Medicare lead programs
Advantage, Part D, and Medicare Supplement demand generated in house and split by enrollment window, because AEP, the open enrollment period, year-round SEP, and age-in prospects are four different conversations.
The Medicare year is not one lead program
Anyone who has bought Medicare leads has had the February experience: a batch arrives, the prospects all sound like they were shopping for a January effective date, and nobody can tell you when the form was actually filled out. The calendar is the product here, so we run it as separate programs.
- AEP, Oct 15 to Dec 7. The annual election period, for a January 1 effective date. The highest-intent window of the year and the most compressed, which is why capacity is committed before it starts.
- The Medicare Advantage open enrollment period, Jan 1 to Mar 31. For someone already in an MA plan who wants out of the choice they made. One change, effective the first of the following month.
- Special enrollment periods, year-round. A move out of the service area, a plan leaving the county, a change in Medicaid or Extra Help status, or the loss of employer coverage. Steadier volume, and an urgent conversation when it lands.
- Age-in and T65, year-round. Prospects approaching eligibility, reached before four other agencies have already called them and trained them not to answer.
The Medicare programs, and when each one runs
Buy the window you are staffed for. A desk that is strong on Supplement in June should not be sold an AEP program in October, and a floor built for AEP should not be told that SEP volume will fill it in July.
| Program | Cadence | Who the prospect is, and what the window allows |
|---|---|---|
| Medicare Advantage, AEP | Seasonal | Prospects comparing plans during the annual election period, Oct 15 to Dec 7, for a January 1 effective date. The heaviest program of the year and the one worth reserving capacity for. |
| Medicare Advantage, open enrollment period | Seasonal | Already enrolled in an MA plan and unhappy with it, Jan 1 to Mar 31. One change, effective the first of the following month. Usually a network or drug tier problem discovered in January. |
| Special enrollment periods | Year-round | A qualifying event opened a window: a move, a plan exiting the county, a change in Medicaid or Extra Help, or employer coverage ending. The trigger the prospect described comes through on the record. |
| Age-in and T65 | Year-round | Approaching Medicare eligibility, with an initial enrollment period built around the month they turn 65. The one program where reaching someone first changes the outcome. |
| Medicare Supplement | Year-round | Shopping a plan letter rather than a network. Runs all year, with the six-month Medigap open enrollment window that starts with the Part B effective date, plus guaranteed issue situations, deciding whether health questions apply at all. |
| Part D, standalone | Seasonal | Drug coverage shopped mostly during AEP, plus the special enrollment cases that open it at other times. Often the second sale on a Supplement client rather than a program you staff on its own. |
CMS sets the Medicare enrollment windows and changes them by plan year. The dates above are the windows as they currently stand; the programs are run against the current plan year rather than against a calendar we printed once.
Targeted to where you can write, and to what they asked about
Two filters decide whether a Medicare lead is workable at all: whether your agent is licensed and appointed where the prospect lives, and whether the prospect wants the product your agent is about to open with.
State and county targeting
Down to the county, because plan availability and your appointments are county-level facts, not state-level ones. A licensed agent never gets handed a lead in a state they cannot write, and you are not billed for the ones that slip past a state-only filter.
Plan interest at the form
Advantage, Supplement, or Part D, captured while the prospect is answering rather than guessed at on the call. The agent opens correctly instead of spending the first ninety seconds finding out they pitched the wrong product.
Age and eligibility fit
A 52-year-old asking about Medicare is not a Medicare lead and does not get billed as one. Age-in prospects route to the T65 program instead of being mixed into an AEP batch where the script does not fit.
The filters that run before a lead is delivered
5 checks, all of them on our side of the handoff. A lead you have to dispute is a lead you already paid an agent to work, so the point is to fail the record before it reaches the dialer rather than credit it afterward.
- Phone validation. Line type and reachability checked before the record is sent, because a disconnected number is not a discount, it is a wasted dial and a wasted disposition.
- Duplicate suppression. Across programs and across time, not just inside one campaign. The same person filling out two forms in a week is one lead.
- Licensing geography. State and county matched to where your agents are actually appointed.
- Age and product fit. Medicare eligibility or a near-term age-in, matched to the program you bought.
- Your own disqualifiers. The rules your desk learned the hard way, applied to your traffic specifically.
What actually comes on a Medicare record
Field lists are where lead vendors get vague, so here is the honest version: some fields are on every record, and some are there only when the prospect answered the question.
| Contact | First and last name, the validated phone number, and email where the prospect gave one. On every record. |
|---|---|
| Geography | ZIP code with the county and state resolved, so routing and plan availability are decided on the county rather than on a guess from the area code. On every record. |
| Age or date of birth | Enough to confirm eligibility or an age-in date, and to keep a prospect out of a program the window does not fit. |
| Plan interest | Advantage, Supplement, or Part D, as the prospect selected it. This is the field that decides how the agent opens. |
| Current coverage | Whether the prospect says they are already in a Medicare Advantage plan or a Supplement, which is what separates an open enrollment period conversation from a fresh one. Captured when they answer. |
| Enrollment trigger | On special enrollment period programs, the event the prospect described: a move, a plan exiting the county, a change in Medicaid or Extra Help, or employer coverage ending. Captured when they answer. |
| Consent record | The exact disclosure language shown, the timestamp, the IP address, and the page. Stored with the lead and retrievable on request rather than reconstructed later. |
| Source and timing | Which program and campaign produced the record and when it was submitted, so you can tell a lead generated this morning from one held for three weeks. |
| Your fields | Any custom fields your integration expects, mapped to your names on the way out. See delivery and routing. |
AEP capacity is reserved before the season, not during it
Every October, media gets more expensive and every vendor discovers extra inventory. Committing in the summer is how the program stays priced and paced like a program rather than an auction.
- Commit in the summer, dial in the fall. Tell us what the floor can actually work per day in October, and the media gets bought against that plan.
- Caps still apply inside the reservation. Daily and hourly limits, adjustable without a contract change, so a reservation is a ceiling you control rather than a firehose you agreed to.
- Dayparting through the season. Leads arrive when your licensed agents are on the phone, which in AEP is not the same schedule as the rest of the year.
- Pause without penalty. Three agents out sick in the second week of November is a real thing. Pause the program and resume it.
- Ramp before October. Run age-in and SEP volume first so the integration, the scripts, and the dispositions are proven before the window that matters.
What usually gets bought alongside it
Final expense leads
Burial coverage intent with the monthly budget captured, and the vertical this group knows best.
Final expenseLife insurance leads
Term and permanent as separate programs, with the coverage amount captured at the form.
Life programsDelivery and routing
Native into AgentTech Dialer and Solved Enroll, or posted to your own CRM on submission.
Delivery pathsThe exclusivity policy
Sold once, to one buyer, and never resold as an aged record. Including during AEP.
ExclusivityAlso worth reading: how the program runs end to end, pricing by program, consent and compliance, and what the programs look like for agents and agencies.
FAQs
Questions about Medicare lead programs
Which Medicare products do these programs cover?
Medicare Advantage, standalone Part D prescription drug plans, and Medicare Supplement. Plan interest is captured at the form rather than inferred later, so a Supplement prospect does not land in a queue of Advantage calls. The three run as separate programs because the prospect, the pitch, and the season are different for each.
Why are AEP, the open enrollment period, and SEP sold separately?
Because they are different conversations. An AEP prospect is comparing next year's plans. A prospect in the Medicare Advantage open enrollment period already made a choice and wants out of it. A special enrollment period prospect had something happen, a move, a plan leaving the county, a change in Medicaid status, and needs to act now. Selling them as one undifferentiated "Medicare lead" is how a desk ends up with a February batch of records generated for a January effective date.
How early do you reach age-in and T65 prospects?
The age-in program targets prospects approaching Medicare eligibility rather than waiting for the birthday. That window is the one place in Medicare where being first actually matters, because by the time someone has been eligible for a month they have usually heard from four other agencies and stopped answering unknown numbers.
Can I get leads only in the states and counties I am licensed in?
Yes, and geography runs as a pre-delivery filter rather than a preference. Targeting goes down to the county, because carrier plan availability and your own appointments are county-level facts. A lead outside your licensed footprint should never reach your dialer, and you should not be billed for one that does.
Can I reserve capacity for AEP?
Yes, and it is worth doing in the summer rather than in October. AEP capacity is committed ahead of the season so the media is bought against a plan instead of a scramble. Daily and hourly caps, dayparting, and pausing all still apply inside the reservation, so a short-staffed week does not cost you the commitment. See delivery and routing for how pacing works.
Is a Medicare lead ever sold to another agency?
No. One buyer, once, and it never comes back to market as an aged record. That holds during AEP, when the temptation to resell is highest and the industry does it most. Read the exclusivity policy for what that means and how to audit it.
Something else? Contact us
Tell us the counties you write.
Send your licensed footprint, your daily capacity, and which Medicare window you are staffed for, and we will tell you honestly whether we can fill it.