Eight weeks. Tens of thousands of eligible enrollees. One set of CMS rules you cannot bend. This is how independent agents survive AEP without burning out, getting terminated by a carrier, or losing half their book to a call center.
Medicare Annual Enrollment Period runs October 15 through December 7 every year. During that window, beneficiaries can switch Medicare Advantage plans, join or drop Part D, or move back to Original Medicare. For a broker with a Medicare book, AEP is roughly 40 percent of annual commission activity stuffed into 54 days.
A solo agent with 400 clients will field 600 plus inbound touches between Oct 1 and Dec 7. Most happen in the first 10 days.
SOA required before any MA or PDP discussion. Calls recorded. No unsolicited contact. The fines are per violation.
Each lost client is roughly $270 of recurring annual revenue. Retaining 95 percent vs 85 percent on a 400 book is $10,800 per year.
Every AEP pipeline stage should map to a CMS obligation, a carrier artifact, or a client touch. If it does not, it is noise.
Every active client flagged. First touch scheduled. Preferred channel (voice, SMS, email) recorded.
Scope of Appointment captured and stored. Plan types checked. Timestamp retained for 10 years per CMS.
Current plan, formulary changes, MOOP, premium delta year over year. Call recorded if required.
Application submitted or client explicitly retained in current plan. Confirmation sent. ACK logged.
Starts Sept 15. Schedules plan review calls. Books slots straight into calendar with SOA link attached.
Texts or emails the CMS compliant SOA form the moment a review is booked. No manual data entry.
Every inbound call that goes to voicemail triggers an SMS within 60 seconds. Books the call back.
Tags clients whose current drugs drop off their carrier formulary. Flags them for forced plan review.
All MA and PDP calls recorded, tagged by plan type, retained per CMS rules. No loose files.
Automated confirmation email plus effective date reminder. Cuts "did I enroll?" calls by 80 percent.
| Phase | Dates | What Happens |
|---|---|---|
| Pre AEP prep | Sep 15 to Oct 14 | Book review slots. Send SOAs in advance. Rehearse talk tracks. |
| Week 1 | Oct 15 to Oct 21 | Peak inbound surge. Formulary and premium change reactions. |
| Week 2 | Oct 22 to Oct 28 | First rush settles. Backlog calls scheduled aggressively. |
| Week 3 | Oct 29 to Nov 4 | Meetings with undecided clients. Dual enrollment checks. |
| Weeks 4 to 6 | Nov 5 to Nov 25 | Steady enrollment. Daily CRM discipline keeps nothing dropping. |
| Week 7 | Nov 26 to Dec 2 | Thanksgiving lag. Last push on no response clients. |
| Week 8 | Dec 3 to Dec 7 | Final scramble. Last day applications uploaded same day. |
| Post AEP | Dec 8 onward | Reconciliation. Carrier commission audits. SEP prep. |
If your Medicare pipeline does not exist yet, you have until mid September to build it. We specialize in Medicare AEP workflows, SOA tracking, and CMS compliant automations.