Prez Corner
As 2023 comes to a close – I must say – it was a very average year in our sector and company. Since the adoption of the PPACA (Obamacare) in 2014, the market space has now been normalized to the extent the space insures around 20M members with incremental growth largely based upon the availability of product and subsidies. ACA is a boon for the lower to middle income segment along with providing robust benefits in tandem with a guaranteed issue product. A challenge of late has been the $0 premium ACA segment. As most of you know – these $0 premium polices are fraught with a variety of retention issues. I am hopeful CMS, at the very least – will move to strengthen security protocols to prevent rogue agents from ‘stealing’ $0 premium plans ASAP.
As I look ahead into 2024 – I feel we have the resources, experience and personnel to make this year a Record setting year for Compass Health & our Agents.
Looking ahead:
- Florida Blue is clearly the market leader in ACA in the state of Florida. We have learned the best way to grow ACA (and Medicare Advantage) is by having ‘community partnerships’ to generate consistent high caliber leads. To this end – we have appointed Tom Abruscato to spearhead our Partnership Dept. with cultivating new relationships specific to one of our Retail locations and/or Company. These leads will be available to our agents in specific Retail locations as well as agents at our Home Office and company wide. Tom has a proven track record of success and we plan to on-board 20+ new relationships each month this year
- Allstate Heath Solutions. There has been a lot of discussion about the Short Term Medical market going away by limiting the product to a 3 month-term. To be honest – we have been dealing with this for many years. The fact of the matter is there is a huge need for an affordable alternative for consumers receiving a partial or no subsidy at all. For now – from what we understand – STM plans will continue to be available in 2024 and beyond. This said – I am happy to announce we will be rolling out a new non ACA individual health product (outside of Florida but available in most other states including the northeast!) that will offer an affordable and permanent alternate to ACA plans – stay tuned! Kyle Henry & Team will be working to grow this segment of our business – we expect to see a minimum of 100% growth in the non-subsidy health & supplemental segment.
- Medicare Advantage & Supplements. There is no better market to sell Medicare products than Florida. Most of you have a ready made market with your aging customers. We would expect a minimum 85% conversion rate to a FB product – I know you do as well. This said – we need to improve our Medicare sales outside of our age-in clients. Amanda Simpson will be spearheading our efforts to grow our Medicare Sales by 200% this year! We will be significantly expanding our efforts and investment into this space so get excited for selling a lot of Medicare this year – including DSNP which Florida Blue has a great product offering available.
- Group Health Insurance. We entered this space a year ago and have seen excellent traction. Steve Ramsey – a Group Specialist – was brought on a year ago to spearhead this Dept. and has done a commendable job. With the high cost of ACA – Small Group Insurance can offer a better solution in many instances with businesses from 5 to 30 employees. The Compensation is terrific offering as earned commissions every month in tandem with high attachment rate for ancillary coverages. I strongly encourage all our agents to add this segment to your product arsenal this year and watch your income soar.
- In addition to these Key Segments – we expect growth across our complementary channels as well which include:
- Life with Living Benefits (Term and Permanent/Cash Value)
- Smart Pre-paid Cremation – a huge growth segment as people move away from traditional burial and funerals
- Allstate Auto, RV & Motorcycle
- Specialty Products including Vision, Dental & G.I. Life Insurance
In closing – our entire Team at Compass Health is committed to 2024 being a record-breaking year. It’s easy to say but much harder to accomplish. We will be investing heavily into Marketing & Lead Programs across all our channels this year and reviewing the results daily, weekly and monthly. We hope you are committed to having a record breaking year as well with our support.
Happy New Year!
Bruce Henry
