Medicare Advantage health plans leave seniors scrambling for alternatives

[somarco]

Guessing this estimate includes Medicare’s part b premium

Nice guess, but unless you only sell MA plans with give back the argument is diluted.

Odd how I see agents saying their MA block is low maintenance. Makes me wonder what they are doing to earn their renewals.

A good friend writes around 40% MA and 60% Medigap . . . or something like that. He says the MA clients are a LOT more work between running PDP reports and making sure the providers are in network before moving them.

My Medigap clients rarely move and if they do it is in the 3 to 5 year range. My guess is over half the folks with PDP probably could/should move but they don't want to . . . until they see the new premium and/or fill their med's in the new year.

I tried to move folks when Humana increased their PDP premium by more than double. No one complained until the next year when their premium went from $26 to $60. Of course by then it was too late.

Envision is doing the same thing. This years $14 premium will be $26 next year unless they move to another carrier or opt for the new $14 plan for 2021.

Fortunately everyone has received 2 letters or more advising of the increase plus several emails.

I could probably move 30% or more of my clients from one PDP to another but too many don't want to change . . . until they see the new premium and/or copay's.

Folks want to keep their MA plan until it get's expensive. Then they can't.

 

[TN_agent]

Somarco,

This must be YMMV depending on selling area. I agree my MA block is much less work than my med supp/PDP block. I moved less than 5 MAPD clients this AEP, but I talked to at least 75 of them (thanks freaking Joe Namath and that stupid commercial). Where I sell, there just haven't been any major formulary or network changes in 5 years and if anything the MAPDs have gotten stronger (lower out of pocket max, lower copays, more side benefits). The PDPs around here are jacking people around like crazy, though, selling off to other companies and making big changes, raising prices, changing formularies, changing preferred pharmacies, changing their names so people get confused, dropping plans and renewing to plans that aren't remotely similar, dropping local and independent pharmacies, etc.

 

[somarco]

This must be YMMV depending on selling area. I agree my MA block is much less work than my med supp/PDP block.

IDK

The guy I referenced has (I think) around 800 clients. This is what he told me.


Picked up a total of 33 new clients. Only 9 were Med Supp, the other 24 were MAPD. Also wrote MAPD on 7 existing Med Supp clients. Two of those were still within the 6 year commission cycle. A couple were outside the 10 year window. A total of 15 of the MAPD applications are new to MAPD which means a higher first year commission.



Had to rewrite 20 MAPD’s of existing clients. Many of those will actually pay a higher commission (Humana pays the level of commission based on the year it is originally written – meaning if you wrote it when it was at a $204 renewal, you get that much in all future years even though new enrollments pay more). So several of these 20 cases will be $20-$70 more plus some of them will pay an extra $50-$75 because of my commission level through IMO).



Also rewrote 6 Med Supp clients with new Med Supps. All paying a higher commission and of course extending the 6 year cycle.



All in all, I submitted 242 applications during AEP.


Sounds like a lot of damn work to me.

He also has said on more than one occasion he wished he had never started writing MAPD.

Glad I never wrote MAPD. Had my fill of mangled care plans for 30 years before shifting to Medicare clients only. Very few complaints. The majority of the few clients I lose during the year are no longer above ground.

 

[TN_agent]

242 apps in 7 weeks IS a lot of damn work.

 

[vic120]

242 apps in 7 weeks IS a lot of damn work.

I did close to as many, Yes it is a lot of work

However Much of mine was client switches and PDP My new client number is much smaller than usual, I don't have an exact yet but between 40 and 50 I would say

I will say I do find in the last 2 or so years my MA book has been less maintenance and med supp book has been more maintenance drugs and such

I do have a couple with a lot of Docs I have to check each year but most are not so much work

Drug plans are so much more work in the last 2 or so years then it was befoe not sure why

 

[BibH]

Citation?

Where are these people? I hardly ever see them. They must be hiding from me unless you can cite a source for your SWAG.




WTH are you selling?

My clients pay around $120/mo for G plan and $14 for PDP. 2X = $270.

Rarely have one balk at the premium. If so I default to the HD plan which cuts the premium by $80 or so. They almost always decide the G plan isn't so bad after all.

Age 69 single male i wrote Plan G i wrote at $150 a month . Were are these poor people? Everywhere . I sell Fe and that’s my client base . Hell no I wouldn’t sell a Ma to a middle class and above family

 

[Midlevel]

Yeah wouldn't want to sell at $0 premium MA to a wealthy person that wants dental, vision, gym, etc and could care a less about the copays they may endure on the MA plan. They are wealthy because they are smart with their money and don't feel like throwing it away on a Med Sup that has no additional benefits that they receive on an MA plan. Who cares if they get cancer and max out the $3900 one year out of 15? I pay $300/month now for health insurance and pay the first $3500 deductible before I get a Dr visit paid for. You think when I go on Medicare and can get an MA for $0 that includes all the extras I won't jump on it?

 

[LostDollar]

...................Hell no I wouldn’t sell a Ma to a middle class and above family

caveat, not an agent.

If you are contracted for, and certified to, sell both, the proper approach is to present both to the prospect and let them choose.

 

[BibH]

Yeah wouldn't want to sell at $0 premium MA to a wealthy person that wants dental, vision, gym, etc and could care a less about the copays they may endure on the MA plan. They are wealthy because they are smart with their money and don't feel like throwing it away on a Med Sup that has no additional benefits that they receive on an MA plan. Who cares if they get cancer and max out the $3900 one year out of 15? I pay $300/month now for health insurance and pay the first $3500 deductible before I get a Dr visit paid for. You think when I go on Medicare and can get an MA for $0 that includes all the extras I won't jump on it?

Not Many wealthy people are going to use the networks dentists. Wealthy people don’t want the aggravation of networks and copays to safe a paltry $150 to $200 a month.

 

[somarco]

242 apps in 7 weeks IS a lot of damn work.

So you agree with me

My new client number is much smaller than usual, I don't have an exact yet but between 40 and 50 I would say

I wrote around 35 new which is a lot for me

Drug plans are so much more work in the last 2 or so years then it was befoe not sure why

It seems as if agents who write MAPD don't run Rx reports. Could be wrong, but that is my impression.

Hell no I wouldn’t sell a Ma to a middle class and above family

And why do you sell it to poor people?

If they can't afford the Medigap premium they can't afford to get sick with an MA plan.

Not picking on you it's just that the logic escapes me.

This (MA) plan won't cover shite and you will never be able to figure it out but it is better than not having anything. But don't worry, you will default on your medical bills anyway.