Agents who are looking to sell, or who already sell, Medicare Advantage and PDPs are required to do yearly training. The government governs Medicare by utilizing CMS which stands for Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. AHIP is the preferred training for most of the major carriers. AHIP stands for America’s Health Insurance Plans and has been around since 2013.

In order to market and sell Medicare Advantage plans for the upcoming year, most companies have a requirement to complete AHIP as part of their yearly certifications. Currently, AHIP for the 2019 selling season is available through the AHIP website or through a partner link via the carriers you are contracting with. 2019 certifications will be shut down as of June 14th and reopen on June 17th for the 2020 selling season. If you wait to take the 2020 AHIP test, it will cover you for the rest of the 2019 as well.

The AHIP certification has 2 major modules which is Medicare and Fraud, Waste and Abuse. The Medicare module has 5 modules to cover which range from Medicare plans to Medicare marketing regulations and ends with 1 major exam. This exam has 50 multiple choice questions on all the material covered within the other 5 modules. Unlike the FFM (Federally Facilitated Marketplace) for individual healthcare insurance, the final AHIP exam does not have unlimited tries. Agents get 3 attempts to finish the exam with a 90 percent or better (at least 45 correct answers).

AHIP is also not free for agents unless you qualify for a reimbursement through a carrier (like Aetna’s Front Runner program). The cost to do this every year is $175, however; if you do AHIP through a carrier’s portion to their website, you will get a $50 discount. As an FMO, it is our job to help you sell throughout the year so that you qualify for these programs. As a special thanks for newly contracted agents, Pinnacle will reimburse this cost to newly contracted agents who contract for select carriers.

Pinnacle has many tools for new agents that can make their first open enrollment a major success, like our Connect4Medicare online enrollment software. I am sure some of you are familiar with Medicare.gov and enrolling clients through their software. Connect4Medicare was created by the same company and, unlike Medicare.gov, enrolling clients through our software allows you to make commissions on the sale! Please contact us for more details on how to qualify for AHIP 2020 and get access to this amazing software!