As your ally on your health insurance journey, it is our fiduciary duty to keep you informed of changes in the industry that may affect you. This year we have seen stricter rules around Medicare, which we hope will only protect our clients instead of making it harder to connect.
As the Annual Election Period commence I want to bring up a couple of important changes:
As I mentioned on the September newsletter, there are new rules for contacting medicare recipients. We require a Scope of Appointment (known as an SOA) 48 hours prior to meeting with a prospect or clients and discussing plans. In an effort to help our dear clients, we have taken the liberty to start sending electronic Scope of Appointments for your signature. These SOAs are good for 12 months and allow a more open communication with our team.
We are also required to record all “sales” conversations with clients or prospects. What that means is that if you have general educational questions about Medicare, we can answer those without recording them. Remember we host our educational seminars once a month and they are focused on providing more in-depth information about how medicare works.
When your questions are specific to other products you are interested in adding or changing, we are required to record it and keep the records for at least 10 years. We are looking into a couple of solutions to address this request in the least invasive manner to our clients. Remember you can always email or text us if you prefer to not be recorded.
Prescription Drug Changes: Effective 2024, the catastrophic stage has now been eliminated. What that means is that, if you are taking high cost medications and usually fall into the “coverage gap” (known also as the donut hole), you no longer have a 3rd stage of coverage. Once you reach $8,000 in True out of pocket costs, your plan is now required to cover your prescription cost at 100% of the cost for the remainder of the year.
Because of this change, we have seen an increase in stand alone Prescription Drug Plan Premiums. These only affect our clients on supplemental plans.
To join our in-person and virtual meetings to help you understand your options in 2024 please visit our Upcoming Meetings page. As always please remember we always take great care in selecting the right solutions for your individual needs. If those needs have changed, please let us know as soon as possible to schedule a consultation.
We are always happy to help and continue to focus on providing you with the support you deserve.
For more information about Medicare visit: https://westcompassinsurance.com/medicare-basics/