Given the likelihood of continued social distancing as a result
of the COVID-19 pandemic, health plans and brokers selling Medicare Advantage
plans this fall will rely heavily on call center and online enrollment,
tele-sales, and virtual meetings and seminars, experts say.
"There are lot of brokers who are not used to doing this
[virtually]…and would rather put a shield in front of their desk and give
customers face masks.…but an increasing number of agents, especially those with
tele-sales experience…are using technology successfully," Dwane McFerrin,
vice president of Medicare Solutions with Senior Market Sales, Inc. (SMS), said
during a webinar hosted by Gorman Health Group.
HPOne, a sales and marketing organization that works with MA and
exchange carriers, has seen an increased interest from health plans that want
to enhance their technology. Carriers are also asking for more flexibility in
terms of staffing and scripting as the pandemic creates unexpected shifts in
volume, said CEO Bill Stapleton, who also spoke during the webinar.
Moreover, a lot of health plans rely on seminars and community
events to conduct the bulk of their marketing and are asking HPOne for leads
that they can push into their call center, he added.
Meanwhile, member experience during this unprecedented time will
be especially important, Robert Ayala, director of sales enablement, observed
in a new paper from Wunderman Thompson Health. Ayala recommended surveying
members via phone, email and text messaging to "measure and sustain high
satisfaction levels" as well as assess agent performance.
Adding to pandemic-related complications is a presidential
election. Media competition will be the most intense in the political swing
states of Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and
Wisconsin, according to a recent white paper from Deft Research and Anderson.
Medicare marketers may be more impacted if their footprint overlaps with these
areas, suggested the firms.
"The first part of the AEP will be extremely important to
us," said McFerrin. "I would expect if the pandemic does have an
impact on the second half of the AEP that we will have a strong OEP [Open
Enrollment Period] simply because people are going to need to exercise a choice
that might have been delayed."
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