Broker Connect – Winter 2023

News & Updates From Your Broker Relations Team

Our preferred brokers are a key part of our Samaritan Health Plans team. Your success is our success, and we want to know what you think about Samaritan’s plans, our service and the local Medicare market in general.

Please click on the link below and complete our 2023 Samaritan Advantage Broker Survey. Your feedback will continue to help shape our Medicare offerings, refine our marketing messages and improve the services and resources we offer to you, our valued partners.

The survey should take no longer than five to ten minutes to complete, and we will send you a small thank you gift for taking the time to help us out. Please complete the survey by Friday, March 10.

Take the Survey

Request Copies of Our Informational Guide to Medicare

As your clients approach Medicare eligibility, they typically have lots of questions and concerns about their transition to Medicare insurance. You’re there to help them, and we can make it a little easier for you.

We’re happy to supply you with additional copies of our informational eight-page booklet, Getting to Know Your Medicare Options: Understanding and Navigating Medicare.

The booklet includes an overview of Medicare – including Part A, B, C and D – along with a helpful pre-enrollment Medicare timeline, shopping tips and questions one should consider when determining if Original Medicare coverage will be enough.

The booklet is entirely educational and is not designed to sell Samaritan’s plans in any way. Feel free to use it as a conversational guide during face-to-face appointments or simply supply it to your age-appropriate clients to kick-start their own Medicare self-research.

Simply email our broker support team at MedicarePlan@samhealth.org or call us at 866-747-5267 and let us know how many you’d like. And as always, we are interested in your feedback – so let us know what we might do to improve the next edition of our Medicare guide.

Don’t Forget About CMS Call Recording Requirements

On Oct. 1, 2022 a new CMS rule went into effect requiring Third Party Marketing Organization agents to record their sales calls, based on guidelines set forth in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Service’s 2023 Final Rule.

The new rule is in effect for all calls considered to be “chain of enrollment” calls – in other words, service calls related to a beneficiary’s current plan would not need to be recorded.

Agents may choose a call recording and storage service that best suits their needs. Many quoting and enrollment platforms have added call recording and retrieval capabilities and there are a variety of mobile phone-based apps that also offer these features.

Here are the high points and some clarification regarding this new requirement:

Face-to-face appointments and Zoom or Webex calls using video functionality do not have to be recorded. If video will not be used, the call should be conducted by phone using a compliant call recording service.

Calls must be stored in a compliant manner for 10 years, and you must be able to provide recordings related to specific beneficiary interactions upon request.

If the prospect or plan member asks why you have to read the disclaimers and record the call, a best practice is to simply tell them that this is a new CMS requirement of all plan carriers and agents.

If the prospect or plan member does not want to be recorded, you should stop the recording but you may continue the call.

If you have any questions, give Samaritan’s broker support team a call at 866-747-5267 or email us at MedicarePlan@samhealth.org .

Get to Know Shirley Hanson

Shirley is one of our front-line team members, making herself available throughout the day as a first point of contact for both prospective plan members and brokers.

She coordinates Medicare-required broker trainings via Miramar, manages the onboarding of new brokers, processes applications and supports our Medicare Advantage age-in marketing activities.

Time at Samaritan: 13 years.

Personal: Married with two married, grown kids, one grandson and another on the way.

Hobbies: Traveling and spending time on the water.

Favorite part of her job: Shirley likes helping people navigate the Medicare process. She knows Medicare can be confusing, so she finds it rewarding when they gain a better understanding of how things work. She also enjoys getting to know our local brokers and supplying them with everything they need to be successful.