New agreement with Empower Brokerage opens pathways to more trained Medicare insurance agents assisting seniors with enrollment in health plans accepted by client hospitals and physicians
MedicareCompareUSA announced today that it has entered into a new partnership with Empower Brokerage through which thousands of health insurance agents can be deployed to assist contracted hospitals in achieving their Medicare objectives.
MedicareCompareUSA is the nation’s largest Medicare insurance-solution network for national and local community hospital systems and multispecialty physician groups. The company has seen record growth in recent years as providers increasingly want to leverage MedicareCompareUSA’s proven track record for connecting patients with desired insurance products at a time when hospitals and physicians are becoming more selective in contracting terms and networks.
In its role, MedicareCompareUSA helps providers adapt to marketplace change and disruption by providing creative solutions that allow providers to achieve their business objectives. With more than 10,000 Americans aging into Medicare every day, for many hospitals those objectives include retaining their patients who are turning 65 and not losing to a competitor this important patient base they have likely taken years to build.
“MedicareCompareUSA works with hospitals, health systems and physicians nationwide to help manage a Medicare patient’s insurance purchasing decision by providing education and enrollment assistance,” said MedicareCompareUSA Founder and CEO Paul Gauthier. “Thanks to this new partnership with Empower, providers will now have access to an even larger cadre of local, qualified Medicare agents who meet their professional and ethical standards and who can help diverse senior demographics—both telephonically and in person—compare and enroll in Medicare plans accepted by the hospital and its affiliated physicians.”
Empower, whose roots are in the Southwest, is opening up its entire distribution system to partner directly with MedicareCompareUSA’s expanding provider client roster in that region of the country. Empower’s extreme sophistication and extensive call center capabilities, coupled with local agent presence, brings an immediate solution for these hospitals and physician groups. As such, Gauthier believes that “the experience gained from this new partnership with Empower has the potential to become the model adapted by the industry.”
“We are thrilled to be partnering with MedicareCompareUSA in this new venture and know that our combined resources will give providers a significant competitive advantage in the marketplace,” said Empower CEO Rodney Culp. “Together, given our respective strengths, we can accomplish great things and better serve healthcare providers through carefully selecting, orienting and engaging thousands of agents who will help hospitals fulfill their Medicare enrollment goals.” Culp and Gauthier have agreed to collectively commit up to $1 million in client communities served to provide wide-ranging insurance support to Medicare beneficiaries.
A core element of MedicareCompareUSA’s arsenal is the establishment of toll-free dedicated helplines, which connect patients to insurance agents who are not only extensively trained in Medicare but who are oriented to a provider’s Medicare objectives. Seniors calling into the helpline can geta clear understanding of their Medicare options (including Medicare Advantage, Supplement and Prescription plans), compare Medicare plans accepted by their provider, and get assistance from a licensed agent in enrolling in the plan of their choice. This is particularly valuable for “new seniors”—those just turning 65—who are bombarded from several directions with complicated insurance options and an assortment of insurance agents with varied degrees of Medicare experience and motivation.
“Healthcare delivery, the insurance industry and healthcare distribution channels are all changing; and most providers are not in a position to manage insurer and distribution changes because they are rightfully focused on their core business of delivering quality patient care,” said Gauthier. “That’s where we can step in as their strategic partner in helping to provide custom-tailored solutions to address insurance changes and disruptions.”
Toward that end, Gauthier says that MedicareCompareUSA is constantly assessing trends within healthcare delivery, closely monitoring insurance distribution channels, leveraging new data and analytic sources, and searching out new ways to add value to their hospital clients. “We will continue to look for new opportunities with organizations whose value propositions complement what we do to solve our clients’ needs,” Gauthier said.
The new relationship with Empower is one such example of how we are linking our clients to agent distribution support, but collectively MedicareCompareUSA has access to more than 1 million agents nationally through its corporate insurance distribution affiliates.
