medicare aep Archives

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By Ed Crowe | General Articles | Enter your password to view comments. | 22 July, 2024 | 0

AEP Plan

By Ed Crowe | General Articles | 0 comment | 12 October, 2023 | 0

AEP Plan

Develop a Marketing plan for AEP in 5 easy steps. Even though Annual Enrollment Period 2024 is fast approaching, agents cannot actually begin marketing or selling Medicare Advantage products to clients until October 1st. However, there are plenty of things a savvy agent can do while they’re waiting to prepare themselves for what can be the most fast-paced time of the year. One way to get ahead is to develop a marketing plan. Here are five easy steps to creating your individual strategic AEP plan.

Get specific about your target market

The more specific you can be about who you want to reach, the better. Too often, the target is just “people over 65.” But who, really, are your key demographics? Are they married? Urban? Do they have any health conditions you can help them find specific coverage for? Are they from an area with fewer in-network providers? Essentially – who are the people you can most effectively help?

AEP Plan – Know your audience

It’s always valuable to get to know the people you’re selling to. This not only builds human connections and relationships between you and your clients, but it will help you integrate their unique needs and worldviews into your recommendations for their healthcare coverage. So, what kind of people are these? What do they watch, or read, or listen to? Who are their trusted news sources? Etc.

AEP Plan – Get to know your competition

This is an obvious one, but it’s important to find out what other agents and Field Marketing Organizations (FMOs) are doing in your area. If they have a specific niche covered successfully, you may want to develop a separate one. It is also worth asking if there is something you do well that they do not or cannot do. This will help you stand out from the crowd.

AEP Plan – Make sure marketing is compliant

Before October 15th, every marketing material, channel, video, website, and handout needs to be in compliance with all of the new regulations from CMS. That way, nothing will cause delays when AEP starts in earnest.

AEP Plan – Check on returning clients

Although you can’t talk about anything but their current year plans, it will be helpful to find out now what their experience of their Medicare Advantage plan has been like this year so that you can use that information to predict what kind of changes, if any, they’ll need to make in their coverage during AEP.

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Medicare AEP versus OEP

By Ed Crowe | General Articles | 0 comment | 23 August, 2023 | 0

Medicare AEP versus OEP: What’s the Difference?

Even for savvy clients, the enrollment process for Medicare can be confusing. One of the reasons for this is the multiple enrollment periods. The two most important time periods for both beneficiaries and agents to know the details of are the Open Enrollment Period (OEP) and the Annual Enrollment Period (AEP). Let’s compare the two:

AEP vs OEP – Open Enrollment Period

This is the time during the year when anyone who is eligible for Medicare can enroll in, change coverage from, or unenroll from a Medicare Advantage Plan or a Medicare Part D (or prescription drug) plan. This is the time when beneficiaries can make choices about their Medicare coverage without restrictions. It usually runs from January 1st to March 31st each year. To be eligible to enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan during OEP.

AEP vs OEP – Annual Enrollment Period

This is the time period that is specifically designed for beneficiaries who are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans to change their coverage. It occurs from October 15th to December 7th each year. There are some restrictions as to what beneficiaries can do during this time period, but those actions that they can take include enrolling in a different Medicare Advantage plan, switching to or back to Original Medicare (parts A and B), or enrolling in a Medicare Part D plan (prescription drug coverage). In order to be qualified to do any of those things, the beneficiary must already be enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan.

It is of vital importance that beneficiaries are aware of these timelines. If they are not aware of the time periods, missing OEP or AEP and failure to act can cause them to have lapses in their healthcare coverage or miss their opportunity to enroll in a different plan for the coming year.