BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina

2011 Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D Certification Changes

September 16, 2010

We are very excited about the Medicare Advantage products we will offer you and your clients for 2011, including zero premium products for the third year in a row. We want to make sure agents are properly educated on Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D. BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina certification for 2011 Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D prescription drug plans is now available to agents.

We are also excited to announce that we are accepting America’s Health Insurance Plans’ (AHIP) Medicare Advantage Certification for 2011.

Agents who have already completed the AHIP Medicare Advantage Certification will not be required to complete a separate general knowledge section when they complete the BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina Medicare Advantage Learning Management System (LMS) training for 2011.

Agents that have not already completed the AHIP certification can register at a discounted rate of $100.

Here’s what you need to know about our 2011 certification requirements:

• Agents must pass the AHIP Medicare Advantage Certification and the three courses in our LMS system on Medicare Advantage HIPAA training, 2011 Product Knowledge and the Fraud, Waste and Abuse Training.
• Certification opportunities will last through October 13, 2010. All certification must be completed during this time. This is to ensure all agents complete certification before they begin accepting any Medicare Advantage applications.
• The certification courses are extremely comprehensive and provide complete Medicare Advantage training and certification for all plans offered.
• There is a test after each course. Agents must pass all tests with an 85 percent or higher.
• All agents will be required to take and pass the AHIP certification with a score of 90 percent or higher. Agents must submit their AHIP certification by fax to 803-264-4437 or by e-mail to Amelia.Guess@bcbssc.com.
• All agents are required to complete this certification, even if they successfully completed it last year.

Here is a listing of the required BlueCross training courses, tests and documents:

• Health Plans Training and Test for 2011
• Medicare Advantage HIPAA Training and Test for 2011
• Medicare Advantage Fraud, Waste and Abuse Training and Test for 2011
• Medicare Advantage Letter of Intent and Code of Conduct for 2011

The courses, tests and documents are located in My Business ManagerSM and are listed under the “In Progress Training” category on the left side of your LMS home page. Simply select the green arrow next to the desired course or test. We strongly recommend that agents pay close attention to the course work before attempting to take the test.

Every agent must also electronically submit via LMS the Letter of Intent and Code of Conduct in order to complete the certification process.

We will not pay commission to any agent who has not been properly certified.

Examples:

• Agent John Smith takes all three BlueCross courses. He earns a score of 90 on the Medicare Advantage Overview Training Test, the Medicare Advantage HIPAA Training Test and AHIP certification but earns a score of 75 on the Fraud, Waste and Abuse Test. John Smith is not certified and cannot market any BlueCross Medicare Advantage plans for 2011.

Each agent is allowed ONLY TWO attempts to pass each test. If the agent does not pass the test on the second attempt, the agent will not be able to write any of our 2011 Medicare Advantage products.

These certification courses are not required for agents to write Medicare Supplement products.

Marketing materials will be available through Storefront and on our website, SouthCarolinaBlues.com. You will have access to the marketing materials on

Storefront only after you have been certified. On November 15, 2010, BlueCross will begin accepting applications for effective dates of January 1, 2011.

Medicare Advantage Provider Directories

Don’t forget that you can create customized provider directories online. Directories can cover all providers across South Carolina or can be customized to show providers in a certain county, city or ZIP code.