Medicare agents undergo annual training to ensure that they can provide high-quality advice. Unfortunately, Medicare enrollees sometimes turn to other sources of information, and misconceptions are common. Your clients may be getting bad advice that could steer them into poor decisions, but you can counter misinformation and establish yourself as a go-to source of trustworthy Medicare information.
How Medicare Misconceptions Can Lead to Regret
What your clients don’t know about Medicare could hurt them.
According to a survey from NerdWallet, around 76% of Americans think Original Medicare will cover medical costs while traveling abroad, and around 74% don’t know that Original Medicare doesn’t cover vision, dental or hearing. A different survey from Nationwide found that 58% of Americans think Medicare will cover their long-term care expenses.
These and other common Medicare misconceptions can cause seniors to make decisions they regret. Seniors may decide against buying standalone dental, travel or long-term care insurance because they incorrectly assume they’re already covered. They may put off Medicare Part B enrollment because they don’t understand that the late penalties affect their premiums for the rest of their lives. They may stick to Original Medicare without any supplemental coverage because they don’t realize there’s no cap on their out-of-pocket costs. The possibilities are nearly endless.
For Medicare enrollees, the stakes are high. Coverage decisions directly affect their finances as well as the care they receive. If you can counter bad advice and correct misinformation, you can help your clients make well-informed decisions while establishing yourself as a trusted advisor.
How Online Research Can Expose Seniors to Scams
As seniors become more tech savvy, many do exactly what younger people do when they need information: they go online.
While online research can provide valuable information, it can also expose seniors to misconceptions and dishonest organizations.
Scams are a major risk, and the FTC says health insurance scams increase during open enrollment. Bad actors often use web addresses that look similar to legitimate web addresses, and they pay to appear at the top of search results. This means that even if your clients know to hang up on unsolicited calls, they may encounter scams if they go searching for information online.
AI Is a New Source of Misinformation
AI chatbots have become another source of misinformation. Many of the AI programs are trained on vast amounts of unverified data. Since Medicare misconceptions are common, some of these misconceptions may make it into AI answers. AI programs can also make mistakes or suffer from incomplete information.
The Association of Health Care Journalists explains that AI chatbots may confuse complicated state Medigap rules, and they don’t have access to the premium and drug cost data, formularies and networks necessary to help seniors choose between plans. A test of several popular AI tools found that they gave confident but sometimes incorrect answers on Medicare topics.
How You Can Become Your Clients Go-To Source of Information
Your clients are bombarded with Medicare information this time of year, but not all of it is trustworthy. By helping your clients avoid misinformation, you can protect them while strengthening your client relationships and supporting retention.
- Reach out early. If you haven’t already reached out to your clients, do so as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the more likely it is that they’ll get their information elsewhere.
- Correct common misconceptions. Provide information to counter common Medicare misconceptions.
- Warn your clients. Provide resources to help your clients avoid scams and use AI responsibly.
Are you looking for support you can trust? See why Medicare agents choose PTT Financial.