Ritter Insurance Marketing announced yesterday that its website Medicareful now has new options and features for independent agents to utilize.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)-approved Medicare product comparison website last received an overhaul during the previous year, which added a great deal of functionality to the site. However, according to a release, this update adds a direct enrollment option for select Medicare Advantage and Part D prescription drug plans. Another new option is that Medicare beneficiaries can now enroll in select plans directly on an agent’s unique Medicareful site, or contact said agent.
“A little over a year ago, for the first time, CMS allowed third-party websites to collect enrollment information on behalf of health plans and Part D Sponsors,” Ritter Insurance Marketing President Craig Ritter said in a release.
“We wasted no time in building a secure, compliant environment to facilitate this on behalf of our agents. We are working on expanding the enrollment opportunities with more health plans and Part D Sponsors in the future.”
Medicareful automatically validates an agent’s certification status, state licenses, and state appointments, ensuring compliance with CMS’s regulations. Once the validation is complete, a Medicare beneficiary can complete the enrollment process in less than five minutes without leaving the website. Agents then immediately receive a confirmation through email that they have been selected, and beneficiaries also receive a confirmation email noting that their enrollment has been sent to the health plan or Part D sponsor for processing.
Another new feature added to the website is the electronic Scope of Appointment (eSOA). It enables contracted agents to document (as per regulations) their Medicare appointments on their website. A digital copy of the eSOA is saved in the agent’s CRM, and the agent can print and sign the paper copy for submission to any Health Plan or PDP Sponsor that accepts a generic Scope of Appointment.
“Collecting a Scope of Appointment prior to discussing Medicare Advantage and Part D plans has been a challenge for agents for years. On June 10, 2016, CMS clarified in their Medicare Marketing Guidelines that even telephone conversations about MA and PDP products require a Scope of Appointment in advance,” Ritter explained.
Medicareful also now features Medicare Supplement insurance quoting.
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