Yesterday CMS released their 2015 Final Rule regarding policy and technical changes to the Medicare Advantage & Prescription Drug programs.

Here are the highlights from the report:

Commissions

• Renewal commissions will have a cap of 50% of the Fair Market Value. This is great news considering they were proposing the renewals be 35%
• All Commission payments must be made during the calendar year for which the enrollment is effective
  • Payments for AEP enrollments cannot be made prior to January 1^st
  • Payments for December 1^st effective dates cannot be made later than December 31^st

Certification

• Starting January 2016, CMS will require all agents to complete a CMS Standardized General Compliance Program Training. CMS will not allow the carriers to utilize their own training to fulfill the certification requirement, agents will simply need to print their completion certificate and send to the carriers.
• There will be no fee associated with the CMS Standardized General Compliance Program Training; it is provided free of charge

With the exception of the Certification changes, the provisions in the final rule will generally be effective for Contract Year 2015 operations. Please click here to see the final rule.