Get your sales, marketing, member communications and enrollment teams ready for a successful AEP! This year’s annual conference will run June 21-22 as a live-streaming virtual event and will feature sessions that address strategies for member acquisition and retention and best practices for onboarding.
Industry-leading AEP and Medicare Advantage experts will share best practices and tried-and-true strategies for member acquisition and retention essentials at RISE’s annual AEP Medicare Readiness Summit. The live-streaming virtual event, which takes place June 21-22, will also cover best practices for upgrading the enrollment and onboarding experience for members.
Here is just a sample of the hot-topic sessions we’ve planned:
Become your broker’s go-to plan
This session will help you get maximum exposure for your plan. Speakers will provide strategies to help your plan rise to the top of brokers’ list and become the “go-to” choice. You’ll also learn how to best position compensation, brand, product package, member experience, and cost. Speakers include Dustin VanDuine, director of new business sales, Health Alliance Plan; Heather Rollins, department vice president, individual and small group sales, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City; and Tracy Bryant, VP senior products, Healthmarkets Insurance Agency.
Learn new sales models for a changed market and changed customers
Larry Baca, vice president, sales & marketing, Inter Valley Health Plan, will offer strategies to adapt to the new market and help ensure sales agents understand their impact to member acquisition and retention. You’ll also learn how to alter sales strategies for smart, tech-savvy boomers to retain membership through the OEP.
Address the evolving role of field agents
This session will offer tactics to help you stay connected with your community through a variety of virtual and in-person channels. Speakers will help you take community engagement to the next level by recognizing when educating prospective members is more effective than a hard sell. They’ll also offer brand awareness strategies to use while building relationships with senior centers, assisted living, sponsorships, and fundraisers. Speakers include Barbara Sandoval, manager, Medicare field sales, Providence Health Plan, and Fred Van De Bogart, manager, Medicare field sales, Capital District Physicians' Health Plan.
Digital marketing strategies for small to mid-size and regional health plans
Learn how to target and engage digital leads and convert the “tire kickers” in this session, which will be led by Health Alliance Medical Plans’ Charles Joujoute, manager of consumer sales, and Kate Murphy, strategic products and marketing program manager. The two have the expertise to offer marketing (outreach) and sales (closing) tips to bring more qualified digital leads to your door and address lessons learned when competing with national plans.
Put the customer journey at the center to increase member stickiness
This session will help you promote the lifetime value of a customer among sales agents for better member retention. You’ll learn how to support sales with an understanding of sales behaviors and habits to improve customer excellence, Star ratings, and CAHPS scores. Speakers will also discuss out-of-the-box strategies, such as cobranded partnerships with hospitals for value-add to your organization and the beneficiary. Speakers include Steve Selinsky, vice president of product, marketing, and community outreach Health Alliance Plan, and Todd Rau, director, Medicare markets, Indiana University Health Plans.
An AEP like no other: Study plans that grew during the recent AEP
This panel discussion will take a deep dive into strategies that paid off after virtual replacements for in-person seminars bombed. You’ll hear from plans that climbed above the noise from national carriers and EMOs to sign beneficiaries in their region. You’ll leave the session with a greater understanding of team, customer, and agent pain points and how to close those gaps and grow membership. Brooke Ivey, chief sales officer, Bloom Insurance Agency will moderate the session. Panelists will include Gary Melis, clinical pharmacist, Network Health; Charles Joujoute, manager of consumer sales, Health Alliance Medical Plans; and Anna Morgan, project specialist, Priority Health.
Build the ultimate distribution system
Join Jamie Benedict, chief strategic growth officer, MediGold, and David Milligan, senior vice president, sales, SCAN Health Plan, for a session that compares and contrasts the effectiveness of different distribution models during the recent AEP. You’ll learn how to revise or rebuild an optimal sales channel model from the ground up to improve sales. You will also learn what factors to consider when deciding to go narrow and deep or broad and thin and how to optimize partnerships with field marketing organizations for best results.
Technology Spotlight: 2020’s impact on the approach for 2021
Tom Sass, senior director, consumer markets & corporate sales operations, BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York, will lead this session to identify which 2020 marketing and sales campaigns allowed for the personal touch in a virtual environment to quantifiable effect. You’ll learn how to implement the right tools for account managers to continue opening a new world all at lower overhead. Sass will also discuss how virtual plans and benefits in general will continue to evolve as beneficiaries grow more comfortable with virtual communications and technology.
Lunch and learn workshop: Make training safe, logical, fun, and memorable
Christie McMullen, best-selling author, Learning Can Stick, will explore how to turn any interaction into a safe place where people feel comfortable to learn, grow, and listen, regardless of the topic. You’ll learn new ways to ensure people remember what you say, design an action plan for inspiring team motivation and improving sales results, and have fun while doing it.
Keynote presentation: Manage stress to optimize success
Amy Sanchez, executive coach and CEO, Swim Against the Current, will present a keynote that explores ways to shift energy management and optimize motivation and productivity, how to integrate time to recharge, seamlessly, into your busy day, and flip the switch on unconscious thoughts to increase your energy.
The RISE AEP Medicare Readiness Summit will take place June 21-22 as a live-streaming virtual event. Click here for the complete agenda, list of speakers, and registration information.