In addition to securing contracts/appointments with carriers, Agents are required to complete a few additional steps to be granted Ready-to-Sell (RTS) status with a given carrier. We integrate RTS status checks into the platform to help you manage these with ease.

In this article we will cover:

You’ll need to secure appointments (also called “contracts”) with carriers if you wish to sell Medicare plans on their behalf.

Appointments with carriers often vary by state, by carrier, and by line of business (ex. ACA vs Medicare). You’ll secure appointments with carriers by reaching out to those carriers directly; there is often a broker or producer section of their website where you can start.

In addition to securing contracts/appointments with carriers, Agents are required to complete a few additional steps to be granted Ready-to-Sell (RTS) status with a given carrier.

Ready-to-Sell (RTS) status is a Medicare industry term indicating an Agent is authorized to compliantly sell plans for a given carrier.

Agents with RTS status with a respective carrier for a given plan year are typically:

We know tracking RTS statuses for each carrier can be difficult. HealthSherpa for Medicare integrates RTS status checks into the platform to help you manage these with ease.

Add your contracted carriers to get started!

Carriers who have enabled integrated enrollment have done so by setting up RTS integration with the HealthSherpa Medicare Marketplace. Once you have added your contracted carriers, HealthSherpa for Medicare uses your writing number to automatically identify RTS status with a respective carrier.

There are a handful of carriers with integrated enrollment where the verification for RTS status is not yet automatic; and a manual RTS verification will be required for verification. Until this manual RTS verification takes place, HealthSherpa for Medicare will not enable integrated enrollment within your account for these carriers. The carriers that currently require a manual RTS verification are listed below. The link for each provides a help article with detailed instructions on how to complete this manual RTS process.

Once your RTS status has been verified for a specific carrier, RTS status can be found on your Carriers page within each unique carrier card. Once you have been granted RTS status with a given carrier, you are ready to compliantly sell plans for that carrier and may begin enrolling.

Note: for United RTS statuses, it may take up to 24 hours for your statuses to populate.

If you're an agency owner, you can set different NPNs per carrier – allowing you to use your Agency NPN with some carriers, while using your Individual NPN with others.

Currently, this feature is enabled for United Healthcare only. If you think we should add this for other carriers too, email rts@healthsherpa.com.

To set an Agency NPN, go to your Carriers page. When adding or editing United, you can choose to list your NPN or your Agency NPN within the 'NPN' field as pictured here:

Important: Federal regulations require that the NPN used for enrollment must belong to the agent writing the enrollment. You are responsible for ensuring compliance with NPN usage regulations.

For Aetna, we'll need to get RTS statues from your upline FMO directly. Have them email rts@healthsherpa.com to get set up, and enrollment enabled.

Do this from within your Carriers page. Learn how here.

First, you’ll want to ensure your NPN is listed correctly within your Settings page and your writing number is listed correctly for the carrier within your Carriers page. Then, make sure you've entered the correct Writing Number for that carrier. Next, you may wish to reach out to the carrier directly to ensure your licensure, appointment status, and certifications are active and up to date. If you recently completed your certification or licensure, these may still be processing. If you are unable to resolve your issue after following these steps, please reach out to rts@healthsherpa.com.

Your Writing Number is a unique number assigned to you by carriers that grant you appointments. If you are not sure where to find this number, view our Writing Number guide here.

In addition to securing contracts/appointments with carriers, Agents are required to complete a few additional steps to be granted Medicare RTS status with a given carrier.

HealthSherpa for Medicare integrates RTS status checks into the platform to help you manage these. To enable integrated enrollment for a respective carrier, HealthSherpa for Medicare must be able to verify your RTS status with the carrier.

Carriers maintain their own lists of agents with RTS statuses. The HealthSherpa Medicare Marketplace is able to check your RTS status for carriers with integrated enrollment at the time of each submission to ensure you cannot inadvertently submit applications with carriers for whom you do not possess an RTS status. However, it is still your responsibility as a licensed insurance agent to ensure that you are following all applicable state and federal laws and regulations in conducting your insurance business.

Most supported integrated enrollment carriers with automatic RTS verification send RTS statuses daily, however some send statuses weekly. RTS statuses can be found on your Carriers page within each unique carrier card.

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