If you talk with an agent or broker about certain Medicare plans, you’ll need to sign a Scope of Appointment form. What is it, and why do you have to sign it?Confused about your Medicare coverage options?
Required by Medicare
The Medicare Scope of Appointment is a form that insurance agents AND Medicare beneficiaries have to sign before an appointment to discuss certain types of Medicare plans. It serves as a written agreement, prior to an appointment, of which types of plans the agent and the Medicare beneficiary are going to discuss during the appointment.
Consumer Protection
It’s protection for the consumer because an agent can’t bring up any insurance plans not mentioned on the Scope of Appointment.
By signing the Scope of Appointment, you are not purchasing or promising to purchase anything. It is only for the purpose of protecting you from unscrupulous salespeople.
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Scope of Appointment Form History
The history of the Scope of Appointment form involves unscrupulous salespeople, which unfortunately, can be found in every line of business. It all started back in 2006 when Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D plans were introduced.
This created a huge new market for insurance agents. The majority of those of us who were insurance agents back then did things correctly and legally. However, there were some agents who did not.
Consumer Complaints
Some consumers complained that agents pressured them to enroll in a plan during sales appointments. Others said they thought they were enrolling in a Medicare Part D prescription drug plan but found that the agent had enrolled them in a Medicare Advantage plan instead.
Some agents forged client signatures to enroll them into plans, and some enrolled deceased people into plans. I don’t know how they thought they would get away with any of that.
New Regulations
Anyway, after that, the government came up with new regulations to protect consumers from agent shenanigans. One of those regulations is the Scope of Appointment form, which should be signed 24 or more hours before an appointment to discuss insurance products.
The signed Scope of Appointment is kept on file by the agent for 10 years as a record of what products were agreed upon to discuss at that appointment in case there is ever a question.
Making Compliance Easier
I dislike extra paperwork as much as you do, but over the years, the Scope of Appointment form has gone from only being available as a physical paper form to being an online form with only electronic signature necessary, and in some cases, voice signature availability for completing the Scope of Appointment over the phone.
We are happy to make completing this form as easy as possible, but it is required, and there is no way around that. All ethical agents and brokers will have you sign a Scope of Appointment before meeting with you. It’s a big red flag if you find an insurance agent or broker who doesn’t require a Scope of Appointment form before speaking with you about Medicare Part D or Medicare Advantage plans.
When is a Scope of Appointment not required?
That said, there are a few cases when a Scope of Appointment is not required. If you are only going to talk about Medicare Supplements or products like standalone dental, vision, or hearing insurance, a Scope of Appointment is not required.
What if you want to add plans to discuss during an appointment?
If you have a signed Scope of Appointment, and during the meeting, you decide you’d like to discuss an extra product not on the Scope, the agent should stop the meeting and you both need to sign a new Scope of Appointment with the additional coverage also designated.
Completing the Scope of Appointment
Either you, or the agent, or both of you can check the boxes next to the products you would like to discuss. On standard Scope of Appointment forms, those are Part D plans, Medicare Advantage plans, Dental, Vision, and Hearing plans, Hospital indemnity plans, and Medicare Supplement plans.
As mentioned earlier, not all of those plans require a signed Scope of Appointment, but this way all bases are covered just in case a question arises later about the appointment.
I hope that explanation of Scope of Appointment forms helps. If you have questions about this or any other Medicare topic, please feel free to email [email protected] or call 877-312-1414 or watch our free online video to learn how to find the best Medicare coverage for you.
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