Medicare agents in ‘the wild, wild West’

Medicare Advantage didn’t exist back in the days of the wild, wild West. But agents and those who represent them often refer to that era when describing the environment in which they work today.

Back in December, Ronnell Nolan, president and CEO of Health Agents for America, told the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Senior Issues Task Force, “I feel like I’m living in the wild, wild West. Carriers are doing things that have never been done before, and no one is stopping them.”

Nolan expressed her frustration to the task force about Medicare Advantage carriers that decided to eliminate agent commissions during the most recent enrollment period.

Nolan told the task force members that in 44 years of working in the industry, “I have never seen anything like what’s happening in the market today.

“The day before open enrollment, after insurance agents have prepared to take care of seniors, an insurance company will say, ‘We’ve decided not to pay you.’ When your client calls and needs help, you’re going to help them because that’s what agents and brokers do. We have no choice. We have many agents across the nation who are working for free. They worked for free through the entire open enrollment. … Seniors deserve assistance and calling the 1-800 numbers and things like that will not help them.”

Six months later, Medicare agents and their clients are still frustrated over what they are experiencing in the market.

InsuranceNewsNet put out a request for Medicare agents to tell us what they and their clients are experiencing as they gear up for the start of annual enrollment. And the first agent we spoke with — one with a dozen years in the business — described the current environment for agents as “the wild, wild West.”

Agents described how vanishing commissions, changes to benefits, pullbacks by carriers and shifts in provider networks are confusing clients and making it more difficult to sustain a practice. 

Adding to the challenge is that Medicare’s annual enrollment period and open enrollment for individual health insurance under the Affordable Care Act occur in the same brief timespan. This leads to a scramble in helping clients choose coverage while the clock ticks.

As the U.S. population grows older and more Americans depend on Medicare, the role of the agent in helping them obtain coverage becomes more crucial.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, has publicly floated the idea of using artificial intelligence as a decision-support and navigation tool for Medicare beneficiaries. He proposed using AI to help consumers understand their Medicare options, compare Medicare Advantage plans and providers, and navigate their enrollment choices.

But whether AI can take the place of the advice and guidance that a professional agent can provide remains to be seen. For now, at least, opinion is on the side of the agent.

AI and editorial content

AI tools are impacting every business, and that includes InsuranceNewsNet.

Our editorial team uses AI for research and for organizing tasks, as well as for creating some images to illustrate articles. But until recently, we did not have a consistent policy on using AI in editorial content. We noticed that we were receiving an increasing number of contributed articles that were almost completely written by AI. Our readers deserve better than that.

Our new policy, which is included in the editorial guidelines posted on our website, states:

We reserve the right to run contributed articles through an artificial intelligence detector. AI-assisted articles are acceptable; AI-created articles are not.

In addition, each issue of the magazine contains the disclaimer “InsuranceNewsNet uses AI tools to assist in producing content, which is reviewed and edited by staff.”

Our goal is to provide our readers with timely content that will inform and inspire. We want to deliver the industry’s most comprehensive news and original insights, and give them the information they need to run their practice and increase their bottom line.

AI can do only a small part of that. It takes human intelligence to do the rest.

Susan Rupe is editor in chief, magazine, for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at [email protected].