Getting into selling Medicare Advantage, What do you need to do? I would love to be able to steer you into the right direction with some tips and tricks on the Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D required training known as AHIP. Let’s talk about the fundamentals.

What is AHIP?

AHIP stands for America’s Health Insurance Plans and is the nationally recognized training that the Medicare advantage carriers accept as part of their yearly certification training.

Is there any cost?

Yes. AHIP typically costs $175 if you sign up directly. If you do the training through one of the major insurance carriers (like Independence Blue Cross,) the carrier will typically give you a $50 discount right away.

What does it involve?

AHIP consists of 2 separate parts. There is the Medicare training portion and the Fraud, Waste, and Abuse portion.

The Medicare training consists of 5 modules and a 2 hour, 50-question test. If you are taking this for a second year or more, you are only required to take module 4, 5, and the test.

The Fraud, Waste, and Abuse training is 3 modules with no major test.

Tips & Tricks

AHIP’s 2020 test has been the most challenging version in the past few years. So as an FMO, it’s Pinnacle’s job to help agents become better equipped to handle obstacles in their way.

Here are some helpful tips to prepare you:

• Take your time and read the question and answers carefully. Although there is a time-limit, it is important to understand the question. These are meant to be difficult and can have multiple answers that may read similar but are completely different.
• You must pass with a 90% score, meaning you can only get 5 answers wrong. There are a few questions that are not within the reading material so don’t drive yourself crazy looking for the answer.
• Some material will be foreign to you. AHIP covers a variety of obscure topics like cost plans, private-fee-for service (PFFS) plans, and even power of attorney.
• Just like the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles, never give up! You have 3 attempts before you must pay the fee again. If you should fail once, it’s not the end of the world.

The team here at Pinnacle Financial Services is here to help! Once agents get past the smallest hurdles, Pinnacle has the tools to make their lives easier to submit business, such as our proprietary Medicare Advantage quoting software, Connect4Medicare.

Feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions.