Overview
A lot of planning goes into AEP preparation during the winter and spring months. But unless marketers and sales managers “take the temperature” of seniors before rolling out their strategy, it won’t be enough.
Our AEP Gut Check Study acts as a “Pre-AEP” report to ensure you’re pointed in the right direction. We assess seniors’ pain points, service failures, and plan experiences so carriers can make last-minute adjustments to their marketing and design efforts, even after benchmarks are released. By understanding what seniors are seeking to improve with their Medicare coverage, marketers and sales professionals can improve their approach for the fall selling period to connect with seniors.
Insights From the 2024 Report
Confronting Lower MedSupp Loyalty
This year, the proportion of “Loyal” MedSupp members (as measured as a nine or ten rating for likelihood to stay with insurer) is meaningfully lower than it has been in any of the three previous years — the same three-year stretch where the total in-force policy count for the MedSupp category dropped from 14,398,844 members to 14,142,412 (see chart).
Disloyalty in Medicare Advantage
For MA, there are equally troubling signs. The percentage of “At-Risk” consumers is the highest it has been in three years — meaningfully higher than 2021 and 2022. Last year’s mid-year disloyalty jump from 12% to 15% preceded a seven-year high MA switch rate of 16% during the 2024 AEP. Even though the move from 15% “at-risk” in 2023 to 17% in 2024 is inside the margin of error for this study, any potential uptick in MA disloyalty is concerning.