Just remember, there was no federal income tax until about 1913. We know who takes the money away.

Yep, the creature from Jekyll Island takes it away.

 

[DonP]

I just found and read the post. I am in the group, but I dont follow it, there is too much junk in it.

I think your summary is a little skewed. In fact, it appears the post (if authentic) is a summary of a CMS response, which can be a little deceiving, when it's not in the context of the entire response.

If you were to only read individual sentences, then you may in fact concur the same thoughts that you have. However, it does appear to expand upon "overrides no longer permitted."

....This prohibition applies to payments made on a per-enrolled basis, payments paid monthly, quarterly, or on some other schedule which are adjusted based on volume of enrollments, and remuneration that is paid into form of things other than money such as access to tools or even providing leads."

There were a few grammatical errors in the original post, which is a little suspicious.

I think one could read the entire context, and arrive at a different conclusion. It seems to be saying overrides paid on a. per enrollment basis, that are connected to volume enrollment.

Again, if this is in fact a verbatim response from CMS, it appears they are taking all measures to prevent volume driven incentives for enrollments. This is a clear stance they had from the beginning, and it is consistent in all of their communication. If "overrides" are taken advantage of, and lead to volume based incentives, then they would likely attempt to stop that.

It would make more sense to punish the bad actors, rather than punish everyone.

First how do you pay agents an override if it’s not based on volume of apps? That won’t work . It will be a cluster . Let’s look at the news the past few weeks. Aetna “ We could lose 10% of our mapd clients as we focus on profitability “ . Humana said the same thing . Do you really believe they’re going to give fat overrides to people who do little when they’re focusing on profit and could care less if they lose a large amount . To some it up mapd is no longer super profitable and is going threw a “downsizing “

 

[hockeyday]

got this email yesterday- i have no idea who these people are or if it's correct

Cigna has announced that it's PDP plans will be commissionable in 2024!​

This is big news for Insurance agents and you will want to get this taken care of ASAP.

Set yourself up for success and get access to a nationally recognized carrier.

Higher contracts available with appropriate production and agents.


Click Here to Request Contracting


Copyright © 2024 Brightstar Insurance Services, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
5850 Canoga Ave, Woodland Hills CA, 91367

Lol it's for 2024, what are they doing in 2025?

 

[Special Agent]

Lol it's for 2024, what are they doing in 2025?

I have no idea i just got this spam email is cigna they paying commish for all their plans this year?

 

[myinsurebiz]

Do they get commish advance? lol .It will be nice not to hear a prospect tell me that they enrolled through their sister in law who just got her agent license .

That is exactly the business model we execute.

#ReferralMarketing

 

[myinsurebiz]

I haven't heard anything about commision cuts to agents.I wish they would end commission advancement because that would help keep the shady operators out and decrease churn.

The majority of Agents rely on Advances for cash flow or to eat,

 

[GoPokes]

First how do you pay agents an override if it’s not based on volume of apps? That won’t work . It will be a cluster . Let’s look at the news the past few weeks. Aetna “ We could lose 10% of our mapd clients as we focus on profitability “ . Humana said the same thing . Do you really believe they’re going to give fat overrides to people who do little when they’re focusing on profit and could care less if they lose a large amount . To some it up mapd is no longer super profitable and is going threw a “downsizing “

Unless I’m misunderstanding, the current override payment structure is not based on volume. An upline is paid an override when a downline sells a plan with xyz carrier. It’s a fixed amount, regardless of how many (volume) applications are placed with xyz carrier

In contrast, a volume based override is “marketing dollars” in disguise. Is this structure, the original overide structure still exists, yet there is an an additional override (marketing dollars) being paid to the upline, when a volume (high metric of enrollments) are placed with xyz carrier. It’s sort of like a bonus, but that’s against the rules, so it’s “marketing dollars.”

I think most veteran agents know somebody who was getting these dollars for legit marketing purposes, and others who got them just bc they knew the right people. It appears that there wasn’t always a lot of oversight and accountability, But, these dollars came from the carriers, that’s where the oversight should originate, now they are blaming the FMO’s.


Aetna said they are focusing on margins, which sounds like a reasonable business approach. I doubt all the margins are within the commissions department. They had huge AEP growth, and now they have to fine tune the new revenues. They could lose 10% of clients, but if they get their margins under control, it could still be favorable…. If you could make double the commissions on each of your clients, you could lose 50% and still have the same income, no losses.

 

[Jim Wright]

Unless I’m misunderstanding, the current override payment structure is not based on volume. An upline is paid an override when a downline sells a plan with xyz carrier. It’s a fixed amount, regardless of how many (volume) applications are placed with xyz carrier

Kind of right. There is a tiered structure with most carriers. Once the Agent/Agency hits certain enrollment numbers, they get bumped up.

 

[DonP]

Unless I’m misunderstanding, the current override payment structure is not based on volume. An upline is paid an override when a downline sells a plan with xyz carrier. It’s a fixed amount, regardless of how many (volume) applications are placed with xyz carrier

In contrast, a volume based override is “marketing dollars” in disguise. Is this structure, the original overide structure still exists, yet there is an an additional override (marketing dollars) being paid to the upline, when a volume (high metric of enrollments) are placed with xyz carrier. It’s sort of like a bonus, but that’s against the rules, so it’s “marketing dollars.”

I think most veteran agents know somebody who was getting these dollars for legit marketing purposes, and others who got them just bc they knew the right people. It appears that there wasn’t always a lot of oversight and accountability, But, these dollars came from the carriers, that’s where the oversight should originate, now they are blaming the FMO’s.


Aetna said they are focusing on margins, which sounds like a reasonable business approach. I doubt all the margins are within the commissions department. They had huge AEP growth, and now they have to fine tune the new revenues. They could lose 10% of clients, but if they get their margins under control, it could still be favorable…. If you could make double the commissions on each of your clients, you could lose 50% and still have the same income, no losses.

You’re correct it’s a fixed dollar amount . But that fixed override let’s says $250 an app is based on doing x amount of apps . So it is based on volume in reality . But the new rules say you can’t pay an overide on any enrollment vol . But we know the ga and Ga do get paid overrides per enrollment . We know there all making overrides per app . Your just playing with the wording . That’s like saying all these face to face agents are marking the scope of appointment the same day saying the client approached them that day . All this is called getting around the rules . What kind of business model is this , I sell a June 1st mapd I make $179. The fmo gets up to $250 on that same trade . Thats 130% override . Regardless if the carrier can legally pay that override there going to cut the tar out of that . Thats a big fat target for carriers to cut big cost

. How much fat and profit have these IMO’s and down lines been making ? An Ifg downline is taking 200 top agents to the carribean for 4 nights .Thats at least $600k . I’m figuring they made $10 mil in overrides the last yr . Fmo’s wont go away by any means . They simply make less and stack the loa model . Many do that now . If the overrides stay the same great . Good agents will still get there marketing money . Instead of being paid or co-oped by the carrier to either the agent or fmo . The fmo will simply pay it all out of his overrides . He can structure it like an loa employee payment

 

[sman]

I have no idea i just got this spam email is cigna they paying commish for all their plans this year?

Yes