While contact centers have often been challenged to carry out herculean tasks – keeping thousands of customers happy and boosting revenue in a limited amount of time while putting out figurative fires and operating on inflexible budgets – the healthcare call center industry has challenges, the likes of which most other call centers never see.

For health insurance entities that handle Medicare Part D, the challenge involves handling hundreds of thousands of Medicare Enrollment calls, each lasting from anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes, in a two-month window. These call centers need to ensure that the required script, approved by CMS (Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services), is precisely followed and acknowledged by enrollees to maintain compliance. It involves keeping costs per application in check, while optimizing the selling time and close rates of agents.

These challenges, together with the usual demands on a call center, and more affect all Medicare Part D PDP Providers every October to December.

Medicare Part D, also called the Medicare prescription drug benefit, is a federal program that subsidizes the costs of prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries in the U.S. It was enacted as part of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) and went into effect in 2006. Most Medicare beneficiaries must affirmatively enroll in a Part D plan to participate (which is where the call center comes in).

Currently, the enrollment period will last from October 15 to December 7.

Many contact centers keep costs in check with automation and self-service, but these tactics could never work in a call center handling Medicare Part D enrollments…or could it?

Several prominent health plans are doing just that. They have solved a number of challenges by fully automating the Medicare enrollment process through an Interactions Virtual Assistant application. This has enabled them to serve their customers more quickly, and ensure compliance, while reducing their overall operating expense.

On Tuesday, April 2 at 12:00 pm EST, self-service virtual assistant technology provider Interactions Corporation will present a Web event entitled, “Automated Medicare Enrollments: Insane or Brilliant (News - Alert)?” The Webinar will present a case study-format business study that will examine the potential for the automation of voice-based Medicare enrollments.

Click here for more information or to register.