- Happy holidays, I am naughty.
- I am Sylvia.
- Also naughty. (laughing)
- And we are going to talk about
the Medicare Advantage Travel benefits that you get
with all the programs. - Nice benefits.
- They all have a different name,
but we're gonna dive into it a little deeper
and there's more to it there
than I think most agents really realize.
- [Both] Stay tuned.
(upbeat music)
- All right, so we know hopefully
a lot of seniors like to travel, hopefully.
- That's the first thing I ask somebody
when they say, "Hey, I want this HMO plan
that my neighbor has."
I'm like, "How much do you travel?"
And they always think that's a weird question, you know,
and a lot of people just say,
"Well, now that I'm retired I want to travel a lot."
"Okay, how much do you travel?"
And they're like, "I don't really travel."
They always say,
"I'm wanna go coast to coast and see the country."
- I wanna get an RV, that's
what I would want. - Yeah, and then I'm like,
but let's talk. - What do you really do?
- Legit, how much is gonna happen here, right?
Because, and then they look at me
like that's such a weird question, why do you care,
it's unrelated to my health insurance.
No, it's very pivotal- - It's huge, yes.
- To the decision. - Right.
So let's talk about UnitedHealthcare's travel benefit
and that is branded, it's called Passport.
So they were the leader coming out with this,
they've had it for years
and almost everybody's got something similar now.
Agents are vaguely aware of how it works,
but let's talk a little bit more.
- So, if I have a client, let's say we're taking our parents
and they are going to drive to Florida.
- Okay, so right here's Florida,
and that's a common one in the North.
I'm a New Yorker, everybody
goes to Florida- - Thank god.
- All counties in Florida (fingers snapping) is beautiful.
- So what does that mean, all counties in Florida?
- So that means that if I'm gonna,
like my client yesterday he said,
"I spend three months in Florida," perfect.
When you're in Florida, before you go,
take your ID card out,
call customer service and say, "I'm going to be,"
and he was going to go to Naples,
"I'm gonna be in"- - Oh, nice.
- "Lee County, Florida for three months."
Then the company will make you in-network in that county,
that'll be your home county for those three months.
So if you see providers while you're there
you're gonna pay the in-network copays.
- It's awesome.
- Which was five grand was his out of pocket max in-network,
10 grand out-of-network. - Right.
- So it's a big
chunk of change. - It's a big deal.
- Right, so he was like, "Okay, (snapping fingers).
I think I do wanna buy that plan,
but I drive to Florida
and I drive through Indiana."
- "Tennessee." - "Kentucky."
- "Tennessee." - Yep.
- "Alabama, Georgia are all those counties in?"
- And so he was panicked about it,
and he's like, "Just, I wanna think about this
because what if I have a car wreck in Tennessee?"
Did you pull up Tennessee, or yeah,
what if I have a car wreck in Tennessee
I don't wanna be
outta network and have - Right.
- This big extra charge.
So first of all. - That's hurting my eyes.
Huh? - That's hurting my eyes.
- First of all, a car wreck would be
an emergency- - That's it, yeah.
- An emergency.
- You're in-network, for any emergencies you're in-network.
- The thing about that when you tell people
you're in-network for an emergency,
they don't think through the steps.
So I'm in a car wreck, they're gonna stabilize me
and they might have to admit me
because I have broken lungs, and a punctured spleen,
and a collarbone, and I gotta have surgery.
Okay, so the emergency room- - A broken (indistinct).
- Visit was in-network and typical copays
like a hundred bucks,
but now that they admitted me
I would be the out-of-network copays
and then if I have to have procedures done,
the next day or two, out-of-network.
So people say, "Oh, emergencies, no big deal."
Just what happened in the emergency room, okay,
once you're admitted, you're an inpatient.
- What are some creative ways to use this
besides just vacation?
She's preening me- - I don't know
what's all over- - It's what baboons do
to one another.
- I don't know what's all over this sweater.
I was naughty, but now I'm nice.
So agents- - I'm nice too.
- You need to get creative with this, with this benefit.
So let's say that I need to go
to an orthopedic specialist out of network,
this network, this orthopedic specialist
is in Florida.
I don't just have to,
I can't just use this benefit for vacation,
I can go to Florida for a week,
make myself in-network- - Specifically to have
the procedure. - And and to be in-network
for that procedure, that's legal, that's not,
it's not anything that's prohibited.
So this is a very flexible additional rich benefit
in a Medicare Advantage Plan.
And it's funny because just getting through AP,
and man I get my butt kicked all up and down
all these social media platforms we are on,
all these people calling it Medicare disadvantage,
and they don't pay your claims,
and you're gonna die. - Nice.
- I, I'm yeah,
I'm all out there doing God's work
trying to educate
the public and- (laughing)
- And duh, these people,
there's so much disinformation out there.
- Right?
- And they'll say, "My agent told me this
and he only sells sups,"
and I told a lady yesterday,
I said, "Well, your agent's a jerk,"
I mean that was a bad moment I was tired,
but I was like a good agent
doesn't bash- - Right.
- A good agent understands both options
for supplemental insurance,
there's good and bad on both sides,
and if the agent doesn't sell it
I do not think that he is a,
why are you looking at my hair?
That he's a good reference,
anyway- - I like your headband,
I noticed it. - So Humana, Anthem,
Aetna, they have these programs,
they're branded different names, and they change.
So like Texas right now,
UnitedHealthcare has all counties in Texas.
- I'd go to Texas.
- And I remember when they didn't,
they had certain counties,
and I'd have a client saying,
"Well, I'm going to Bear County,
Bear County is not in,"
and I'd say, "That's a good point."
"You're gonna go down there
and spend a month with your family
in the county that's not in."
So let's say in Tennessee they don't have every county,
and you wanna go to a county that's not in,
doesn't participate.
If you're in the surrounding counties that do participate
make yourself in-network in those counties.
- Right. - It's not fail safe,
you might have a heart attack in the wrong county.
- Do these changes often?
- They add places every year. - So, if Texas.
- Yeah. - Do they get better or worse?
- They get better. - They get better.
- Didn't used to have anything in California
and that caught me,
if you go to California,
that caught me with a client that said,
"We never go to California, you know, we love Florida,
we do this, we go to, we never go to California,"
'cause I said, California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada,
they weren't in this program.
She calls me, January, says she has breast cancer,
super healthy client has breast cancer,
and it's a rare cancer that she needs to see
a doctor in LA- - Ah.
- And she will be there for a month,
and I'm like, dang it,
and she goes, "I know you told me California
wasn't gonna participate."
So, and they were wealthy
so they could weather this- - Yeah, well.
- But you know all this stuff gives the agent heartburn
'cause it makes you look bad
because there's, it's impossible to go over all of this
in your sales presentation. - Right.
- That's why your newsletters,
all the other touches you're doing
to constantly educate your clients,
like on social media,
really helps solidify your relationship with them,
cut down on complaints, raise retention.
And if you're not taking advantage of our client newsletters
we're getting ready to do the first quarter newsletter,
and we do it for free.
You gotta pay like 20 bucks to have
the tech that you own,
but talk to us about that.
We do all the work to make the client newsletters,
information like this- - Keep you informed.
- Put it out, brand it under your name,
with your contact information,
it comes from you, talk to your marketer about that,
those are email blasts that,
it's a great marketing service that we offer.
So wanna talk about plan changes.
This is really little and
that's good because- - No.
- You don't really wanna read it,
but most of the carriers have their own
internal call centers- - Right.
- And we've, we've fought the good fight for years
where your client calls in and has a question,
or has to get, and then they flip it
and they steal your client
and we really fight hard for them not to do that.
So most of the large carriers they won't do that anymore,
they maintain that agent of record,
however. - As they should.
- As they should, however,
some employ external call centers to help them
and those external
call centers- - Can flip 'em.
- Can flip your clients. - Yeah.
- So if you have more questions ask us in the comments.
This is a unfortunate part of the business.
- Kind of a, it's kind of like
the dirty secret in that. - I try to,
I try to warn my clients to not call them,
to call me first- - Right.
- And to let them know,
like they tried to flip my own mom one year,
you know, I happened to be in the room
and it was just fortuitous,
I was like, thank you, God,
that I get to actually see this happening,
but that's just a part of the business.
We can't, we can't fix everything,
we can just alert you.
Wanna talk about the MedSup rate increases
they can expect.
A lot of 'em take rate increases in January.
You will see larger rate increases then usual
on your plan F's,
no new people are moving into plan F's
unless you're with one of large carriers.
So certain ones don't block the business, very few,
most of 'em follow Mutual of Omaha's lead
and do those blockings which then result
in higher than normal rate increases.
So, I found more and more people
that think that they can only move their meds up during AEP
and they're sure, they're certain of it,
so really that's another part of the disinformation
you gotta get out there. - Yeah.
- You can move your MedSup at any time of the year
if you can pass that underwriting.
- Probably should also mention
that AARP just added dental.
- That is, somebody took the postcard
I put up on the door.
- We took it to get more information off the back.
- Okay, so in every state but New York,
was that it, every state but New York?
AARP MedSup added dental benefits
that will start in January
and that is super exciting.
That's a real differentiator in the MedSup world.
Gosh, what is on your sweater?
- She keeps it at her house, I don't know,
I don't know what this. - It's probably in my car,
but now you have to be naughty again.
- Ah, I don't wanna
be naughty. - The dental,
if you sell AARP MedSup, look into that,
ask us about it,
I'm sure you've been getting emails,
most people aren't reading their emails right now,
but that is a big deal to have
supplemental benefits built-in,
baked into MedSup, helps us compete- It's a big deal.
- With the Med Advantage site. - Oh.
- And we expect nothing less from AARP,
the nation's largest, by far, that's a carrier,
hopefully other people will, we will copy that.
That's all I have. - That's all I have.
I will like to say what today is.
- Oh, today is the 16th of December
which happens to be one month before
somebody turns 55. (cheering)
- 55, drive 55- - We're gonna listen
to a little Sammy Hagar.
"I Can't Drive 55." - "I Can't Drive 55."
- We'd like for you all to send Sylvia 55 jokes.
- Or 55 of anything and I would like for you
to mark your calendar for January 16th
to wish me a happy birthday. (indistinct)
Please don't troll my social media
and if you are on TikTok,
please visit my site, which is Medicare Mama,
if you are sad, depressed, and bored sometime,
because I am lighting up TikTok.
- Lighting it up. - Lighting it up baby.
- She got her teeth whitened,
the last one. - I got my teeth whitened.
- Looks really good. - Just, just for this.
(laughing)
- Happy Sally. - Good Sallying, see ya.
(upbeat driving beat)