Insurance Training HQ - June 2026 Newsletter
Topics discussed in this Newsletter:
May Recap
Medicare Level 100 Update
Election Period IQ
MARC Update
Industry News
Looking Ahead
👋 Welcome & June Overview
Welcome back, Insurance Training HQ subscribers! We appreciate you being here and keeping up with our progress. This month's newsletter is coming out a little later than usual; thank you for your patience as we continue to get dialed in. June brought major progress and an exciting new partnerships.
A New Partnership: Activate Solutions Group
This month, I partnered with Activate Solutions Group (ASG) — a company building a field Medicare agency that's doing something a little different in this space. I chose to partner with ASG because these are professionals with decades of industry experience, a genuine interest in helping agents and leaders build something for themselves, and a long-term vision I believe in.
Let me be clear: this partnership does not detract from my commitment to the Insurance Training HQ platform, our subscribers, or the members who rely on our platform and continue to support our work. It's a pathway to expand what we can offer. To create a more comprehensive product for agents and agency leaders.
Introducing F & S Legacy Partners
I've also launched my own sales team with ASG, and alongside a longtime friend and colleague I've worked with across various roles in the insurance industry, Nathan Ferdig, we've founded a new company: F & S Legacy Partners, with a vision of helping insurance agents become truly independent.
Together, these three organizations form a trifecta for agents:
Insurance Training HQ — where agents become knowledgeable
F & S Legacy Partners — where agents are supported
Activate Solutions Group — where agents gain access to carriers and business opportunities
Over the coming months and years, this team will build what we intend to be the premier destination for insurance agents to do their best work and for beneficiaries to find trusted help with their healthcare needs.
There's more to share about F & S Legacy Partners in the future. For now, know this: it exists to make agents feel supported, valued, and appreciated, because agents who are treated that way deliver that same level of care to their clients.
The Blog Is Back
Insurance Training HQ has relaunched its blog series, "Why Training Is So Important for Agency Success." If you're an agency leader thinking about why training is critical to your business and how trainers, instructional designers, and sales coaches play a pivotal role in developing agents to capture quality business and retaining top talent, this series is for you.
We'll be publishing two posts per month over the next 2–3 months. After that, our next series launches: "Tips for Success for New & Experienced Medicare Sales Agents,” focused on sales, compliance, need-to-know, and did-you-know content.
CE Credit Progress
We've completed our research on the CE Credit approval process for the Medicare Level 100 Core Foundation Series in the State of Texas, and we begin the application process this week.
Our approach: first, pursue approval for the complete series, then apply for each course to carry CE credit individually, so agents can earn credit whether they take the series or a single course. Once this milestone is complete, our focus shifts to the full development build-out of the Medicare Agent Resource Center (MARC) for Agent HQ Plus members and Election Period IQ.
The Bottom Line
Our focus is simple: provide high-quality training content for Medicare insurance agents, create a place agents can call their forever work-home, and help agents become truly independent and successful. We're building something great in 2026, thank you for following the journey.
Let's dive into the rest of the newsletter!
🌹 May Recap
Last month's newsletter (May) marked a turning point. We wrapped the heavy building phase and set the stage for launch and growth. Here's where we stand on the commitments we made in May:
Blog Series Restarted ✅ — We relaunched "Why Training Is So Important to Agency Success" with Blog 6: Why Big Companies Invest Millions in Training And What Small Agencies Can Learn. Two more posts are queued for July.
Medicare Level 100 Final Review ✅ — Beta testing and internal review wrapped, and the course series moved into its update cycle (more below).
CE Credit Approval — Texas First — The approval pursuit is underway. Full status update in the Level 100 section below.
Agency Outreach & Onboarding — We began networking with agencies that need structured Medicare onboarding programs. If you know an agency that could benefit — send them our way.
MARC Launch ✅ — The Medicare Agent Resource Center is now officially live for Agent HQ Plus members. Details below.
Last month was about refinement. This month was about launch. Next month is about growth heading into AEP season.
🎓 Medicare Level 100 Core Foundation Series
Our quest to get the Medicare Level 100 Core Foundation Series approved for Continuing Education (CE) credits continues. Here's where things stand:
CE Credit Approval Pursuit — We are continuing to work through the CE approval process, beginning with the State of Texas. State approval timelines vary and are largely out of our hands, but we remain committed to getting agents real CE value out of this series, not just knowledge.
Course Updates Underway — Our team is actively updating the courses right now. We're refreshing content, tightening lessons based on beta feedback, and making updates across the series to ensure every course meets the standard we've set and the standard CE reviewers expect.
What This Means for You — If you're already working through the series, you'll see improvements roll in as updates publish. If you've been waiting to start, there's no better time, the series only gets stronger from here.
Pricing reminder:
Agent HQ Plus members get the full series included with membership.
Agent HQ Light members can purchase individual courses at $19.99 or the full series for $199.00.
🧠 Election Period IQ — Qualifier Tool
Election Period IQ keeps growing. This month we added four new Special Election Period verifications to the qualifier tool's calculation engine:
💊 SEP-PAP (Pharmaceutical Assistance Program) - ✓Live
The tool now verifies eligibility for beneficiaries enrolled in a State Pharmaceutical Assistance Program and pairs perfectly with the SPAP State List available in MARC.
🚚 SEP-MOV (Change of Residence) - ✓Live
Agents can now walk through move-based eligibility workflow including whether the beneficiary moved out of their plan's service area or into an area with new plan options, with the tool validating the election window timing.
🌎 SEP-RUS (Returned to the U.S.) - ✓Live
For clients returning from living abroad, the tool now walks users through an SEP-RUS eligibility workflow and verifies enrollment window rules.
🏛️ SEP-INC (Released from Incarceration) - ✓Live
The tool now verifies beneficiaries recently released from incarceration. It guides users through the SEP-INC process: enter the release date and the tool checks the election period’s enrollment window rules.
How to access it:
Agent HQ Light & Plus members — sign into your account and navigate to the dropdown menu to find the Election Period IQ page.
Non-members — visit electionperiodiq.com, create a free account, and access the tool from any device.
⚠️ Important Reminder:
The Election Period IQ Qualifier Tool does not make eligibility determinations for an enrollment. That determination is made by CMS and the carrier. This tool is a helpful guide, but its outputs are based solely on user inputs and are not based on verified beneficiary data. Agents should use this tool to understand how election periods work, but should not rely on it solely when determining enrollment eligibility for a client.
🌐 Medicare Agent Resource Center (MARC)
It's official, MARC is live for Agent Plus members!
The Medicare Agent Resource Center (MARC) is your resource launchpad! A centralized hub of tools, documents, blueprints, and links built exclusively for Agent HQ Plus members. If you're a Plus member, you can access it today from your member dashboard.
Here's what's inside right now:
🔗 Quick Links
NIPR, Sircon, Medicare.gov, Medicare & You 2026 Handbook, CMS Forms List, Extra Help Application, IHS, VA, CHAMPVA & TRICARE info, all in one place.
💊 SPAP State List
A complete state-by-state list of State Pharmaceutical Assistance Programs (SPAP), providing the program name, who it serves, phone number, and website. Now paired with the new SEP-PAP verification in Election Period IQ.
📋 Medigap GI Rights by State
A full spreadsheet of Medigap Guarantee Issue Rights by State including birthday rules, switching windows, plan options, and carrier limits.
📌 Blueprints (Job-Aids)
15+ reference guides covering Medicare vs. Medicaid, Part D, Election Periods, SNPs, Sales Compliance (Telephonic & Field), Employer Coordination, Medigap Comparison, and more.
Training videos are next. 📽️
Now that the platform is fully stood up, we will begin uploading how-to videos and sales training videos to build out a video training library. Stay tuned.
MARC is an Agent HQ Plus exclusive benefit.
📰 Industry News
Here are six notable developments in the Medicare space this month that every agent should be aware of.
🎓 2027 AHIP Training Is Live — AEP Season Has Officially Begun
The 2027 AHIP Medicare + Fraud, Waste & Abuse training launched on June 22, 2026, following the close of the 2026 program on June 18. Most carriers will begin releasing their annual certification and recertification training in the weeks following the AHIP launch.
Why It Matters: AHIP is the starting gun for AEP preparation. Agents who certify early avoid the late-summer bottleneck, get ahead of carrier certifications, and free up September for client outreach instead of scrambling through training modules.
If you manage agents: build your team's certification timeline now. June/July for AHIP and core certs, July/August for carrier certifications, September for outreach. Don't let your team be the one certifying in September/October.
You can use this $50 Discount link for the 2027 AHIP: https://www.ahipmedicaretraining.com/clients/redbirdadvisors
Direct link to the AHIP Portal: https://www.ahipmedicaretraining.com/page/login
🏦 GoHealth Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
On June 7, 2026, GoHealth, one of the largest Medicare-focused digital health marketplaces in the country, filed for prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, listing roughly $917 million in assets against $986 million in debts. The restructuring plan, supported by 100% of its lenders, will transition ownership of the company to those lenders, and GoHealth says it expects to continue operating without interruption and emerge from bankruptcy before AEP begins. Its stock was delisted from Nasdaq effective June 16.
Why It Matters: This is the clearest signal yet that the high-volume, call-center-driven Medicare distribution model is under real structural pressure.
GoHealth's CEO attributed the collapse in part to persistency assumptions that didn't hold enrollees; they didn't stay on plans as long as the model required.
For agency leaders, the lesson is direct: enrollment volume without retention is a liability, not an asset. Agencies built on quality enrollments, trained agents, and client relationships are structurally healthier than agencies built on churn.
For clients enrolled through GoHealth: analysts note the consumer impact should be minimal their policies are with the carriers, not the marketplace but expect some client questions.
Sources: Modern Healthcare, Becker's Payer Issues, S&P Global, TheStreet
⭐ CMS Recalculates Star Ratings After Clover Health Court Victory
On May 27, a federal court ruled that CMS improperly included 20 measures in Clover Health's 2026 Star Rating calculation and ordered a recalculation that lifted Clover's primary PPO contract from 3.5 to 4.5 stars. Then on June 17, CMS announced it would voluntarily recalculate 2027 Quality Bonus Payment ratings for other Medicare Advantage contracts as well, using a "better-of" approach where no plan's rating goes down. Affected carriers had until June 29 to resubmit their 2027 bids.
Why It Matters: Star ratings drive bonus payments, and bonus payments fund the supplemental benefits your clients care about. Plans whose ratings improved may enhance their 2027 benefit designs in resubmitted bids meaning the plan landscape you'll be selling this AEP could look different than what carriers originally filed.
Watch your carrier communications closely between now and the plan preview season in August/September.
Sources: Modern Healthcare, Becker's Payer Issues, Seyfarth Shaw
📅 Big Compliance Changes Take Effect October 1 — Start Preparing Now
The CY2027 Final Rule became effective June 1, 2026, and its marketing and communications changes kick in October 1, 2026, right as AEP marketing begins. Among the most significant changes for agents: the 48-hour waiting period between Scope of Appointment completion and personal marketing appointments is eliminated, call recording retention drops from 10 years to 6, and several disclaimer requirements are streamlined.
Why It Matters: This is meaningful compliance relief, but "relief" doesn't mean "relaxed." Removing the 48-hour rule doesn't remove the SOA requirement itself.
Agencies need to update their compliance training, SOA workflows, and agent scripts before October 1.
The agencies that retrain their teams over the summer will hit AEP running compliant workflows; the ones that don't will have agents following outdated procedures or worse, misunderstanding what's still required.
Sources: Federal Register — CY2027 Final Rule, Insurance Training HQ - CMS Releases the 2027 Final Rule
💰 Broker Compensation Disclosure Deadline: July 31
Under CMS regulations, carriers must report their agent/broker compensation intentions including specific rates or rate ranges to CMS by the last Friday in July. For the 2027 plan year, that deadline lands July 31, 2026, and for the first time the disclosure is required at the plan level rather than the carrier level. This follows a 2026 plan year in which multiple carriers cut or eliminated new-enrollment commissions on selected MA plans.
Why It Matters: The commission map is now plan-by-plan, not carrier-by-carrier. Before projecting AEP income or building sales strategies, agencies should review plan-level commissionability with each carrier and FMO partner.
Diversifying carrier appointments remains the strongest defense against mid-year commission changes and agents holding appointments on non-commissionable plans need to know that before October 15, not after.
Sources: Action Benefits, Lead-Gen Economy analysis
📬 Mid-Year Unused Benefits Notices Hit Mailboxes June 30 – July 31
Starting this year, Medicare Advantage plans must send every enrollee a "Mid-Year Enrollee Notification of Unused Supplemental Benefits" between June 30 and July 31. This personalized statement lists the supplemental benefits, dental, vision, hearing, OTC allowances, and more that the enrollee hasn't used in the first half of the year.
Why It Matters: Your clients are about to receive a letter reminding them of benefits they're not using and some will call you confused about what it means.
Get ahead of it: this is a perfect mid-year touchpoint to reconnect with your book, help clients maximize the benefits they're already paying for, and strengthen retention before AEP. A client who used their benefits because you called is a client who doesn't shop around in October.
🧭 Looking Ahead
AEP season preparation officially begins. Here's what you can expect from us in July:
The Compliance Cost Nobody Talks About Publishing the first full week of July. We're digging into what untrained agents really cost an agency — chargebacks, CTMs, corrective action, and the quiet compliance debt nobody budgets for.
Soft Skills, Hard Results Publishing the last full week of July. The hidden driver of Medicare agent performance that most training programs skip entirely.
CE Credit Approval — Continued Pursuit We continue working the Texas approval process and will update you the moment we have news.
MARC Video Library In Production — MARC is live with more to come, we’ll begin building out the how-to video library and sales training video library for Plus members in the coming weeks.
AEP Readiness Content With AHIP 2027 live and carrier certifications opening, we'll be sharing AEP preparation guidance to help agents and agencies build their certification and training timelines.
Every piece, the Level 100 series, Election Period IQ, MARC, and what's still to come, is built with one goal in mind: helping agents make more confident, more compliant enrollments.
Thank you for joining us on this ride. The best is ahead.
Your Partners in Success,
Jay Sweat
Founder, Insurance Training HQ