As in the past, Medicare continues to require that we document signed permission to discuss Part D drug plan and Part C Advantage Plans before we actually share plan-specific benefit information, like premiums, what your prescriptions cost or what your costs at the doctor/hospital would be. This is call the Scope of Sales Appointment Confirmation Form, or Scope of Appointment (SOA) for short. You must initial or put a check/X in the box for the products you want to discuss and sign and date your name. We are not allowed to tell you which boxes to check. The purpose of a Scope of Appointment is for you to have the power to only talk about the types of plans you are interested in and not be presented marketing material on types you aren’t. Helps to protect you from unwanted phone calls and unethical marketing practices.
Signing a SOA does NOT obligate you to enroll in a plan or change your plan. It only provides legal proof that you asked that agent to present that material and answer your questions. Agents are not allowed to “cold call” or “door knock.” You must have asked them to call you (or asked an entity to have someone call you.) Agents must be able to provide a signed SOA to insurance carriers or authorities relating to a specific enrollment application or sales phone call if asked. The SOA protects both you and us.
Medicare is reinstituting an old rule called the “48-hour cool off” period. An agent must wait 48-hours from the time they receive the signed SOA before we are allowed to call/email information about a plan other than the one you are enrolled in. This means that if you call about a plan you just saw, you have to wait at least 48-hours to hear the benefits from the time you sign and send us the SOA.
A signed SOA is good for 12-months. This means we could answer questions about any plans for the products you check for 12-months.
If we are having a discussion about one product and you want to talk about the other, you can sign a new SOA at that time and then the discussion may continue.
We can do a paper form or an electronic SOA. With paper, we can mail a form or email a PDF (you print) and you physically sign it and mail or email/fax it back to us.
With an electronic SOA (e-SOA), you get an email from a carrier with a means of signing your name using the mouse on the screen or typing your name as an attestation. Then you press a complete and return button to have the site send it back to us.
The SOA is available for you to open and print right now from our website. https://www.imagineinsadv.com/resources/ It is included at the end of each Review Packet.