AGENT CERTIFICATION PROCESS for MEDICARE ADVANTAGE & PRESCRIPTION DRUG PLANS

Transcription

1 AGENT CERTIFICATION PROCESS for MEDICARE ADVANTAGE & PRESCRIPTION DRUG PLANS Welcome to the Agent Certification Process. Completing the applicable certification testing will allow you to sell Medicare Advantage or Prescription Drug Plan offered through UAC subsidiaries or it s affiliates: Today s Options Private Fee-For-Service (PFFS) and Preferred Provide Option (PPO); Select Care of Texas, L.L.C.; Select Care Health Plans, Inc.; ABRI Health Plan, Inc.; and, Global Health, Inc.; Prescriba Rx PDP; and CCRX PDP powered by Community Care Rx. The portal is located at When completed, you and your immediate manager/office, if applicable, will receive a confirmation regarding your successful completion of the required certification program(s). The Company must then process your certification and upload coding to its systems so proper commission account programming can be applied. Please allow the Company approximately 3 to 5 business days to properly update your system records with your certification information. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Certification alone is not authorization to solicit and sell our Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug Plans. Please note the following: Those accessing the online certification system may need to disable their pop-up blocker. If an agent is unable to successfully register on Step 1 for access to the certification system, then one of the following items may be the issue: o o o o o Agent is not in the UAFC subsidiary companies Agent Master system as an active or pending agent. If a new agent contract was recently submitted to Licensing, it must be processed and data entered into the system in at least a pending status. NOTE: This means there may be a time lag for new agents before they can register for online certification. Agent may have entered an incorrect Social Security Number/Date of Birth or Tax ID number on the registration page. The Company may have incorrect SSN/DOB or Tax ID information on file. The company must correct this and provide a new registration file feed to the certification system. The Company may have your name spelled differently if contracted in multiple UAFC companies under the same SSN/DOB or Tax ID number. For example, John J. Smith vs. John J Smith vs. John Smith vs. John Smith Jr. This confuses the system and prevents registration entry. The company must correct these discrepancies and provide a new registration file feed to the certification system. Agent is contracted as corporation/partnership, but trying to register under their individual SSN/DOB. ATTENTION: Enrollments solicited prior to the Certification Completion Date are a violation of the zero tolerance policy in your agent contract and will result in agent termination. Enrollments solicited on or after an agent s Certification Completion Date but prior to the Company system updates are acceptable, but may incur a delay in commission payment due to commission programming reliance on coordinating system data. Page 1 of 11

2 If at any time the agent has questions or needs assistance, he/she should contact their manager first. If the issue pertains to the agent not being able to access the certification process after attempting to utilize the assigned username & password, there is a toll free number at the top of every screen that he/she can call regarding technical difficulties. In Step 1, the first question asks if you are contracted with the Company as an Individual/Sole Proprietor or as a Corporation/Partnership. You will be required to enter your SSN and D.O.B. if an Individual or your Tax ID number if a Corporation. When completed, click on Next Step. The Company has pre-loaded its testing database of active and pending UAFC Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug Plans agents. This facilitates a match which identifies the required certification for the agent to complete. Agents whose contracts have not been submitted or entered into our system, will not immediately be able to access the certification system. Page 2 of 11

3 In Step 2 you, one of three things will happen: 1. The system will NOT acknowledge you as a contracted Medicare Advantage and/or Prescription Drug Plan agent for UAC subsidiaries or affiliates and direct you to your manager or the Licensing Department for further information (see sample message below); or, 2. The system will acknowledge you as a contracted Medicare Advantage and/or Prescription Drug Plan agent who has already certified for the remaining 2008 and 2009 plan year (see sample confirmation summary below); or, 3. The system will acknowledge you as a contracted Medicare Advantage and/or Prescription Drug Plan agent who has not yet certified for the 2009 plan year (see sample screen shots below) and request you to confirm your identity prior to proceeding with the current certification program steps. Result #1 Agent not acknowledged as a contracted MA or PDP agent Page 3 of 11

4 Result #2 Agent acknowledged as a contracted MA or PDP agent and agent has completed applicable certification requirements for remaining 2008 and 2009 plan year. In this step, you will be provided confirmation of your certification effective date, expiration date, and the certification method* as well as confirmation on the current MA and/or PDP products/companies we current reflect you are properly contracted to solicit for. *There are 5 methods of certification: 1. UAC Online Certification completed through the certify.appointmyagent.com website 2. UAC Online Certification completed when completing online contracting through 3. UAC Sponsored Classroom (Scantron) Certification agent completing the bubble dot exam sheet during classroom training sponsored and approved by UAC Home Office 4. AHIP (America s Health Insurance Plans) Certification a CMS approved certification program accessed via 5. Gorman Certification a CMS approved certification program accessed via NOTE: Be advised that is an agent has failed three (3) certification exam attempts, per CMS guidelines, the agent is not allowed to sell MA or PDP plans for the applicable plan year. Page 4 of 11

5 Result #3 Agent acknowledged as a contracted MA or PDP agent and agent needs to complete applicable certification requirements for the 2009 plan year. If you are an agent who must complete the required certification, you will be asked to confirm your identity and provide us a valid address to send the certification confirmation to. If you are contracted as an Individual: The field is mandatory. If you do not have an address, there is a link contained on this page which provides you the ability to establish a personal address or you may enter an alternative address. If the pre-populated address on record is incorrect or outdated, type in the correct address. If any information pre-populated on this page is incorrect, notify us to change our records via by clicking the TOlicensing@uafc.com. If you are contracted as a Corporation/Partnership, you will be required to enter the Principal s first and last name and address. Only the Principal of record should complete certification on behalf of the corporation/partnership. The primary principal or partner who signed the Today s Options contract with the Company should enter their First and Last Name in the Principal boxes. This name will need to be entered at the end of this Step as an electronic signature, so you need to consistent with any punctuation and/or suffixes. Page 5 of 11

6 You will also be required to electronically sign your name by typing it into the space provided. As stated, if you are a corporation or partnership, you must enter the Principal s First and Last Name as it appears above. Please account for any NOTE: If the agents name above is in all CAPS (capitalized), then the agent must repeat their name here in CAPS. As a Company representative, you are required to complete certification requirements per CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services). When you access Step 3, you will be provided the opportunity to open the applicable study materials. This will always include the Medicare Compliance Study Guide and the Medicare & You Booklet along with the product specific study guides associated with your contracts. Please click on the title of the study guides listed at the bottom of Step 3 for access to read, print or download. NOTE: Before proceeding, please access the applicable study materials, which you can read, print or download. Page 6 of 11

7 After reviewing the materials provided, you will click on Next Step to begin the annual certification test. All questions must be answered and you must attain a grade of at least 80% in order to pass. Once you have completed the exam, click on Next Step. You will be asked to confirm your answers. When completed, click on Next Step. In Step 4, you will receive one of two messages see next page. Page 7 of 11

8 #1 We regret to inform you that you did not pass this section. If you did not pass the exam, by clicking on Next Step, you will be returned to Step 3 to allow you to re-access the study materials and retake the exam. As a benefit to you, any questions that were answered incorrectly will be displayed so you can focus your secondary review on the subject matter you have not mastered. #2 Congratulations, you have passed this section of your certification exam. If you passed the exam, you will receive the message below. If any questions on the exam were answered incorrectly, but you passed with an 80% or better, we will display the missed questions and associated answer options along with the correct answer in bold. We recommend you note this information accordingly so you do not share incorrect information with your clients. In both situations above, we recommend you access the print function to keep of record of any missed questions for future reference. Then click Next Step to begin Module #2, titled Product Benefit Exam. NOTE: If you did not pass the Step 4 exam, you will be returned to Step 3 and allowed another attempt. If you choose to exit the system and return at another time, you will need to begin from Step 1 and repeat all Steps. However, once a test has been failed three (3) times, you will not be able to retake the exam, even if logging in from the beginning. Page 8 of 11

9 If passed, you will advance to Step 5. In this section, you will need to click on the link provided and agree to the terms outlined on the Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug Plans Agent Acknowledgement of Marketing form. After reviewing the Acknowledgement Form, you will need to click on Yes, I Agree button at the top of the screen. We request you to print or download a copy of the Acknowledgement Form for future reference. After clicking on the Yes, I Agree button, a check mark will be displayed to the right of the Acknowledgement Form link. When this is completed, click on Next Step to advance to Step 6. Page 9 of 11

10 Step 6 is a summary of your certification activity. At this point, you passed the required exams and executed the Acknowledgement Form. Please print this page by using the PRINT button on the web page or you will not be able to proceed. After you have printed the Certification Summary, click the FINISH button. PRINT OR DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THIS PAGE FOR YOUR RECORDS (an alternative is to cut & paste on a Word doc) The certification exam(s) passed will be reflected as well as the certification completion date. You are allowed to solicit enrollments for the applicable programs on or after the certification completion date listed. Clicking the Finish button will launch the print function (see next page). Click the "print" option and the Final Review summary will print for your records. NOTE: If a printer is not available, please locate the Microsoft Word function and save the information to your hard drive (My Documents). An alternative is to copy and paste the information into a Word document, after which you click the "cancel" option on the print launcher. Page 10 of 11

11 Step 7 is the Confirmation Page. Once Step 7 is reached, an automated is sent to the agent, based on the address populated in Step 2 and to the agent s immediate manager/office, if applicable. The for the office/manager, if applicable, is based on the hierarchy information within the Company s pre-loaded testing database of active and pending Today s Options agents. The will again identify the certification program(s) completed (see examples) and states the following: Our records indicate you have just successfully completed the certification requirements for the following programs. [2009 Today's Options PFFS and PPO Medicare Advantage] [2009 Prescriba Rx Pathway Prescription Drug Plan] [2008 CCRX Prescription Drug Plan] [2008 Select Care of Texas, L.L.C. Medicare Advantage] You should have printed a summary of the certification process for your records which indicate your recorded official Certification Effective Date for the programs listed above. If your agent contract is activated and you have confirmation of your assigned agent number, you are now eligible to begin selling the associated products on behalf of our Company as of the certification completion date recorded above. If you have not received an agent number assignment or you are aware that your contract may still be pending for other reasons, please contact your immediate manager/office or the Home Office Licensing Department at AgentLicensing@uafc.com. Please allow the Company approximately 3 to 5 business days to properly update your system records with your certification information. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Enrollments solicited on or after your Certification Completion Date but prior to our system updates are acceptable, but may incur a delay in commission payment due to our commission programming reliance on coordinating system data. The process from the agent perspective is now complete. The Company must now assimilate the electronic data and upload this information into our Agent Master system. Please allow 3-5 business days for processing. Page 11 of 11