I contracted with UHC to sell their Medicare Advantage products (Secure Horizons and Evercare). These plans are under the jurisdiction of Medicare, or CMS for short.
UHC had not paid me over $8,000 in commissions dating back to Nov/ Dec. Their managers and their e-mail bulletins lied, claiming that CMS did not allow such payments until CMS released an "approved" list of Medicare-eligibles. Medicare has been late in providing such a list, but, according to CMS, this is completely untrue! CMS regulations state that they MAY, but are NOT REQUIRED TO, withhold, that they MAY pay, and later reverse or charge-back commissions if plan enrollees later turn out not to be approved by CMS.
To add insult to injury, UHC has FAILED TO RESPOND to my complaint letters, even though I sent the last one by certified mail, and I received confirmation of their receipt and acceptance of my letter - what kind of a flakey business is that??!!
In addition, no one would believe how much trouble agents had with UHC's computer system called "OnDemand", which agents were supposed to use in tracking enrollees. Likewise, their agent support system was ATROCIOUS - I have copies of over 40 unanswered e-mails to their PHD (Producers Help Desk), and when I sent copies to the local managers (Tucson, AZ), I got no help from those "wannabe's" either.
I recently filed a $10,000 lawsuit (the maximum in Justice court in Arizona). It is standard practice in the insurance industry for agents to get paid first year commissions immediately when a case is placed, and then charge an agent back any "un-earned" commissions, if and when a policy is cancelled or lapses during the first year. I am convinced that UHC rips off agents like this nationwide; they must make tons of money off the interest on agents' monies that they decide to keep in their own bank acounts so long. The Arizona Insurance Department fined them $364,500 for, among other things, "violating state laws governing... Timely payments to providers"; evidently UHC tried to rip of doctors and hospitals, etc., and now they are trying to rip off nationwide in the same way. Based on my experience, in my opinion, this is a very bad company for agents to deal with.
If you have been an agent with UHC and had similar experiences, it sure would be good to hear from you.
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