Getting Online Medicare Information Just Got More Personal

In 2011, the first baby boomers started turning 65 — what used to be a normal retirement age. And for the next 18 years, it’s estimated that 8,000 people per day will turn 65. Many of these new, retirement-age people are your clients.

Even if you are not going to retire when you turn 65, there are important decisions to make regarding your continued health coverage that have to be made when you turn 65. If you neglect to enroll during the enrollment window, you could lose important benefits. Helping someone to better understand Medicare is a great way for every insurance agent to engage with his clients.

And thanks to MyMedicareMatters.org, the National Council on Aging’s Medicare education website, it has become easier to provide more personalized tools, information, and enrollment advice to anyone in search of Medicare information.

MyMedicareMatters.org has always offered this age group a trusted and friendly guide to help them evaluate their individual needs, compare their options, enroll in a plan, and sustain the best coverage. The unbiased information and assistance of MyMedicareMatters.org remains the same, but now the site has been updated to make it much easier to use.

“The redesigned MyMedicareMatters.org website is optimized to help consumers access the information most useful and important for them,” said Jay Greenberg, ScD, Chief Executive Officer of NCOA Services, LLC. “Most Medicare websites provide large chunks of hard-to-understand information and leave the consumer on their own to figure out their options. MyMedicareMatters.org is now a personal experience from the homepage to enrollment.”

The updated site includes these important consumer tools:

Visual Learning

Rather than long blocks of information that are hard to digest, important topics are presented in a more visual form. Technical subjects are now easy to follow infographics. Research has found that people are more comfortable when information is presented in a visual way and are more likely to share the information electronically with others.

Pick-Your-Situation Navigation

Rather than guessing where to start accessing information, the homepage now offers easy routes to getting started. Consumers simply have to pick their stage in the Medicare journey and the site will point them in the direction of the most relevant information.

People Like Me

This new tool is a story-based guide to Medicare. Characters from different life situations guide users along the decision journey by sharing their stories and discussing the steps they took choosing Medicare coverages.

What Matters Today Blog

While the basics of Medicare remain the same, consumers need a place to turn to find out about the small changes. The new What Matters Today blog will provide information, reminders about upcoming Medicare changes, and will address the misinformation about Medicare that often accompanies discussed changes.

Enhanced MedicareQuickCheck (MQC)

Utilizing visual learning techniques, the enhanced MQC can now dynamically guide users to a personalized report of their Medicare options, whether they are new to Medicare, eligible for a special enrollment period, or reviewing optimal coverage options during the annual enrollment period.

Resource Library

A new collection of resources including videos, easy to understand infographics, a glossary of Medicare terms, and FAQ partly based on questions MyMedicareMatters has received from consumers.

MyMedicareMatters.org is available at no cost to the consumer — who only pays for the insurance they choose. Try the new, personalized My Medicare Matters experience with your clients and let me know how they respond.