BEWARE OF THE FLIPPERS During annual election period from Oct. 15–Dec. 7, I received many phone calls from you about “extra benefits” and “getting the most out of your Medicare.” You saw the Joe Namath and Jimmy “JJ” Walker commercials that were playing around the clock on television, trying to coax people into calling the 800 number.
As I related to many of you, the commercials were not entirely accurate. The “extra benefits” — free this and free that — were for people who qualified for state Medicaid. The point of the advertisement was to entice you to call in, even though they knew most people would not qualify. Once you call, the insurance agent could go through the charade of seeing whether you qualify for these “extra benefits.” If not, “There is another plan with almost as many benefits. Let me enroll you in that plan.” As I explained to those who called, there are 26 Medicare Advantage plans in Nebraska and 24 in Iowa. I am familiar with all the different benefits. I am happy to go through them, and if the plan makes sense and it is an improvement over what you currently have, I am more than happy to switch you. The plan, however, that we selected at the time we enrolled you was, we believed, the best option at the time. Medicare Advantage plans usually do not change drastically from year to year, so the chance that some magically new innovation or “benefit” has popped up that I’m unaware of is very unlikely. And, in those times when there was a drastic change in the past, I called clients who were affected and moved them to better plans.
Once you are offloaded to whatever insurance carrier they flip you to, they are done with you. You will never hear from that person again. And, knowing how many of these call centers work, that person may not even be in the insurance industry after the annual election period. Many people are very transactional. They pick up their product or service, pay for it, then they are done. That is fine. I am that way with many things. Those are not my kind of clients. I actively discourage those kinds of people when they call me. My kind of client wants an unbiased broker that presents all options evenly and has no cozy relationships with particular insurance companies. They want an honest broker to provide the available insurance products. My kind of client wants an agent knowledgeable about Medicare’s rules and regulations. That agent needs to be professional in taking care of the paperwork and other details surrounding the task. They must follow up to make sure everything is working well. And they must stay in contact and be easily accessible when
The point of the commercials and the whole dynamic is simply to flip you to another plan. The only way they get paid is to flip. You can say, “Well, you want us to stay as your clients, so YOU get paid.” Yes, of course. I’m an insurance agent running an insurance agency/business. My purpose is
to keep you happy in terms of your Medicare insurance. Otherwise, you will leave, and I will not get paid. That’s the relationship. Part of being happy is that you are convinced you have the best possible Medicare insurance you can have, and I am an honest broker providing that coverage.
needed. These are the qualities for which we strive.
The flippers are not offering any Medicare product I am not already offering you. Not to mention, you will not have any relationship with that person or agency.
As for my competition, either local or national — knowing quite a few of them — I am confident they fall short on many if not all of these qualities.
2 • OmahaInsuranceSolutions.com
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