Agent Update Memo — March 2025
Agent Update Memo — March 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
- March 20th at 2 PM CST – The Mutual of Omaha Med Supp Showcase | Register Now
- March 26th at 10 AM CST – How to Present Short Term Care | Register Now
- March 28th at 9 AM CST – Bankers Fidelity Hospital Indemnity Plans | Register Now
- Medicare Supplement Plan N is getting A LOT of attention and focus from the carriers right now!
- Why Plan N or The New Plan N (YouTube)
- What’s the Buzz with Plan N? (Webinar)
- Plan N – Why You NEED to Offer It (Blog)
- Plan N Info Sheet (Fillable PDF)
- Medicare Industry Insider’s NEW episodes: Medicare in the Trump Era Part 1-3
- You can still use the FEMA SEP until April 1. Read more about the SEP here.
- The Election Period Assistant is updated with the new DSNP rules!
- 2026 trip incentives are coming out! Check out our Contests Page to learn more.
Industry Updates
- March is the last month for both AEP and for agents to be able to use the Disaster SEP!
- Merck expects Keytruda to face IRA price setting in 2026
- Health Alliance to discontinue plans at the end of the year
- Birthday Rule Medicare Supplement additions continue to be popular discussions amongst states.
- Walgreens to go Private…
- High Med Supp rate increases seem to be continuing. Please prepare your clients accordingly or be talking about Plan N with them, underwriting where you can!
- Iowa Becomes #2 in New Cancer Cases – How You Can Help
- About 34.2 million Americans have provided unpaid care to an adult age 50 or older in the last 12 months.
- The value of home health care insurance is only going to continue to increase.
- CMS released a proposed rule to address the amount of improper enrollments impacting Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance marketplaces across the country. Read more here.
- Major provisions of the proposed rule include:
- Ending the availability of the monthly special enrollment period (SEP) for individuals with household incomes below 150% of the federal poverty level (FPL) — a policy that currently allows people to wait to enroll until they become sick instead of promoting continuous enrollment.
- Strengthening verifications by requiring all Marketplaces to reinstitute pre-enrollment verifications of eligibility for SEPs and require further verifications of income when there is no tax data available for verification.
- To protect consumers from being enrolled without their knowledge and consent, the rule proposes that when an enrollee does not proactively verify their ongoing eligibility for a fully subsidized plan, Marketplaces must continue to re-enroll that individual into the same plan.
- To ensure consumers maintain continuous coverage into the new year, the rule proposes to shorten the annual Open Enrollment Period for individual market coverage offered through the ACA Marketplaces by ending it on December 15th.
- Department of Veteran Affairs to cut 80,000 employees
- Make sure you are helping veterans get additional coverage in case the level of service in VA hospitals suffer.
Carrier Updates
- There are a lot of carrier contests going on right now. Please be sure to check out our Contest Page.
- Interested in having a carrier representative talk with your team about cross-selling? Let us know and we’d be happy to set up a meeting!
- Reminder: Kroger is back in-network for MA and PDP with Cigna.
- Aflac
- Large March rate increases. If you need more information, please reach out!
- Bankers Fidelity
- There’s still plenty of time for the Bankers Fidelity trip to London!
- Cancer, HIP, FE, and STC all count for 200%!
- Contest runs through October 2026.
- There’s still plenty of time for the Bankers Fidelity trip to London!
- Cigna
- Cigna MA is seeing great OEP growth in Chicago and Dallas!
- Cigna & BCBS IL
- Choice Accident is now available in Indiana and California!
- Heartland National
- Heartland National is expanding into IN, FL, and AZ
- Manhattan Life
- Manhattan Affordable Choice is a good pivot product option for certain ACA aged clients. Reach out for details!
- Mutual of Omaha
- Mutual of Omaha has some of the most competitive Plan N rates across multiple states!
- Mutual of Omaha is releasing a HIP product later this year!
- This will be included in current contracting. We will keep you updated as we learn more.
- United Healthcare
- UHC Med Supp Rate Increases are slowly being announced for 6/1. Keep an eye on the Jarvis portal for updated enrollment books in your state!
- Wellcare
- Wellcare is suppressing certain MA plan in HI, IL, IN, NJ, OH, SC, and TX. These will no longer be available for online enrollment. Reach out for specific plans!
- Woodman Life
- Woodman Life is taking a 20% increase in IA and IL
- It’s no April Fool’s joke! On April 1, Woodmen Life is taking an increase in: AL, AZ, IA, IL, NC, OH, & OK.
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:
cited in article
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