America's Benefit Specialist August/September 2023

BUILDING AND TRANSFERRING A BLOCK OF MEDICARE RELATED POLICIES MEDICARE MATTERS

A Medicare block of business is comprised of many unique elements. They include marketing, needs analysis, client demographics, buying triggers, product design, compliance, enrollment methods, certification, carrier contracts and client services. Any of these items can be considered unique when building and maintaining a block of business around those eligible for Medicare-related programs. In addition to the items listed above, you can add regulatory bodies like specif ic state laws, federal laws and regulations, and carrier rules and abilities. Let’s examine a few of these from the perspective of building and then transferring a block of business in this market segment. by Dan Mangus Vice President of Growth and Development Senior Marketing Specialists Columbia, Missouri dan.mangus@smsteam.net

Building a block in this space first requires a proper foun dation to build a carrier contract upon. Since any policies you write will be tied to your writing number, you will need that number, if possible, linked to a tax ID instead of a Social Security Number. A tax ID number can play a vital role in later transferring business, so an agent going into this space needs to form a corporation as a basis for your business structure. Then an agent will need to prepare a proper product port folio. Carrier selection must be carefully considered to meet customer needs and expectations. Since every carrier in the Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug space is federally regulated, they are required to have you complete annual certification requirements. Therefore, every carrier you add will add the responsibility to maintain that contract.

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