<0> Word & Brown General AgencyAllan Rahn, 714-567-4596 </0>
As Texas seniors consider their healthcare insurance options before the Dec. 7 enrollment deadline, the decision-support search engine is quickly emerging as the “must-have” tool to help in the decision-making process.
“What seniors and health insurance brokers need most is access to unbiased and understandable information,” said Gregg Ratkovic, senior vice president of Word & Brown’s Individual Division, which offers Joppel. “Joppel is precisely that tool, which is why an increasing number of brokers call Joppel the one indispensable tool in their sales kit.”
Joppel () is a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services-approved Medicare quoting engine that brokers can make available right on their own websites. It has been expressly designed to help brokers and seniors easily evaluate, compare and enroll in Medicare Advantage (Medicare Part C) health plans, Medigap (Medicare Supplement) plans and Prescription Drug (Part D) coverage. Through Joppel, individuals on Medicare can view all of their options side by side and go through a simple needs assessment that narrows down hundreds of plans through criteria that are specific to them – such as what medications are covered, cost of co-payment and plan premiums.
The current Joppel site is the latest generation of a website launched in 2008 and is based on years of study as to how people navigate through a website and access information most important to them.
Annual enrollment for the more than 3 million Medicare-eligible individuals in Texas runs from Oct. 15 – Dec. 7. It is only during that time that most seniors and others on Medicare can opt for traditional Medicare; remain on their existing Medicare Advantage plan; or switch to another plan whose benefits, provider network and costs better match their needs. Individuals “aging into” Medicare throughout the year or relocating to Texas from another state have other opportunities to make their selection.
, which for more than 30 years has helped health insurance brokers grow and manage their businesses, recently announced a full suite of services expressly designed to help Texas-based brokers expand their Medicare portfolio, whether or not they have ever sold Medicare before. Central to this is “The Producers Club” through which Texas brokers can sell and service Medicare clients with the full support of Word & Brown’s state-of-the-art programs and products. These include access to top-carrier contracts, sophisticated lead-generation programs, advanced customer relationship management technologies, and access to the powerful Joppel quoting engine.
Texas brokers may also opt to participate in Word & Brown’s “Client Referral Program,” which allowsbrokers to simply refer leads to Word & Brown and then earn first-year and renewal fees for each senior who enrolls. A third option is subscribing to Word & Brown’s “Producer Tools” and, through a low monthly fee, gaining access to such Word & Brown products and services as multi-carrier Medicare and IFP quoting, lead-generation programs and customer relationship management tools.
The Word & Brown General Agency is part of the Word & Brown Companies, which provides insurance services through more than 55,000 brokers to hundreds of thousands of individuals and almost 60,000 employers with nearly 6.5 million eligible employees. The organization also offers broker-assisted and direct-to-consumer online sales of individual and family health and Medicare plans, and accident, dental, vision, and life insurance coverage. Included in the Word & Brown Companies are: Administrators, the nation’s leader in developing and administrating employee-choice health benefit programs; CONEXIS, providing benefits solutions to clients nationwide, with expertise in COBRA and HIPAA administrative services, direct bill services, and flexible benefits administration, including flexible spending accounts and Section 132 commuter benefits; Quotit Corporation, the leading Internet application service provider for the health insurance/employee benefits industry; and Health which works with brokers and carriers to help individuals and families easily research, compare, buy and enroll in the right health insurance plan at the right price. For more information, visit .