Issuers of stand-alone Medicare Part D prescription drug plans may pay much higher minimum sales compensation levels in 2020.
Medicare drug plan issuers that operate in all counties in a state will be paying an average minimum compensation amount of about $19 per year per new enrollee, and about $9 per year per renewal enrollee, in 2020, according to ThinkAdvisor calculations based on a new agent and broker compensation spreadsheet posted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
That’s up from an average minimum compensation level of about $14 per year per new enrollee, and about $6 per year per renewal enrollee, this year, according to the CMS producer comp spreadsheet for 2019.
The marketwide averages are low because some issuers pay nothing to producers, or pay nothing for at least some classes of initial or renewal enrollments.
Producer compensation appears to be on track to be higher, but increase more slowly, in the Medicare Advantage plan market.
For a Medicare Advantage health maintenance organization plan or HMO point-of-service plan that’s available in all counties in a state, the average initial sales compensation will increase to about $528 per year per enrollee, from $485.
The average renewal commission for those plans will increase to $262, from $241.
Medicare Plan Basics
The Medicare Advantage plan program gives private carriers a chance to provide a subsidized alternative to “Original Medicare.” About 22 million of the 64 million Medicare enrollees have Medicare Advantage coverage.
The Medicare drug plan program gives carriers a chance to sell subsidized prescription drug coverage to Medicare enrollees. About 20 million Medicare enrollees get drug coverage through Medicare Advantage plans with prescription benefits, and about 25 million have stand-alone Part D prescription drug coverage.
Many Medicare enrollees combine Original Medicare coverage with Medicare supplement insurance, which is also known as Medigap coverage. About 14 million people have Medigap coverage.
The CMS Medicare plan producer comp spreadsheets give information only about producer comp in the Medicare Advantage plan and stand-alone drug plan markets, not the Medigap market.
The spreadsheets show what each plan’s minimum and maximum initial compensation and renewal compensation levels are, but not what the actual distribution of compensation payments is, or how easy or difficult it is for producers to earn the maximum compensation level.