Agent Update Memo — January 2025
Agent Update Memo — January 2025
Below you will find new Medicare training and information both from Senior Marketing Specialists and the insurance industry as a whole. This information will be updated throughout the month.
Senior Marketing Specialists Updates
- Carriers are coming to us asking for feedback for this AEP. Please send us anything that would be helpful for them! They are starting their national meetings to discuss recaps and are needing feedback.
- Our office will be closed 1/20/2025 for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
- New Agent School will be in our office on 2/20. If you are thinking about sending anyone from your teams, please let us know! We’d love to have them!
- Are you ready to talk about your strategies for 2025? We have 2024 production numbers that we can share with you! Don’t hesitate, reach out to us today!
- NEW 2025 Medicare Cost Sheets can be found in the AEP Toolkit!
- 2025 Medicare Costs & Premiums – fillable for clients
- 2025 Medicare Amounts
- Detailed 2025 Costs & Premiums
- Keep an eye out for first quarter bonus announcements from carriers on our Contest Page.
- Buying, selling, or needing to incorporate to protect your business? Now is a great time to start prepping for it. First quarter is when business transfers need to happen to be finished by AEP. Learn more here!
- If you are looking at recruiting new agents to bring into the agency, first quarter is a great time to do so. Carriers open transfers back up and it gives you plenty of time to get any needed releases in before AEP.
- Reach out to us for any questions or training needs!
Carrier Updates
- Most AEP deposits have started getting paid out by carriers. If you have any issues or questions, please reach out to us!
- If you did not certify with a carrier, you are at risk of your contract terminating and MAPD/PDP renewals being forfeited! Please check all of your certifications!
- Aetna
- If you have any Aetna clients impacted by the California wildfires needing help with drug fills, please have them call: 1-833-620-8808.
- Anthem
- Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield in Illinois and Oklahoma available on CSG for e-app enrollment!
- We are able to offer these contracts if you need to pick them up, or want to transfer them!
- Anthem will no longer be a Kentucky Medicaid Managed Care Organization (MCO), starting January 1, 2025.
- No new enrollments as of December 13, 2024. Members already enrolled can continue to use benefits on January 1, 2025.
- Anthem Full Dual Advantage (HMO D-SNP), H9525-007-000
- Anthem Full Dual Advantage 2 (HMO D-SNP), H9525-019-000
- Anthem Dual Advantage (HMO D-SNP), H9525-016-000
- No new enrollments as of December 13, 2024. Members already enrolled can continue to use benefits on January 1, 2025.
- Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield in Illinois and Oklahoma available on CSG for e-app enrollment!
- Albertson’s
- Starting January 1, 2025, Albertson’s will be temporarily out of the UCard network. We will continue to work with them to support this technology. UnitedHealthcare recently called and emailed members who have shopped at Albertson’s using their UCard to inform them.
- Cigna
- CIGNA Enrollments have been processing at a much slower rate – both Med Supp and PDP.
- Cigna Medicare Supplement is still having a lot of processing issues (as of January 17th, 2025). A very common one is that an application will be pending for a license review. Cigna is not able to remove that, or speed up the review process. They are working on figuring out what is causing applications to get flagged when it is not the agent’s first application in that state.
- PDP has had some issues with enrollments not being found.
- If you are missing any clients, please send over a list with the following information so we can help get those pushed through;
- Name
- Date of Birth
- MBI
- A copy of the app
- If you are missing any clients, please send over a list with the following information so we can help get those pushed through;
- Chicago, Illinois and Arizona are top markets for Cigna MAPD in OEP!
- CIGNA Enrollments have been processing at a much slower rate – both Med Supp and PDP.
- Lumico
- Lumico is taking a March 1 increase in the following states: FL, IA, KY, MO, ND, OK, SD, WI, WV, WY.
- If you haven’t seen the percentage increase for your state, please reach out to us!
- Lumico is taking a March 1 increase in the following states: FL, IA, KY, MO, ND, OK, SD, WI, WV, WY.
- Manhattan Life
- Manhattan Assurance Rate Increase in MO, effective February 1 (20% F, G, N).
- Manhattan Life (old block) rate increase effective since December 1 (15% F, G, N).
- Medico
- Effective February 1, 2025, Medico is taking a 9.9% increase on F, G, and N in MO.
- Wellabe
- Beginning February 1, 2025, Wellabe is introducing accelerated underwriting for Med Supps in: GA, IN, KY, OH, and TX.
- Wellabe Short Term Care Bonus for applications written through June 30, 2025 – $100 per app after 5 applications.
Industry Reminders
- OEP runs from January 1 until the end of March. You CANNOT market this election.
- Now that we are in 2025, remember that the quarterly “maintaining LIS” SEP does not exist anymore.
- Under 65 Medicare Supplements are now available in Indiana, effective December 12th, 2024. Please check carrier comp amounts for this. UHC will not be paying any commissions on these bonuses.
- Effective January 1, 2025, the State of California will become a Part A Buy-In state. This means that individuals who are not automatically eligible for Medicare Part A can receive assistance for Medicare Part A premiums through Medi-Cal under Senate Bill (SB) 311.
- Beginning April 1, 2025, individuals wishing to utilize the Disaster/Emergency SEP must call 1-800-MEDICARE in order to make an election. Medicare Advantage Organizations and Part D Sponsors will no longer accept elections directly from beneficiaries using the Disaster/Emergency SEP. Plans will receive Disaster/Emergency SEP elections only via download from the Health Plan Management System (HPMS) Online Enrollment Center Management module.
- Missouri has a statewide FEMA SEP ongoing. If you have any individuals who missed their AEP election, you can still enroll them for now. In order to use this, the client must have had a valid election that they did not use (in this case, AEP).
- Service Area Reduction SEP is still in play!
- FEMA Disaster SEP becomes CMS direct-call only, beginning on April 1, 2025.
- Changes to DSNP Election in 2025
- President Trump signed a number of Executive Orders (EO) on his first day in office. Of note was an order rescinding Biden’s EO 14087, affecting certain drug pricing experiments (such as proposed $2 generic drug list). This does NOT change aspects of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that are already enforced.
- To learn more on this, check out our blog: Medicare Two Dollar Drug List Rescinded: How This Impacts the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)
All contracted Agents receive FREE access to SMS-University, the industry’s most trusted, comprehensive online training platform, featuring numerous training modules, white-papers, and clear, concise education tools.
Sources:
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