TESTIMONIAL “Chris made deciding about Medicare very easy. He returned calls promptly. I appreciate his being readily available.” –Cathy B.
RECERTIFICATION USED TO BE A NIGHTMARE DO OR DIE
The Annual Election Period (AEP) is coming up in October. AEP is when you may change your Medicare prescription drug plan or Medicare Advantage plan. It is also when the plan changes come out. As part of that, all insurance agents who sell Medicare plans must go through a recertification process to be able to offer Medicare plans. The recertification process combines reviewing how Medicare plans work, the rules and regulations around Medicare plans, the compliant ways Medicare plans must be sold, and learning the new rules and product changes. I always hated certification. My first certification was in October of 2012. Certification was much different then. The AHIP (American Health Insurance Plans) test you were required to pass was far more complicated than today. You only had three attempts to pass. If you didn’t pass by the third attempt, you could not sell Medicare plans that year! You were out of the Medicare business for a year and lost your book of business. Hundreds of clients and years of work could evaporate in one instance. The pressure was enormous. All the insurance companies require you to pass the AHIP to sell their products. Further, the insurance companies then had their own program of training and tests for each of their products. The same rules apply to each company. You only have three tries to pass their Medicare plan test. Failure meant you couldn’t sell their products that year. In my first year after I passed the AHIP. I worked through different insurance company trainings. With one company, I had failed the first two attempts. I was in my car on the third and final attempt, killing time between appointments. I thought I had figured out what I had done wrong, so I started my last attempt. It was do or die. My laptop had a “hot spot” connection. Eleven years ago, a hot spot connection was not the most reliable. I was hemming
and hawing over some final questions. I had to leave my car for the next appointment, so I pushed the submit button for the test. My hot spot failed. I had no idea if my test was submitted, whether I lost my last attempt, and/or if I had failed. I went to my appointment. The appointment seemed to last forever. I ran home as fast as possible to check my score online. No luck. I called the insurance company to see if I’d passed, but I was on hold for 15 minutes. Then the call dropped. Remember cellphones 11 years ago? Eventually, the insurance company’s website started working again. When I pulled up my test score, I had passed by the bare minimum on my last attempt. I collapsed on the laptop. Now, certification is nothing in comparison. Insurance companies and Medicare need more and more agents to service the large Medicare population, so they have made certification much more straightforward. But I still suffer from PTSD (post- traumatic stress disorder) from the earlier certification process. I still over-study for the tests. The material is incredibly boring, so recertification is absolute torture reading through all the dull curricula. I generally pass all the tests on the first try with 100%, but I still sweat bullets every time I push the submit button. This year, after the AHIP, there are six insurance companies with over 50 products I will need to test for. Medicare Supplements only require an insurance license to sell. Easy peasy. Sometimes, people will ask why some insurance agents don’t offer Medicare Advantage and Medicare prescription drug plans. The reason is that some agents couldn’t pass the test or didn’t want to risk losing clients because they couldn’t pass the tests. The helpful part is all of the compliance training keeps us on our toes, and I use the changes as topics for my newsletters and website articles. The changes to Medicare and insurance products are not drastic each year, but there are some. Keeping you informed is my mission. I don’t want you to suffer because of some rule or change. I also want to stay out of Medicare jail.
SPICED PECAN PIE BARS Inspired by SouthernLiving.com
Ingredients
Crust • 3 cups all-purpose flour • 1 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed • 3/4 cup powdered sugar • 1 tsp salt Filling • 4 eggs • 1 cup corn syrup • 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar • 1/2 cup honey • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup melted butter • 1 tsp ground cinnamon • 1/2 tsp salt • 1/2 tsp ground ginger • 3 cups chopped pecans Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Use baking spray to grease a 13x9-inch pan before lining with parchment paper. 2. In a food processor, blend crust ingredients until a crumble forms. Press mixture into pan. Bake until light golden brown, about 20 minutes (crust will have cracks). 3. In a bowl, whisk all filling ingredients (except pecans) together until smooth. Stir in pecans and pour over crust. Bake until set, around 30 minutes, then let cool completely in pan.
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