Top 12 Tips for Insurance Agents During OEP

While eligibility for different health insurance policies can have differing requirements, to enroll in the Marketplace, clients must meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Must live in the United States
• Must be a U.S. citizen or national (or be lawfully present)
• Can't be incarcerated

If a client is seeking Medicare specifically but is under the age of 65, those with the following are generally eligible:

• Those with a disability, End-Stage Renal Disease (permanent kidney failure requiring dialysis or a transplant), or ALS aka Lou Gehrig’s disease
• Be a U.S. resident
  
  and
• Be either a U.S. citizen
  
  or
• Be an alien who has been lawfully admitted for permanent residence and has been residing in the United States for 5 continuous years before the month of filing an application for Medicare

Additionally, Medicare is made up of two main parts:

• Part A, which covers inpatient hospital insurance
• Part B, which covers outpatient medical care

It also includes the following two parts:

• Part C, which consists of Medicare-approved commercial insurance (such as Medicare Advantage plans)
• Prescription drug coverage under Part D

Furthermore, people have the option to purchase a Medigap insurance coverage, which can help cover some of the deductible and coinsurance costs that a Medicare patient may experience.

AHIP

The AHIP (America's Health Insurance Plans) certification is often required by most carriers if you wish to sell health insurance, including Medicare Advantage (MA) and Prescription Drug Plans (PDPs). The AHIP certification is typically a precondition for other additional, specific certifications from carriers as well. Though not always required, the AHIP certification will ensure you don’t face additional obstacles when trying to sell health insurance.

Helpful Certifications

Some helpful, though not required, certifications for agents during OEP are Certified Health Insurance Specialist (CHIS) and Certified Health Insurance Consultant (CHIC). 

CHIC: Nonrequired certificate that highlights an individual’s exceptional ability to offer health insurance advice, guidance, and compare plans.

CHIS: Nonrequired certification that proves one’s unique professional ability to sell health insurance.

Special Enrollment Period

Outside OEP, clients may still enroll in a health insurance plan called the Special Enrollment Period (SEP).

If clients have experienced life-altering events, they may be eligible for health insurance during SEP. Some life-changing events that may grant clients eligibility are:

• Divorce or marriage
• Recently had children
• Lost previous health insurance
• Residential changes, such as zip code or country
• An employer offered coverage

Coverage Types To Understand

Health Maintenance Organization Plan (HMO): An HMO plan is based on a network of medical facilities, practitioners, and other service providers that consent to coordinate care within the network in exchange for a set rate of compensation.

These plans can give clients more access to primary physicians and may also provide them with lower premiums and out-of-pocket costs.

Preferred Provider Organization (PPO): A PPO plan is made to provide clients with more freedom in selecting the medical professionals they consult. 

Staying in-network is usually cheaper for medical care. However, if clients have a preferred doctor, a PPO plan can make it simpler for clients to visit them.

Additional coverages: Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Prescription Drug Plans, Medigap, dental, and vision are all additional coverage types we recommend you dig deeper into, especially as we head into the next OEP.

CMS Guideline Changes for 2024

The latest Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) modifications to OEP are the adjustments to the Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).  Before heading into the next Open Enrollment Period, ensure you refresh on these acts. You can look at the updates in greater detail here for both.

Communications items must adhere to both intent and content standards to be deemed marketing. The audience, timing, and other context of the activity or material, as well as any information transmitted by the activity or material, will all be taken into account by CMS when assessing the intent of an activity or piece of content. The following will be examined closely:

Intent: Any materials or actions, as determined by CMS, are intended to: attract a beneficiary's attention to a plan or plans, influence a beneficiary's decision-making process when selecting a plan, or influence a beneficiary's decision to remain enrolled in a plan (retention-based marketing).

Content: Must include or address content pertaining to the following: the plan's benefits, benefits structure, premiums, or cost-sharing.

Optimize Your Website

While having online enrollment options on your website is a great starting point for generating more lead conversions, it’s also essential to adapt your website to the needs of clients.

For example, multiple generations shop for insurance online, making it essential to create a mobile-friendly website. If mobile visitors discover that your site takes a long time to load and doesn't display properly on their phones, they are likely to turn elsewhere for solutions to their insurance issues.

You can also focus on creating enjoyability for the user on your website, also known as user experience (UX). One way you can do this is to create a website that has consistent, organized branding across each page. Additionally, ensure your website is easy to navigate and locate information and resources.

A page with consistent branding and great UX design can directly impact how you rank on search engines and how your website reaches the millions of Americans looking for health insurance.

Practice SEO Basics

Your website is not just a tool to provide users with a great experience. It can also help attract more visitors to your business through search engines.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a way to boost your lead-conversion opportunities and set your business up for success in the long term.

Here are some SEO basics to help you begin revamping your website:

• Register your website on Google Search Console
• Set up a Google Analytics account and link it to your website
• Market your content across social media channels
• Ensure that your content is organic and original with rich information
• Build strong backlinks across your website and various trustworthy sites in your industry
• Perform keyword research and target both primary and secondary keywords
• Create title tags and meta descriptions

Some additional helpful resources you can use to help you achieve these SEO basics are:

• SEMRush
• Moz
• Search Engine Journal
• Ahrefs
• Spyfu

These resources provide various SEO tools, ranging from keyword research dashboards and tools to social media scoring metrics so you can customize your marketing based on helpful data. An additional benefit? You can use a lot of these together to sculpt your website to fit your exact needs.

To optimize your email marketing strategy for selling health insurance, consider the following tips:

• Know your audience, both existing clients and leads
• Provide value in your emails, such as education or resources
• Don’t be spammy or general; take a personalized approach
• Send promotional and follow-up emails
• Give your clients the ability to enroll online
• Perfect your subject lines

A few additional resources to help you optimize your email marketing are:

• SubjectLine.com
• Mailchimp
• Omnisend
  
  

A customer relationship management (CRM) system built for insurance can boost your opportunities and help you find them by refining every aspect of your insurance marketing. 

CRM systems designed to help sell insurance streamline the quoting and enrollment process by automating time-consuming tasks and evaluating sales. This makes it much easier to pinpoint trends, market to the right leads, and make accurate forecasts when selling insurance. During the chaos of OEP, the right CRM can prove to be invaluable to your business.

Cross-selling

Cross-selling is the practice of promoting the purchase of any item in addition to the main offering.

How does this apply to selling insurance during OEP, you ask? Well, for starters, if a client already has health insurance or is seeking health insurance and know what coverage they need in the short term, you can cross-sell additional coverage, such as dental, vision, or medical coverage.

Upselling

Instead of offering additional coverage or products that go hand-in-hand with what the client is already purchasing, upselling differs from cross-selling by offering direct upgrades to their purchase.

For instance, perhaps there is a better plan that is also better for your business available for you to sell to your client; a plan that has the necessary coverage the client needs while also giving you more bang for your buck. An upgraded health insurance plan is an example this.

Tips for Cross-selling and Upselling

So now that you understand what cross-selling and upselling are, you’re ready to begin implementing them into your marketing efforts. Keep in mind the following tips before you start throwing coverages or additional products left and right. 

• Don’t be too pushy and try to force cross-selling or upselling
• Don’t offer your clients plans that only serve to make you more money and do not meet their needs
• Do provide concrete proof for why upgrading or building around a certain plan is worthwhile for the client

Referrals

Referrals can also serve as a great method for cross-selling and upselling.

For example, you can ask your current clients if they are happy with their business with you and if they’d be willing to offer a review or a referral after their purchase. The key here is to offer it as a service, not attempt to bribe or entice the client with a quid pro quo.

Ultimately, there is a lot that goes into cross-selling and upselling, but you can learn the best practices and techniques to maximize your enrollments with this guide written by experts (spoiler alert: we’re the team of experts!).

However, this is just the tip of the iceberg for personalizing each client’s experience. The process involves anticipating your clients’ wants and giving them the option to personalize their experiences themselves. After all, who knows clients better themselves?

Additionally, you can discover which communication channel particular clients favor while speaking with you. Some, for example, prefer speaking over the phone. Others prefer a different channel.

In those cases, it can also help to have a guide specifically for each communication channel. As for our selling health insurance over the phone, we’ve got a guide just for you!