Hosting educational Medicare meetings can be advantageous to your insurance agency, as it can generate solid leads.
If you want to be a successful independent agent, take these tips as your playbook to more wins when it comes to instructional, in-person meetings.
We’ll walk you through how to effectively host these seminars, including what you can and cannot say before, during, and after your presentations. Also, be prepared to learn how to stay compliant with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Let’s get started!
What you want to do…
- Need a location? Choose a restaurant that is well-known and loved in your area and invite prospects through our marketing efforts to enjoy a free meal with you as you teach them.
- If you’re scheduling a meeting in a restaurant, ask for a restricted menu for your attendees so you can avoid paying more than you need.
- Ask if you can place a sidewalk sign out front to attract interest! Not sure how to begin with that? Carolina Senior Marketing offers full-service creative solutions like this for our agents.
- Call your RSVPs the day before and the morning of your event to confirm their attendance.
- Place a sign-in sheet in an obvious location, but ensure folks know this is optional.
- Make personal contact with each person who attends your educational meetings.
- Place your Permission to Contact (PTC) forms at each seat. You can also set your business cards out on the tables, which is now allowed by CMS.
- Have your office assistant send your attendees a thank you card and keep in contact with them until they’re eligible if they aren’t when you meet them.
What you don’t want to do…
- Do not hold your educational seminars in a one-on-one or at-home environment. You can follow up with those who weren’t able to attend by scheduling a one-on-one, but the event itself should not be conducted this way.
- According to CMS, you can’t give away any sort of monetary rewards at educational events, but purchasing their meals is allowed.
- Don’t promote these meetings as anything other than educational events in your marketing materials, whether online or in print.
- Do not answer attendee’s questions beyond what they ask, nor should you throw in any details about carrier specific plans or benefits. Doing so would go beyond purely educating your attendees.
- Don’t promote yourself as a “Medicare expert”, especially not in marketing materials, or make these common mistakes agents should avoid.
- If you are hosting at a restaurant or other public venue, do not agree to a penalty fee if your number of attendees is less than expected.
- During the event, you are not allowed to influence attendees toward a specific Medicare plan or program. This means not passing out any marketing materials or any handouts that include copays or premiums.
- You are not allowed to require guests to fill out sign-in sheets, Scope of Appointment (SOA) forms, or enrollment forms.
- If you have these sheets present, make sure you have clarified that they are optional to fill out both in word and in print. Use this disclaimer: *This form is optional. I understand that by providing my contact information, a licensed agent may contact me regarding Medicare Health Plans.
- Don’t forget to brush up on your Medicare compliance rules.
One Last Tip
Be sure to keep these tips in mind when winning clients at your Medicare meetings. You never know when a carrier might send a secret shopper to be in attendance to make sure your seminar is compliant.
If they do send someone and they find your event is not CMS compliant, you could face serious consequences including, but not limited to, license suspension or revocation. Good thing we’re here to have your back!
Carolina Senior Marketing is happy to offer guidance and suggestions along the way to make each meeting successful! As a dedicated, proven FMO for the Eastern United States, we ensure our agents are successful in their Medicare and insurance marketing strategy. Call us at (919) 460-6073 to find out more.
