Thursday, December 8, 2011

MA Marketing Catch-22: Are Members Too Satisfied to Switch in AEP?

By James Gutman - December 2, 2011

The explanations vary, but one thing seems certain as the Medicare Advantage 2012 Annual Election Period (AEP) heads into its last five days. It has been tougher this AEP than in the year-ago one to find MA beneficiaries who want to switch plans for the coming year. As a result, several sources say, the AEP so far has been unusually slow for marketing results, and many — but far from all — plans may miss their internal enrollment projections.
A sampling of plans, consultants and marketing firms suggests that conclusion, but almost each source queried attributes it to different factors. One, for instance, notes that since there have not been major benefit changes for most MA products for 2012 versus 2011, many MA beneficiaries are satisfied staying where they are. Another source points out that there aren't massive plan exits this year as there were last year in light of the end of network "deeming" for private-fee-for-service plans Dec. 31, 2010, so that pool of potential switchers isn't available. Another points out that there aren't any major MA plan operators under CMS marketing and enrollment sanctions this AEP, while there were four major sponsors in that category a year ago. Although the sanctions didn't affect current beneficiaries, they did change where those plans stood in a "broker's mind," one source says. And one marketing firm suggests some MA plans are toning down their marketing because they don't want to be the next entities sanctioned by CMS.
What are you hearing and experiencing? If things are indeed slower in both getting leads and converting them into MA members, are any of the above explanations the major reason for this? Will it all change in the last five days? Is part of the explanation for the "slowness" that seniors are still not realizing that the AEP this year ends Dec. 7 instead of the usual Dec. 31 despite even CMS's ads reminding them about it? Or is it simply that there hasn't been enough change to violate the "rule of inertia" for Medicare beneficiaries in feeling a need to switch?

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