If your clients have been through life changing events (divorce, loss of a spouse, loss of income) and are enduring financial hardships, you can help them lower their Medicare costs. There are numerous programs available to assist Medicare beneficiaries and we'll review them below.

There are four Medicare Savings Programs that can help offset your clients' costs:

The Qualified Medicare Beneficiary Program is another way to help clients lower their costs. This program provides coverage of Parts A and B premiums and utilizes cost sharing to lower income beneficiaries.

The Specified Low Income Medicare Beneficiary Program (SLMB) assists beneficiaries with their Part B premiums.

The Qualifying Individual Program (QI) helps beneficiaries pay for Part B premiums.

The Qualified Disabled Working Individual Program (QDWI) provides assistance for those under the age of 65 who are disabled and are no longer entitled to free Part A. These individuals have returned to work, have a lower income and are not eligible for Medicaid.

​Your clients can also request to have their IRMAA lowered - the amount they'll pay for Medicare Parts B and D. 

​Additionally, they can apply for the Medicare Part D Extra Help Program. This program helps those with lower incomes pay for their prescription drugs, deductibles and copays. Your clients can apply for the program online.

The Medicare Savings Program, available on the state level, provides assistance to Medicare beneficiaries with help paying their Part A and Part B premiums. If your clients qualifiy the program might also pay for their Part A and Part B deductibles, coinsurance, and copayments. Get help with Medicaid and CHIP by selecting your clients' state.

The State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) also provides help to Medicare beneficiaries and their families.

There is no shortage of resources and programs available to help offset the costs of Medicare. If your clients don't qualify for one program, they may for another. Be sure to utilize these tools to research the best options for your clients - and as always, if you need help, please reach out to us.

By Carolyn Portanova

Ask Integrity™ Shoppers is a new feature within Medicare​CENTER and the Integrity for Agents mobile app that prioritizes which clients need your help most due to this year's disruption in the market. This technology is powered by client and carrier data and it automatically generates lists that display which of your clients are most likely to shop for a new Medicare Advantage or Prescription Drug plan. This key feature was developed to assist you and to help you stay organized by getting critical insights into your clients' plans.

Client Information Summaries
​Get to know your clients better — regardless of how long you’ve worked together — with instant, on-demand summaries of key client information.

​Call Summaries
Quickly and easily review meetings and prepare for follow-ups and future meetings.

Client Notes
Add notes quickly with the Ask Integrity™ feature.

AI Prompts
Help each client find a plan that best fits their needs through AI-powered prompts such as Specialist Recommendations.
​
Privacy and Security
All insights from Ask Integrity™ are securely protected and only available for direct agent use.

​Another new feature within Medicare​CENTER is Client Connect. This new marketing feature gives you the ability to contact your clients compliantly from within Medicare​CENTER or the mobile app. Utilize convenient, pre-made templates to make reaching out even easier when it comes to addressing policy changes or simply gathering client information. Client Connect also allows you to track your clients' statuses with the activity stream and gives you the ability to send text messages directly from within your client's record.

To get access to Ask Integrity™ Shoppers ​and all the amazing features in Medicare​CENTER, visit our Contracting Tools page to become an agent. All of our technology tools are free to our appointed agents. Questions? Please reach out to us.