Starting a Medicare agency
If you are a licensed Medicare agent and would like to expand your Medicare business into a Medicare agency, here are a few things to do before starting a Medicare agency.
- File and register your LLC or Corp with the state that you plan to have your headquarters in.
- Go to your state department of insurance to apply for the appropriate license under your LLC or Corp.
- Purchase E&O insurance (errors & omissions) for your agency. This protects business owners from lawsuits connected to insurance sales.
- Choose one person to act as the principal of your agency. This person should be listed on any state license you apply for. Be sure the individual is licensed in any state you wish to do business in as they will be listed as principal on any license your agency applies for.
- Check all CMS compliance laws and be sure that both your agents and agency follow all applicable rules. The agency principal must complete AHIP annually on behalf of themself and the agency.
Click here to learn the CMS final rule for 2025
Ways to help your agency run smoothly
- Hire one or more employees to work your back office and provide support and training for any agents who contract to work with you. This will help ensure your recruit agent who can successfully sell plans.
- Be sure your agents complete annual carrier certifications, AHIP and any necessary CE credits. Provide guidance for any questions downline agents have and be sure they understand both new as well as existing CMS compliance regulations.
- Purchase a CRM, this is a great way to keep all client information as long as it is maintained properly.
- Contract your agency with an FMO/NMO that provides your agency with many value added benefits. More on that point below.
- Make sure you track all commissions and pay them to downline agents in a timely manner if they are LOA.
Watch some of our free training videos on YouTube
Important
If you plan to run a successful Medicare agency, it is imperative that you educate your downline agents. If you do not support your agents, they will find another upline to work with the provides the guidance they need to be successful in this business. There are plenty of other up-lines looking to sign agents out there. Make sure your agency is competitive.
Click here to see what a competitive agency has to offer
A good upline offers many different programs to agents so they can find one that best suits their style of selling. Quoting and enrollment platforms, such as Sunfire and Connecture are invaluable tools that have many benefits such as; saving client information like prescription lists (this saves time each year to run quotes), built in call recording capabilities (for compliance) and 10-year storage capability.
Learn more about Connecture and Sunfire
Back-office support helps answer any questions regarding marketing or product-specific training in a timely manner and your agents feel confident when they have a personal relationship with actual people who support their efforts day to day.
Contracting with the right upline makes all the difference.
Contracting your agency with an FMO/NMO can really boost your over-all success. These organizations provide many valuable connections to carriers. This can make cross selling easier. They also have the capability to process carrier contracts quickly and smoothly. Many provide free access to quoting tools like Sunfire and Connecture to downline agents. There are many other benefits like keeping your agents up to date on the latest rules and regulations of the industry and application processing help. The best upline can help agents develop a good marketing strategy. There are many other benefits to joining an FMO/NMO.
Let Crowe and Asociates help guide your agency – click here for online contracting
There is quite a bit to consider if you want to start a profitable, successful Medicare agency. Forming the right partnerships can really help you get it done right. and be As you can see there are a lot of moving parts that need to be running in synchronization to have a successful Medicare Agency.