WILL YOU FIGHT WITH US?
CMS is out of control
Medicare Has Robbed Agents of Thousand of Dollars
Insurance agents go through extensive background and creditialing, continuing education and hours of testing to certify on each Medicare Advantage and Part D we represent. We pay to carry malpractice insurance and work very hard to serve our clients, often working after works hours and on holidays.
Now agents across the country are irate and demanding the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) stop abusing them.
CMS voided the agent commission structure and came out with a standardized structure in November 2009. After thousands of policies had been sold, CMS again changed your commissions RETROACTIVELY so that you would only be paid an initial year commission on "people new to Medicare Advantage or Part D" in lieu of a renewal commission.
What other business person finds out what he will be paid after he does the work? Then has to wait 8 months for his money? Without interest?
CMS stated they would issue a file to the insurance companies in order to determine who was "new" to Medicare. No timeline was given and thousands of agents who worked hard last fall were told to wait indefinitely for their money.
We waited very patiently while federal money was handed out left and right to failed or failing businesses.
We waited for over 8 months for our money, while we waited our mortgage companies and gas companies didn't wait. Many agents have fallen behind on our bills, but there is no recourse for us.
We had no choice to keep waiting when CMS announced the files to pay us would be transmitted in February, and then without any announcement, were not.
We waited when in April, CMS told us the files were sent to the insurance companies and we would be paid in May.
We stood by in shock when the insurance companies then told us the CMS files WERE WRONG and there was not timeline given to them by CMS for corrected files.
Now, June 16th, we are told that the definition of "new to Medicare Advantage" has been changed. We can expect to not be paid on 1/3 or more of our policies. To add insult to his injury, CMS tells us there is no provision to appeal.
This is Communism. We have no say.
When our government treats us like this our representatives must stand up and fight for us.CMS is out of control and there is no oversight into their practices.
Independent insurance agents are one of the only business professionals willing to make house calls and spend hours explaining complex Medicare laws to an elderly and often impaired public. We love what we do, and we deserve to be paid fairly and in a timely manner, with a process for appeals when we feel agrieved.
PLEASE HELP US!
Sincerely,
Rudy Deutschmann
Find and write your Senator - http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Find and write your Congressman - https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
Write the President - http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/
What YOU Can Do:
Send this letter to your local papers
Ask to be interviewed by your local TV stations
Call and complain to every company you work with, they log the calls. If they don't hear the complaints they think we are fine with this loss of income---after all the insurance company gets to keep your money, they don't send it back to CMS.
Send this letter to ever representative in your state. The ones who are worried about re elections will be most eager to garner your votes.
Ask for a meeting with a group of local agents and your representative.
Plan to come to your state capital and march so we can get some press coverage. Congressmen love TV cameras, if we get a crowd some one from Congress will stand up to help us so he can take the credit. We know how the system works, we just have to be willing to stand up and demand our money.
NO more retroactive changes to our contract
NO more unappealable processes
NO more delays without interest being paid on our money
Thousands of insurance agents are the face of Medicare to the American public.
