General News
Published August 6, 2021
Premera is changing our Preferred Agency program for 2022. You’ll see a new approach to tiers, member totals, and compensation that better aligns with our current market design.
What’s changing?
- Beginning with the 2022 Preferred Agency lock-in, we will only count individual market members to reach the goal of 100.
- Totals are counted at the agency level.
- Totals include Premera Individual member, as well as all LifeWise metallic and grandfathered members.
- A new middle tier of 60-99 lives in 2022 has been added to the program as a steppingstone for those trying to reach the 100 lives/Tier 1 status.
- This has no impact on the payout of LifeWise grandfathered members which are always paid at $17 per member regardless of tiering status.
- The Preferred Agency program is and always has been an Individual market program and has never impacted any compensation or service related to any of Premera’s Medicare products.
Tiers for 2022
The table below gives you a preview of the new structure and the differences between the three tiers:
| Tier 1 |
Tier 2 |
Tier 3 |
| 100+ Individual lives |
60-99 Individual lives |
Under 60 Individual lives |
| $17pmpm |
$15pmpm |
$10pmpm |
| Bonus eligible |
Not bonus eligible |
Not bonus eligible |
| Access to agent support |
Access to agent support |
Access to Customer Service |
Why we're changing
When we rolled out the preferred agency program 5 years ago, the overall landscape of the market, our footprint, and the structure of our Premera team was different. Including the Premera Medicare Supplement members in our count was meant to be temporary
while we became more competitive in the individual marketspace.
Today, Premera is in 7 counties, with 5 counties planned for 2022. While Premera is not the brand we are focused on for the larger Washington Individual market, it is still the Individual product with the most comprehensive network in the state.
Support
Many agencies will not be impacted at all by these changes. Contact justin.cusber@premera.com for ideas on how to help your agency increase its individual business and secure our mutual partnership.