Accessibility Statement Skip Navigation
  • Why PRWeb
  • How It Works
  • Who Uses It
  • Pricing
  • Login
  • GDPR
  • Create a Free Account
Return to PRWeb homepage
  • News
  • Resources
  • Contact
When typing in this field, a list of search results will appear and be automatically updated as you type.

Searching for your content...

No results found. Please change your search terms and try again.
  • News in Focus
      • Browse News Releases

      • All News Releases
      • Multimedia Gallery

      • All Multimedia
      • All Photos
      • All Videos
  • Business & Money
      • Auto & Transportation

      • Aerospace, Defense
      • Air Freight
      • Airlines & Aviation
      • Automotive
      • Maritime & Shipbuilding
      • Railroads and Intermodal Transportation
      • Supply Chain/Logistics
      • Transportation, Trucking & Railroad
      • Travel
      • Trucking and Road Transportation
      • View All Auto & Transportation

      • Business Technology

      • Blockchain
      • Broadcast Tech
      • Computer & Electronics
      • Computer Hardware
      • Computer Software
      • Data Analytics
      • Electronic Commerce
      • Electronic Components
      • Electronic Design Automation
      • Financial Technology
      • High Tech Security
      • Internet Technology
      • Nanotechnology
      • Networks
      • Peripherals
      • Semiconductors
      • View All Business Technology

      • Entertain­ment & Media

      • Advertising
      • Art
      • Books
      • Entertainment
      • Film and Motion Picture
      • Magazines
      • Music
      • Publishing & Information Services
      • Radio & Podcast
      • Television
      • View All Entertain­ment & Media

      • Financial Services & Investing

      • Accounting News & Issues
      • Acquisitions, Mergers and Takeovers
      • Banking & Financial Services
      • Bankruptcy
      • Bond & Stock Ratings
      • Conference Call Announcements
      • Contracts
      • Cryptocurrency
      • Dividends
      • Earnings
      • Earnings Forecasts & Projections
      • Financing Agreements
      • Insurance
      • Investments Opinions
      • Joint Ventures
      • Mutual Funds
      • Private Placement
      • Real Estate
      • Restructuring & Recapitalization
      • Sales Reports
      • Shareholder Activism
      • Shareholder Meetings
      • Stock Offering
      • Stock Split
      • Venture Capital
      • View All Financial Services & Investing

      • General Business

      • Awards
      • Commercial Real Estate
      • Corporate Expansion
      • Earnings
      • Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
      • Human Resource & Workforce Management
      • Licensing
      • New Products & Services
      • Obituaries
      • Outsourcing Businesses
      • Overseas Real Estate (non-US)
      • Personnel Announcements
      • Real Estate Transactions
      • Residential Real Estate
      • Small Business Services
      • Socially Responsible Investing
      • Surveys, Polls and Research
      • Trade Show News
      • View All General Business

  • Science & Tech
      • Consumer Technology

      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Blockchain
      • Cloud Computing/Internet of Things
      • Computer Electronics
      • Computer Hardware
      • Computer Software
      • Consumer Electronics
      • Cryptocurrency
      • Data Analytics
      • Electronic Commerce
      • Electronic Gaming
      • Financial Technology
      • Mobile Entertainment
      • Multimedia & Internet
      • Peripherals
      • Social Media
      • STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Math)
      • Supply Chain/Logistics
      • Wireless Communications
      • View All Consumer Technology

      • Energy & Natural Resources

      • Alternative Energies
      • Chemical
      • Electrical Utilities
      • Gas
      • General Manufacturing
      • Mining
      • Mining & Metals
      • Oil & Energy
      • Oil and Gas Discoveries
      • Utilities
      • Water Utilities
      • View All Energy & Natural Resources

      • Environ­ment

      • Conservation & Recycling
      • Environmental Issues
      • Environmental Policy
      • Environmental Products & Services
      • Green Technology
      • Natural Disasters
      • View All Environ­ment

      • Heavy Industry & Manufacturing

      • Aerospace & Defense
      • Agriculture
      • Chemical
      • Construction & Building
      • General Manufacturing
      • HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning)
      • Machinery
      • Machine Tools, Metalworking and Metallurgy
      • Mining
      • Mining & Metals
      • Paper, Forest Products & Containers
      • Precious Metals
      • Textiles
      • Tobacco
      • View All Heavy Industry & Manufacturing

      • Telecomm­unications

      • Carriers and Services
      • Mobile Entertainment
      • Networks
      • Peripherals
      • Telecommunications Equipment
      • Telecommunications Industry
      • VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)
      • Wireless Communications
      • View All Telecomm­unications

  • Lifestyle & Health
      • Consumer Products & Retail

      • Animals & Pets
      • Beers, Wines and Spirits
      • Beverages
      • Bridal Services
      • Cannabis
      • Cosmetics and Personal Care
      • Fashion
      • Food & Beverages
      • Furniture and Furnishings
      • Home Improvement
      • Household, Consumer & Cosmetics
      • Household Products
      • Jewelry
      • Non-Alcoholic Beverages
      • Office Products
      • Organic Food
      • Product Recalls
      • Restaurants
      • Retail
      • Supermarkets
      • Toys
      • View All Consumer Products & Retail

      • Entertain­ment & Media

      • Advertising
      • Art
      • Books
      • Entertainment
      • Film and Motion Picture
      • Magazines
      • Music
      • Publishing & Information Services
      • Radio & Podcast
      • Television
      • View All Entertain­ment & Media

      • Health

      • Biometrics
      • Biotechnology
      • Clinical Trials & Medical Discoveries
      • Dentistry
      • FDA Approval
      • Fitness/Wellness
      • Health Care & Hospitals
      • Health Insurance
      • Infection Control
      • International Medical Approval
      • Medical Equipment
      • Medical Pharmaceuticals
      • Mental Health
      • Pharmaceuticals
      • Supplementary Medicine
      • View All Health

      • Sports

      • General Sports
      • Outdoors, Camping & Hiking
      • Sporting Events
      • Sports Equipment & Accessories
      • View All Sports

      • Travel

      • Amusement Parks and Tourist Attractions
      • Gambling & Casinos
      • Hotels and Resorts
      • Leisure & Tourism
      • Outdoors, Camping & Hiking
      • Passenger Aviation
      • Travel Industry
      • View All Travel

  • Policy & Public Interest
      • Policy & Public Interest

      • Advocacy Group Opinion
      • Animal Welfare
      • Congressional & Presidential Campaigns
      • Corporate Social Responsibility
      • Domestic Policy
      • Economic News, Trends, Analysis
      • Education
      • Environmental
      • European Government
      • FDA Approval
      • Federal and State Legislation
      • Federal Executive Branch & Agency
      • Foreign Policy & International Affairs
      • Homeland Security
      • Labor & Union
      • Legal Issues
      • Natural Disasters
      • Not For Profit
      • Patent Law
      • Public Safety
      • Trade Policy
      • U.S. State Policy
      • View All Policy & Public Interest

  • People & Culture
      • People & Culture

      • Aboriginal, First Nations & Native American
      • African American
      • Asian American
      • Children
      • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
      • Hispanic
      • Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual
      • Men's Interest
      • People with Disabilities
      • Religion
      • Senior Citizens
      • Veterans
      • Women
      • View All People & Culture

  • Hamburger menu
  • Cision PRWeb provides efficient communication tools to continuously engage with target audiences across multiple online channels
  • Create a Free Account
    • ALL CONTACT INFO
    • Contact Us


      11AM ET Sunday – 8PM ET Friday

  • Send a Release
  • Sign up
  • Log in
  • Resources
  • RSS
  • GDPR
  • News in Focus
    • Browse All News
    • Multimedia Gallery
  • Business & Money
    • Auto & Transportation
    • Business Technology
    • Entertain­ment & Media
    • Financial Services & Investing
    • General Business
  • Science & Tech
    • Consumer Technology
    • Energy & Natural Resources
    • Environ­ment
    • Heavy Industry & Manufacturing
    • Telecomm­unications
  • Lifestyle & Health
    • Consumer Products & Retail
    • Entertain­ment & Media
    • Health
    • Sports
    • Travel
  • Policy & Public Interest
  • People & Culture
    • People & Culture
  • Send a Release
  • Sign up
  • Log in
  • Resources
  • RSS
  • GDPR
  • Send a Release
  • Sign up
  • Log in
  • Resources
  • RSS
  • GDPR
  • Send a Release
  • Sign up
  • Log in
  • Resources
  • RSS
  • GDPR

First-in-Industry IoT Platform Changing Open Enrollment for Bewildered Seniors

Seniors are desperate to navigate a maze of confusing enrollment periods. The perplexing array of Medicare plans, what they can and cannot change and murky regulations are bringing an increasingly varied and unclear range of insurance options to the market--creating more risk than assistance to seniors. Ensurem, a multifunctional online-offline brokerage company, offers a path through the maze with IoT technology and enhanced marketing strategies, bringing insurance into the 21st century.


News provided by

Ensurem

Nov 05, 2019, 08:00 ET

Share this article

Share toX

Share this article

Share toX

John Clifford, COO of Ensurem, discusses how their IoT solutions are helping simplify the complex Medicare process.
John Clifford, COO of Ensurem, discusses how their IoT solutions are helping simplify the complex Medicare process.
Youtube
Youtube

CLEARWATER, Fla., Nov. 5, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Every day, 10,000 baby boomers turn 65, making Medicare plans the fastest-growing segment of the health insurance market. Insurance carriers are responding to the opportunity; since the 2019 open enrollment period, there has been a 32 percent increase in the number of available Medicare Advantage plans [1].

"The stakes are high—making the wrong choice can have serious consequences in terms of financial exposure—and there is a very broad range of options," says John Clifford, COO, Ensurem LLC, an online, multi-carrier insurance brokerage and technology firm at the very forefront of innovation within the marketplace. "What seniors need is a clear, reliable way to winnow through the available offerings and find the plan that best suits their needs and budget."

"What seniors need is a clear, reliable way to winnow through the available offerings and find the plan that best suits their needs and budget.”

Post this

To help consumers and insurance carriers navigate this crowded landscape, Clifford defines what is needed:

1. A platform serving as an insurance broker on one side and;
2. A provider of tailored product information and purchasing opportunities on the other

Ensurem, conceived as such a platform, is an online consumer marketplace designed to educate visitors and rapidly match customer to product, simplify application, automate underwriting and instantly provide finished documents. They now offer services of Aetna, Humana, Ameritas, Cigna, Mutual of Omaha, Anthem, Catholic Life Insurance and more.

To complement their online platform, the company recently launched 4,500 first-in-industry kiosks in pharmacies and retail locations throughout the nation using their innovative IoT software to simplify the process for seniors as well as assist the inundated agencies.

"We log 2,000+ calls per day in our call centers from bewildered senior citizens," Clifford says. Some of the complexity of today's marketplace, he notes, stems from insurers' need to balance attractiveness to consumers (there are Medicare Advantage plans with zero-dollar monthly premiums) with risk. Some of it, however, is due to the government's Medicare rules themselves. Enrollees, for example, are required to sign up during a seven-month period surrounding their 65th birthday. Failure to do so leads to stiff late enrollment penalties that continue for life [2].

But that is not all that is confusing. The varying names given to Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) and Open Enrollment Period (OEP) in the media--which are different animals and different time frames—is just one tiny example as to its confusion. Here are a few ways AEP is referred to in recent news stories:

  • "Annual Open Enrollment Season"
  • "Do-Over Window"—referring to OEP
  • "Annual Open Enrollment Period"
  • "Annual Medicare Open Enrollment Period"

Another point to compound the misunderstanding:

  • News reports state that people who are still employed at 65 and want to defer Medicare enrollment to continue with their employer-provided coverage may do so, as long as they are working. If they leave their job and continue private coverage through COBRA; however, they become late enrollees, which means they must wait for a General Enrollment Period that runs from January 1 to March 31—with Medicare coverage not beginning until July 1 [3].
  • Yet Ensurem explains that People over 65 whom have missed their IEP (Initial Enrollment Period) do still receive a special enrollment period after losing group coverage, regardless of if they enroll in COBRA. They can also technically be enrolled in COBRA & Medicare at the same time.

"These rules are specific to Original Medicare (government funded) Parts A & B. Medicare Advantage and Medicare supplement insurance—both provided by private insurance companies—have their own set of enrollment regulations," says Clifford.

On top of narrow enrollment windows, there are limited periods of time when enrollees can make any changes to their coverage. One of those being Medicare Annual Enrollment Period from October 15 – December 7, during which Medicare beneficiaries can switch from Original Medicare to Medicare Advantage, or vice-versa, as well as switch Medicare Advantage plans.

Meanwhile, there are now 22 million people enrolled in managed-care Medicare Advantage plans [4], which continue to change in ways that encourage both increasing enrollment and greater complexity. These include loosened marketing restrictions, increased use of telehealth, the elimination of "meaningful difference" tests limiting the number of plans offered in a given market and additional time for plan sponsors to secure a provider network [5].

Confused much? That's the point.

"The Medicare solutions market today, including both Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplement insurance," Clifford says, "has a lot of room for improvement in the way of decreasing costs, providing easier-to-understand consumer information, and increasing efficiency in the buying process."

He points out that Ensurem's technology solutions have been a welcome advancement in facilitating the roll of the agents.

In 2019, Ensurem will have tripled its business from 2018, its first year of full-scale operation, scaling up from three to 90 employees since its launch and expecting to almost double in size next year. The company's goal is basically to make insurance into a 21st-century industry.

About Ensurem:
Ensurem, headquartered in Clearwater, FL, is a leading technology and product distribution company serving carriers and consumers within the massive U.S. senior market. The company provides end-to-end solutions for carriers, including product development, digital marketing, and consumer-centric front ends and back end. For more information, please visit http://www.Ensurem.com.

1. Coombs, Bertha, "The 2020 Medicare enrollment season brings fierce competition for baby boomers among insurers," CNBC, October 16, 2019.
2. "Part B late enrollment penalty," Centers for Medical and Medicaid Services, October 2019.
3. Miller, Mark, "If You Do Medicare Sign-Up Wrong, It Will Cost You," New York Times, January 31, 2019.
4. "Medicare Advantage/Part D Contract and Enrollment Data," Centers for Medical and Medicaid Services, December 31, 2018.
5. Adelberg, Michael, and Rodriguez, Kristin, "Medicare Advantage is nudging aside 'old Medicare' with a free ride, a warm meal, and a handyman," Stat News, April 3, 2019.

SOURCE Ensurem

Related Links

http://www.Ensurem.com

Modal title

John Clifford, COO of Ensurem | Photo
John Clifford, COO of Ensurem | Photo
Ensurem | Company Logo
Ensurem | Company Logo
John Clifford, COO of Ensurem | Photo Ensurem | Company Logo

Contact PRWeb

  • 11AM ET Sunday – 8PM ET Friday
  • Contact Us

About PRWeb

  • About PRWeb
  • Partners
  • Partnership Programs
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Resources

Why PRWeb

  • Why PRWeb
  • How It Works
  • Who Uses It
  • Pricing

Accounts

  • Create a Free Account
  • Log in
  • Contact Us

Do not sell or share my personal information:

  • Submit via [email protected] 
  • Call Privacy toll-free: 877-297-8921

Contact Cision

Products

About

My Services
  • All News Releases
  • Online Member Center
  • ProfNet
Cision Distribution Helpline
888-776-0942
  • Legal
  • Site Map
  • RSS
  • Cookie Settings
Copyright © 2025 Cision US Inc.