Entering the supplemental medical services market should be a no-brainer for employee benefits producers looking to expand their revenue stream and diversify business in the wake of health care reform. With a growing number of baby boomers reaching age 65 every day, the Medicare supplement business is thriving. Not to mention the need for supplemental insurance felt by employees of all ages thanks to the widening coverage gap as employers increasingly switch to consumer-driven major medical plans.
In such an environment it’s certainly no surprise that Denny Ebersole, founder of LouisianaBenefits.com, is able to draw a substantial portion of his annual revenue – around 25% – from the supplemental stream. So why aren’t more brokers following suit? It’s not a novel concept, but the daily grind can often prevent a broker from seeing the forest for the trees, says Ebersole, whose office is based just outside New Orleans, in Harahan, La. “We’re caught up in every day rigors of our business and it’s not necessarily easy to do things a little bit different,” he says. “People tend to gravitate to the stuff that they do, that they do, that they do.”
