- 10:28, take one, marker. (clap)
Happy Halloween. I'm Sylvia...
Get out. (upbeat music)
Happy Halloween. - And I'm Rebecca Gordon.
- We're gonna talk about non-commissionable Part D plans
that you need to be aware of,
because they are spooky when you don't get paid.
- It stinks.
- And some other stuff they do.
(upbeat music)
- All right, so what's this about drugs?
- Drugs. (chuckles)
- That's my intro. - Right, intro...
So...
First of all, let's talk about drug discount cards,
because that's something that your client
needs you to spend a little extra time on,
because it doesn't necessarily make sense.
They think if they have an insurance
that they have to use their insurance card,
and that it would always be beneficial
than not using their insurance card
and going as a cash pay.
Is that true? - That is not true.
I learned this a long time ago in the ACA market.
I started...
Actually, when I would go to Walmart
to fill my prescriptions,
which is one of the lowest cost pharmacies,
I started asking what a cost was
without showing my medical card,
because on a lot of those it was cheaper cash.
And if I just paid a $10 copay,
even if I saved three bucks, it was three bucks.
Didn't run through my insurance.
I paid cash. Beautiful.
So I think a lot of seniors forget that. I think...
- Well, it's just counterintuitive. They don't...
They wouldn't even think that.
You have to help them- - You can go in.
- And it's something to do when you're showing,
when you're going through their drug tiers,
you also wanna go pull up the GoodRx,
or the other sites, and run a list.
So my daughter just got a prescription,
and it was half-price not using our insurance
on our group health plan,
and just going to Walgreens with GoodRx.
- Heck, I will...
I'll ask that just out of the box.
Typically, if somebody's asking me for...
to have a procedure or something done,
I'll always ask what's the non-insurance price.
- Yeah. So train your clients-
- Savvy. - Help your clients,
and maybe help them download some apps on their phone.
Get the app, and then real quickly look up their drugs.
So the one that's getting all the traction is GoodRx,
but there are some other ones.
- There's GoodRx. There is also...
AARP has an awesome discount card,
and needymeds.org, Needy Meds.
- So make sure they understand if they do,
they're gonna go to their pharmacy.
They're not gonna give them their insurance.
They're gonna say, "I wanna be a cash pay,"
and then give them their drug discount card.
And some ones that you can always...
Well, I don't wanna say always,
because it depends on your insurance price,
but some common ones, lisinopril,
levothyroxine, simvastatin, metformin,
there's a lot of them that have deep discounts on GoodRx.
It won't count towards...
- Doesn't count towards your doughnut hole,
but it's a good thing to do with your client,
or to stay relevant with your client
to just those high-end drugs,
to check those out and help give your client an option.
So this is really awesome.
We've been doing these Allianz IUL training classes,
and we talked about this a couple months ago,
that if you go, we will pay you $200 to attend this.
And I was really curious how...
How it played for the agent.
So we have our next one on November 10th.
And again, if you go, we'll pay you 200 bucks.
But these are the statistics that should really
make you think, "Hmm... Maybe I should go."
Out of the 91 producers
we have sent so far to this training class,
68% of them have already written an Allianz IUL.
That's pretty awesome.
The event, it's a one-day.
It's three and a half hours,
and it will occur virtually.
Top three selling points.
Protecting your clients from higher taxes in the future
might be a good thing to know.
There's no risk for a loss of market volatility.
And it just really deepens
your relationship with your clients.
The key takeaway here is that people
who have attended these classes are writing business.
- Right. It's not a waste of your time.
- These aren't necessarily life agents
who do this as their complete bread and butter.
This has been people who have never done this.
- Right. - So November 10th,
if you wanna sign up, please contact your marketer.
- So I wanna talk about Medicare Part D again.
Medicare Part D is the biggest pain during AEP,
because you make so little money.
And I talked to...
Universally,
I talked to Medicare supplement agents that won't write it.
They're like, "No way.
For 70 bucks I'm not gonna sit there,
and type in their 17 drugs,
and do all this, and... No."
A lot of them say, "I'll do it as a service.
I'll just give them an idea who to go to,"
or "I'll just give him an 800 number or a...
But I won't mess with it."
So if you don't wanna mess with it, you can refer it.
We do have an in-house call center
that will write your Part D,
and won't compete with you on the other products.
We'll pay you a referral fee.
That way, you know your clients are in good hands,
and you're actually handing them off to somebody
instead of saying, "I don't deal with it."
So be sure and hit us up in the comments
if you wanna have a reciprocal relationship
for those referrals.
Also, if you have Med Advantage clients
that are in states where you're not licensed and appointed,
we can also write those for you,
and pay you the CMS-allowed referral fee.
- It's lot safer doing it that way.
My God, if you tell them to call a carrier
direct to do it... - Yeah.
- Dun, dun, dun, dun. - Or if you just say,
"I don't do it," they can go down the street
to somebody who then's gonna try to move
all their policies. - Absolutely.
- You don't want them in the hands of another agent.
- Right. - So keep that in mind.
Give us a call. - You'll lose them.
- We have a lot of agents
that refer us business all year long,
because in those little states in the northwest
there's people constantly moving.
- Little states... Yeah.
- We get a lot of referrals out of there.
- Or expensive states.
- Let's talk about the plans that are non-commissionable,
because this always comes back to bite you,
and us, when it's time to get paid
and there's no commission coming.
- Yeah, that stinks.
So there are some plans.
A lot of carriers,
if they're not paying commissions on your Part D,
they don't want the business.
- Well, maybe it's not that they don't want the business.
Some of them,
they need not to pay you
to get their margins right to be profitable.
There's a whole bunch of things that come into play.
But you need to know that,
and you all should have a list by your desk,
or I don't know where everybody works,
in your car, whatever, on your laptop,
so that you know if you're selling those
that you will not get paid,
and your agents in your office know they will not get paid.
And I have a lot of agents say, "I don't care.
I do it. I do whatever benefits my client.
I don't care if I get paid."
But just remember, it's a lot of work to work for free,
and there's not a lot of professionals in the world
that work for free. - [Rebecca] Right.
- So you're doing a lot of work.
My advice is that you do get paid.
So what are some that do not pay a commission?
Cigna-HealthSprings has not paid a commission for years,
so the Cigna plan. - Humana Basic Rx...
They're not paying on that.
- I had agents that said,
"I heard that SilverScript wasn't paying a commission
on one of their plans."
But if you go to Aetna's website, it does not say that.
It says they are all commissionable.
So another thing about commissions, not just about part D,
but commissions on Med Advantage in general,
is it changes, okay? - [Rebecca] Mm-hm.
- So a carrier might start off
and these plans are commissionable,
and then boom, they hit enough...
They hit enough policies, and now they turn it off.
And that happens every year at various times,
and people are like, "What?"
And they write 10 cases and didn't get the message.
So thank you guys that are tuning in
that are reading our email blasts,
and following us on other social media platforms.
We're trying to get the information out there to help you
so that you don't get caught accidentally in that net
where you do a lot of work and you will not get paid.
- Elixir, formerly Envision Rx,
they're another one that's not paying commissions.
- And they are really cheap. (clicks tongue)
So you might run across Elixir.
You will not get paid with that plan.
So what else do you have? - Anthem!
So Anthem has their HRA.
And I just wanna go over a couple things with that.
It has to be completed at point of sale.
The thing to remember about that,
it's only for their D-SNP clients,
and it has to be done on mProducer.
And we're seeing that a lot with carriers
that have a reimbursement for HRAs, that it...
This year it has to be done on those platforms.
- I think everybody does.
So you're like, "Hey, I wrote 10 apps.
Now, how do I get this extra 50 bucks?
Can I go back and call my client?
Can I go back when it...
Can I do it?" Nope.
- So once you enroll them,
you're gonna get a pop-up email.
And you only get that once, after you hit submit,
that says now go ahead and complete that.
It's a great thing for all your duals,
has to be done on mProducer at the point of service,
and the reimbursement is 50 bucks.
(clicks tongue) Nice.
- So happy Halloween, and...
- Mwaahaahaa... - Before our next issue,
we will have the election completed.
So see- - Might not be completed.
- We'll see you next week- - Probably won't be completed.
- When pandemonium and complete chaos embroils the country.
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