2024 Wellcare Kits Ordering Delay

CustomPoint – 2024 Sales Materials Ordering to Begin Friday, September 29, 2023

In an effort to fulfill all of the 2024 sales material pre-orders first, the CustomPoint portal will open for general ordering of sales materials on Friday, September 29, 2023, instead of Wednesday, September 27 as previously communicated.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience and understanding.  Please contact your Cornerstone Senior Marketing Service Team if you have any questions.

Cigna: New Way To Submit Your HRA’s for 2024

The enhancements will make your selling experience easier than ever before.

Cigna’s Value Based Enrollment (VBE) initiative continues to be a successful and well-received program among Cigna Healthcare agents.

As part of this program, agents can earn $75 or $125 (depending on the plan) for facilitating Health Risk Assessments (HRAs) with their eligible customers, which means more money in their pocket!

New Way to Access HRAs

Cigna has heard your feedback and have worked to make HRA facilitation easier and faster than before.

Starting on September 29, 2023, you will be able to access Cigna Healthcare’s HRA in the following locations:

• SunFire or ConnectureDRX: HRA embedded in each program for agents that are fully integrated into the respective vendor platform.
• Cigna for Brokers: For non-SunFire users and/or non-Connecture agency partners – Use single sign-on to access SunFire HRA via the “Health Risk Assessment” link in the Tools section.
• eEnrollment: Embedded at the end of the customer enrollment process (i.e., via SunFire HRA widget – HRA will be embedded directly within eEnrollment).

 

Current HRA Tool – Icario

You can continue to use the Icario tool to facilitate HRAs with your customers until January 1, 2024. After this date, Icario will no longer be available to facilitate HRAs, but you will be able to use the new tools listed above – SunFire and ConnectureDRX.

What is a Health Risk Assessment (HRA)?

 

The Health Risk Assessment (HRA) is a tool that helps the health plan assess a customer’s needs by asking a series of health-related questions. Answers are used to partner with health care providers and to develop a plan of care.

 

Facilitating an HRA for your customers provides you an additional opportunity to engage with them and solidify your relationship. It also helps jump start the customer’s journey, engagement, and utilization of Cigna Healthcare’s services resulting in increased retention and improved outcomes for the customer.

 

If you facilitate an HRA for your customers, you are eligible to receive payment, which varies depending on the plan they enroll in.

 

What Medicare plan types are eligible for the VBE HRA payment?

 

The HRA payment will be made for new Medicare Advantage customers, and voluntary customer plan changes that result in active Cigna Healthcare customers.

 

Agents earn $125 when facilitating an HRA with D-SNP and C-SNP customers, and $75 for all other Cigna Healthcare MAPD customers.

 

Prerequisites and Requirements

To be authorized to facilitate the VBE HRA, you must:

• Complete VBE HRA training via Producers’ University. (VBE HRA training is no longer a separate or standalone course – we have embedded the content as a downloadable PDF in Our Compliance Program.)
• Qualify as ‘Ready to Sell’ to complete the enrollment application with the customer.

After you complete the VBE HRA training, you will receive access to Cigna Healthcare’s electronic HRA within 24-72 hours (if you are ‘Ready to Sell’).

Deadlines to Submit HRAs

You must facilitate the HRA with the customer and submit the completed HRA in the portal, within ten (10) calendar days of the customer’s application sign date, in order to ensure a positive customer experience.

As a best practice, you should obtain the HRA immediately after completing the customer’s application for enrollment. Otherwise, we recommend confirming your next appointment with the customer with the date and time details, prior to making the next outreach.

You’ll have until December 22, 2023 to submit the HRA for any customer applications taken from October 1 – December 7 of 2023.

More Stores Are Now Available With Anthem’s Grocery Benefits

Sourced from Anthem broker eblast on 9/11/23:

Anthem Medicare Advantage members now have more choices when using their Grocery benefit allowance.

Your clients can now shop in the following stores for Grocery benefits:

Hy-Vee
Publix
HEB
Central Market
H-Mart
Piggly Wiggly
County Market
Harvest Market
Save A Lot
Woodman’s
Sedano’s
Presidente
Winn-Dixie
Fresco y Más
Harveys Supermarket
Hannaford
Stop & Shop
Food Lion
Giant
Giant Food
Giant Heirloom Market
Giant to Go
Martin’s

These stores are now available for using the Grocery benefit only.

For a complete list of local grocery stores, members can log in to MyBenefits.NationsBenefits.com, select the Flex menu and then select Store Locator. The Store Locator will include the newly added stores starting on 9/14/2023.

GAO Reports: Medicare Part D: CMS Should Monitor Effects of Rebates on Plan Formularies and Beneficiary Spending

GAO-23-105270 Published: Sep 05, 2023. Publicly Released: Sep 05, 2023.

Fast Facts

Medicare beneficiaries can have prescription drugs covered via private insurance plans participating in the Medicare Part D program. Premiums and drug costs vary by plan, as do plans’ lists of covered drugs—known as “formularies.”

Drug makers may give plans rebates in exchange for preferred placement over competitors on formularies. The rebates may lower plan premiums, but they don’t reduce beneficiaries’ payments for the drugs.

We found rebates largely went to a small number of drugs, and plans paid less for highly rebated drugs than beneficiaries did.

We recommended that Medicare monitor how rebates affect formularies, beneficiaries, and more.

 

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