3 ways to navigate the new CMS call recording rules

While the last two years have felt like a lifetime to many of us, let me take you back even further (don’t worry, this isn’t another pandemic story).

It’s 2008, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services just published what quickly would be deemed as “industry-shaking” new Medicare communication and marketing guidelines. From rules regarding scopes of appointment and other requirements intended to clean up poor business practices, many marketers and agents were beside themselves. A palpable panic began to emerge as we scrambled to understand the implications of these new rules to our businesses, our client engagements and our future prospects. Let’s face it – we were living perfectly fine before these rules were published and our industry was riding high.

But these new rules weren’t just some one-off requirement. They were a watershed moment for our industry, and they started a cascade of new guidelines from CMS designed to protect consumers and help agents maintain credibility, transparency and trust with those very consumers.

Fast forward to today and we find ourselves in a similar position with CMS’s recently published requirements regarding call recordings. As in 2008, I’ve received many of the same questions: “How will this impact me and my business?” “What tools or resources are available to help me do this?” and “What does this mean for engagements with existing clients versus prospective clients?”

These are perfectly understandable questions for agents to ask. Compounding the confusion and hard feelings is the notion that CMS likely implemented these new rules in reaction to one particular bad actor and now we all have to deal with the repercussions (not to mention the vagueness of the rules themselves and their release so close to the all-important annual enrollment period selling season).

Many of us remember a time when door-knocking dominated our industry, and face-to-face interaction played a vital role in developing client trust. But as we’ve shifted to telephone and e-selling approaches, you can’t help but feel as though today’s agents are being punished for the natural evolution of our industry and consumer engagement.

However, rather than continue to bemoan yet another layer of compliance, it’s important to see the opportunity in front of us. Simply put, we always can do better. The biggest threat to our business always has been the commoditization of the agent-consumer relationship, and these rules help ensure that we continue to be perceived and operate as the trusted advisors we need to be.

Credibility, transparency and trust are the currency of an agent’s business. In my role in supporting marketers and their agents to grow their businesses, increase enrollment and deliver the experience and value that today’s Medicare beneficiaries have come to expect, I believe that there is always room for improvement at the point of sale. These new rules, if nothing else, help ensure that we continue down that path, because it will mean more growth, sustainable commissions and more satisfied and long-term clients.

Here are three ways you can navigate the recent rule changes:

1. Work with your carriers. While limited in scope, your carrier partners are hard at work ensuring they have the tools, resources and platforms in place to set you up for success and ensure your activities – on their behalf – remain compliant in the face of these new rules.
2. Leverage your uplines. There are myriad tools and extensive training (that typically encompass a larger chunk of your portfolio) that you can access via your uplines and their distribution partners. But it’s not just the technology that you can take advantage of: it’s training on how you use these tools effectively in addition to how to communicate effectively with existing and prospective clients to ensure you remain compliant.Don’t have an upline? You should seek one that can guide you as things change fast (and they will!). Because while you fight for your clients, your upline will fight for you.
3. Take a moment to reflect. This is massive opportunity for self-reflection – to assess how you do business and interact with your clients. From sales techniques and customer service to the values on which you’ve built your business, this moment is about more than being “compliant.” It’s about demonstrating integrity and excellence that will give back to your business – and our industry at large – tenfold. There’s nothing more important that fighting for the integrity of our business and what’s best for our clients.

Remember, CMS and the carriers have an important role to play to ensure consumer protections. It’s important that we – together – keep them honest to ensure that we can offer the service, counsel and value that consumers have come to expect from us. New CMS rules may be like death and taxes, but this road is a two-way street. We must continue doing our part to ensure agents and consumers alike are able to, respectively, deliver their best and live their best (and healthiest) lives.

Bryan Keeven is a vice president with the life and health brokerage division of AmeriLife. Bryan may be contacted at [email protected].

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