Events are often a great way to generate leads. What is allowed at educational seminars for the 2027 Annual Enrollment Period?
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have set forth rules on what you can and cannot do when holding Medicare education events.
We’ll cover these guidelines below.
Establishing Your Event
Ready to start planning your event? Before you get too involved, make sure you review your motivation for putting on the presentation.
Affairs like these serve to inform Medicare beneficiaries about Medicare Advantage, Part D, or other Medicare programs. During them, you cannot market specific plans. If marketing is your goal, you must hold and follow CMS’ guidelines for a Medicare sales event.
As for the when and where, educational events may be held in a public venue. Under no circumstance should you hold them in in-home or one-on-one settings.
Under no circumstance should you hold educational events in in-home or one-on-one settings.
Some great places to host are a community recreation center, a library, or a fire hall that hosts a bingo night. If the prospect is a regular at the venue, you can use on-site marketing, like displaying flyers on a bulletin board to grab their attention! There is also the benefit that people should be more likely to attend and respond since the event is in a familiar location.
Utilizing Affinity Partnerships
Affinity partnerships are something we often talk about here at Ritter. (Sorry if we are starting to sound like a broken record, but they’re important to cover here, too!) These partnerships are arrangements with local organizations or businesses that could refer clients to you.
The prospects who come from these partnerships will likely view you as someone who has a “stamp of approval” from that organization, which can boost your credibility before you say a word! In the Medicare market, financial planners, CPAs, and senior centers are just the beginning of a long list of possible partners.
If you have an existing partnership, reach out and see if a Medicare 101 event would be beneficial for their current client base.
Virtual Medicare Educational Events
Depending on the carrier, you may be able to compliantly hold a virtual education event for Medicare prospects or enrollees during the 2027 AEP.
If you are holding a virtual presentation, you will need to choose an online platform (e.g., Skype, Zoom, Facebook Live), instead of a physical location, for your event. Your carriers will likely have specific rules for virtual events, so check with them first.
Looking for affordable ways to host workshops? Check out our budget-friendly T65 seminar tips and ideas
Promoting Medicare Educational Events
You can advertise these events via most forms of marketing, including newspaper and radio ads, flyers, and direct mailers. However, there are a couple guidelines you must follow when marketing educational events:
- All educational events must be explicitly marketed as “educational” to beneficiaries.
- Educational event advertisements and invitations must also contain the following disclaimers:
- “For accommodations of persons with special needs at meetings call [insert phone and TTY number].”
- “This event is only for educational purposes and no plan-specific benefits or details will be shared.”
How to Promote Your Venue
You may want to use a communication channel related to your venue. Perhaps the organization has a newsletter or community calendar to which you can add your event. This is a great strategy if the venue has many seniors who visit it.
Using Your Communication Network
If you have an online platform, use that to your benefit. Add your educational event as an event on your Facebook page. If you have a website, feature your event on the front page so that someone visiting your site for the first time, they will have an easy on-ramp to learn about Medicare and meet you in one stop
Enrollee-Only Events
When it comes to enrollee-only events, these may qualify as “marketing,” and therefore, be considered sales events. (Typically, enrollee-only events are held for a specific carrier’s current enrollees, and the intent is to retain the current enrollees in a plan.)
Retention marketing or the mention of any benefits is considered “marketing.” Since enrollee-only events are conducted on behalf of a specific carrier, we would advise you to follow carriers’ guidelines to stay compliant.
Note: You can review the full Medicare Communications and Marketing Guidelines on CMS.gov and the Medicare Advantage and Part D Communication Requirements on the Federal Register site.
Giving Your Presentation
Remember, during educational events, your primary focus is to educate attendees. It is not to lead or attempt to lead attendees toward a specific plan or set of plans.
Give a Great Presentation and Thoroughly Answer Questions
If you can articulate the information in a comprehensible way, your attendees will see that as a mark of your expertise in the subject and turn to you when they’re ready to discuss their Medicare choices.
Also, being quick and precise with answers to prospects questions can further build their confidence in your expertise. Just be sure your answers stay within the scope of their questions. You aren’t allowed to answer questions beyond what attendees ask.
Educational Event Do’s and Don’ts
Follow the guidelines below to help ensure your compliance.
| Do’s | Don’ts |
|---|---|
| Hand out objective and generic educational materials on MA, Part D, or other Medicare programs | Display a sign-in sheet or collect contact info (e.g., names, addresses, phone numbers) of attendees — this doesn’t constitute as permission to contact |
| Answer questions posed by attendees | Hand out applications or marketing materials which contain specific plan info (e.g., premiums, copayments, etc.) |
| Make available and receive beneficiary contact information, including Business Reply Cards and Scope of Appointment forms. | Answer questions beyond what attendees ask |
| Give out your business card and contact info for beneficiaries to use to initiate contact | Give away cash or other monetary rebates |
| Provide or collect enrollment forms | |
| Discuss any carrier-specific plan or benefits or distribute marketing plan materials | |
| Give an educational presentation in a one-on-one situation | |
| Lead or attempt to lead attendees toward a specific plan or set of plans |
The Importance of Staying Compliant
CMS and carriers take compliance very seriously. We do too.
Keep in mind, carriers may send secret shoppers to your educational events. If you violate CMS guidelines, you could be subject to:
- Administrative hearings
- Administrative penalties
- Cease and desist orders
- License suspension or revocation
Remember, you must not try to convince educational event attendees of or discuss specific plans or carriers during the event. Rather, you are trying to get them thinking about which options (Original Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Part D, or other Medicare programs) may be a good fit for them and how each of those options work and apply to their unique situation.
Medicare beneficiaries need your knowledge, and you need their trust and business. As long as you follow the rules, there’s no reason why you and your clients can’t both benefit this AEP!
Register with Ritter today and get educated on the ins and outs of hosting Medicare events compliantly. We’re here to help every step of the way!
Not affiliated with or endorsed by Medicare or any government agency.
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