FBI Medicare Protection Program
Testimonial
When I meet with prospective clients for the first time, the conversation inevitably moves to how many phone calls they get because they’re turning 65. Some bring along stacks of flyers and brochures that fill their mailboxes. They want the barrage to stop. The Witness Protection Program saves people from the mob. Maybe the FBI can hide 65-year-olds from the insurance agent mob. It is hard to believe, but insurance agents must follow a large body of rules. The rules are designed to protect the consumer from being harassed and taken advantage of. The most significant rule is that insurance agents can only call you if you give them permission to call. To call someone out of the blue about Medicare plans is a serious violation of the rules.
health insurance. The sole purpose is to get your personal information and written permission to call. Once they have your contact information and know your demographics, your information will be sold and resold to agents and call centers. CMS (Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services) determines the rules with which agents must comply. One of the new rules is that agents must be able to produce the source of their lead upon request and how the lead was generated. Did the marketing organization comply with CMS regulations? If not, the agent will be in violation for using illicit marketing techniques, even if they did not do the actual marketing. They still utilized the information and made the call, so they are just as guilty. Call centers off the shores of the U.S. can no longer hammer Medicare beneficiaries with endless phone calls because these leads are noncompliant without permission to call. Agents will not buy those leads. These call centers even call people on the DO NOT CALL LIST because there are no consequences for foreign entities off U.S. shores. Going forward, agents must show how the lead was generated and if it was done in a compliant manner.
“Chris and his team were very helpful. I now understand Medicare with all its ins and outs.” –Jackie C.
call centers in the U.S. to scrutiny. CMS will be able to pull the call center’s phone logs. Some agents who are not following the rules, being honest, and playing fair will be quickly discovered and turned out. I record my calls. Phone recording systems are not cheap, but it is good for us because I can check what was discussed. It is better than taking notes. The big rule change in 2024 is that companies, agencies, and agents can no longer use “Medicare” in their name, including the URL for their website. This is huge! How many people have been fooled by confusing misrepresentations? For the internet, words matter. Using “Medicare” in your URL and company name guarantees people will find you online because it is a key search term. Instead of being on the bottom of Page 94 of Google with “Medicare” in your URL, you end up at the top of Page 1.
You can give permission in several ways.
FILL OUT A BRC (BUSINESS REPLAY CARD).
BRCs are postcards you complete with your phone number. The card should say — usually in very small print — an insurance agent may contact you. I guarantee you will be contacted many, many times. FILL OUT A REQUEST ONLINE. You will probably get 3–4 phone calls within 30–45 seconds of filling out an online source. This is not an exaggeration. The moment you push the button to submit, your phone will light up for the next hour. The bad part about the online forms is that the websites disguise themselves as impartial third parties or pseudo-U.S. government, Social Security, or Medicare sites. Some of the sites have nothing to do with Medicare
Following the rules all these years may finally pay off. Some of these bad actors will be eliminated, caught, or at least exposed.
One of the marketing organizations with which I partner is Applied General Agency Medicare Options (AGA MO) . They have an excellent compliance department. Margie is the young lady that reads the material I
produce, like the newsletter, to make sure it is within the parameters of CMS regulations. She keeps me out of Medicare jail. You can trust that the information I put in our newsletter and on our website is accurate, truthful, and compliant.
The next new regulation is that agents record sales and marketing phone calls. This is big because this
rule opens up the big
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