You spend a lot of time in the sales process finding potential members, presenting at educational events, preparing your scope of appointment forms and investing your time and energy in finding clients the plans best suited to their needs. Once you have a client ready to enroll, make sure the last step finishes without a hitch, and submit their complete application in a timely manner.
Make Sure the Application Is Complete
To prepare for a complete application, you should encourage your client to have ready all necessary personal and medical details they will need for the form. The application is not ready to submit until all pages are filled out and all information is included to completion. Make sure you are not missing any pages or information, and thoroughly review the application so you can catch any gaps and ask your client for the rest before it’s submitted.
Make sure you are using the correct application, with the corresponding plan year. If your client is filling in physical forms, advise them to write legibly in black ink. This may make the processing go more smoothly.
You may be able to assist your client while they complete the enrollment application, but it depends on which method they use to fill it out. Agents are able to assist clients through the application if they use an approved online enrollment method for agents. Agents cannot be present while consumers enroll through a consumer-facing online enrollment portal.
Submit the Application Promptly
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) requires agents to submit enrollment forms within seven (7) calendar days from the day the agent receives them.
Your carriers will often have their own timelines earlier in the process, to allow them the time to complete the necessary steps on their part. Most will ask you to submit the application within 48 hours of the day you receive the application. For that reason, agents should submit the application the same day they receive the complete form.
Submit with Confidence
If you work with an FMO, you can use their agent portal to upload enrollment forms. This would be a preferred, secure method. When you submit through the FMO agent portal, you get a confirmation of receipt immediately so you know the enrollment has been submitted and received. You can ask your FMO how they prefer to receive applications and may be able to submit over email or fax.
If instead you submit the application directly to your carrier, you should call your marketing team to verify which email addresses or fax numbers to send the application to before submitting.
