How do you get Medicare leads?
You get Medicare leads in three main ways: buy them from a lead vendor as web leads or live transfers, generate them yourself with ads and landing pages, or call consented data and qualify people on the phone. Most offshore floors combine the first and third. Whichever route you take, consent and CMS marketing rules come first.
Medicare is the biggest seasonal campaign for many floors in Pakistan and India. Licensed agencies in the US need a steady flow of eligible beneficiaries, especially in the autumn, and pay well for transfers that turn into enrollments. Getting the leads is the easy part. Getting leads that are eligible, consented and still interested is where the work is.
What kinds of Medicare leads are there?
Medicare leads are usually described by what the person is shopping for and when.
- Medicare Advantage leads: people interested in Part C plans offered by private insurers. The largest share of transfer campaigns.
- Medicare Supplement leads: people looking at Medigap plans that sit alongside Original Medicare.
- Part D leads: people reviewing prescription drug plans.
- T65 leads: people turning 65 soon, entering Medicare for the first time.
- Live transfers: beneficiaries who have been called, qualified and handed warm to a licensed agent. See our guide to Medicare live transfer leads.
What are T65 leads and why are they valuable?
T65 leads are people approaching their 65th birthday, when most Americans become eligible for Medicare. They have an Initial Enrollment Period of seven months: the three months before the month they turn 65, the birthday month, and the three months after. During that window they can enroll without waiting for the autumn season.
That makes T65 leads valuable all year round, not just in AEP. They are also people who know little about Medicare yet and often welcome help choosing between Original Medicare with a supplement and a Medicare Advantage plan. For an agency, a T65 client may stay for years.
T65 campaigns also need different qualifiers. Instead of asking about the current plan, the fronter confirms the birth month, whether the person is still working with employer coverage, and whether they have signed up for Part B yet. Someone still covered by a large employer plan may delay Part B, which changes what the agent can offer, so let the buyer decide how to route those calls.
The catch is that T65 data is widely sold, and many people turning 65 receive a flood of mail and calls. Your opener has to be respectful and clear, and your consent has to be solid. A rushed or pushy call to someone who is already tired of being contacted does more harm than good.
How do AEP and OEP change demand for Medicare leads?
The Annual Enrollment Period, or AEP, runs from October 15 to December 7 each year. During AEP, people on Medicare can switch between Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage, change Advantage plans or change Part D plans. It is the peak for Medicare campaigns. Buyers want the most volume, closers are fully staffed, and lead and transfer prices rise.
The Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period, or MA OEP, runs from January 1 to March 31. People already in a Medicare Advantage plan can switch to another Advantage plan or go back to Original Medicare, once. Demand is lower than AEP, and the qualifying questions change because only people already in an Advantage plan can use it.
Outside those windows, campaigns rely on T65 leads and on beneficiaries who have a special enrollment period, for example because they moved or qualify for extra help. Plan your staffing around the calendar. Our post on getting Medicare bots live before AEP has a timeline that works backwards from October 15.
Should you buy Medicare leads or generate them?
Buying is faster. You can start dialing within days, test several vendors and scale what works. The risks are shared data, weak consent and leads that have been called many times before you get them. Always ask for consent proof on a sample and run a paid test before committing.
Generating your own leads gives you control over the consent wording, the landing page and exclusivity. It also needs ad spend, compliant landing pages, and someone who understands Medicare marketing rules, because ads and pages are covered by CMS rules too. Most offshore floors are not set up to run US media buying well, so they partner with a US lead generator instead.
Calling consented data and selling live transfers is the middle path most floors take. You buy data with consent that covers your calls, your fronters qualify the beneficiary, and you sell the transfer to an agency. The margin comes from your efficiency: how many dials, minutes and seats it takes to produce one billable transfer.
Whichever route you choose, be wary of offers that look too cheap. Very low-priced Medicare data has often been sold many times, called many times, or collected with consent that would not stand up if challenged. The cheapest leads can become the most expensive if they lead to complaints or a lost buyer.
What consent and CMS rules apply to Medicare leads?
Medicare marketing is covered by CMS marketing rules as well as the TCPA and telemarketing rules. CMS has tightened the rules on third-party marketing organizations in recent years, including how beneficiary data can be shared between companies and what disclaimers agents must give. Your buyer will usually set requirements for vendors to meet these rules. Follow them exactly.
In practice, that often means specific wording in the opener, a required disclaimer before the transfer, and limits on which data can be passed to which agency. If your buyer gives you a compliance script, do not paraphrase it. Fronters who "improve" required wording create exactly the kind of recording that fails an audit. Train the exact lines, and check them in QA every day during AEP.
Every lead you call should carry consent that covers your company or your buyer, with a record you can produce. Scrub against the national DNC registry, any applicable state lists and your internal list. Call within allowed hours in the beneficiary's time zone. Fronters must not imply they are calling from Medicare or the government, promise extra benefits or cash, or pressure anyone who says no. Medicare beneficiaries are a protected group in the eyes of regulators, and complaints are taken seriously.
What should the qualifying questions be?
Your buyer sets the criteria, but most Medicare transfer campaigns confirm the same core facts. The Medicare call script on our site shows one version you can adapt.
- The person has Medicare Parts A and B, or is turning 65 within the buyer's window
- Whether they are on Original Medicare or a Medicare Advantage plan now
- Whether they also have Medicaid, which some buyers route differently
- Their ZIP code, so the call reaches an agent licensed in that state with plans in that area
- That they are willing to speak with a licensed agent about their options now
- That they understand they are being transferred and to whom
How do you work Medicare leads once you have them?
Buying good leads is wasted if the floor works them badly. Keep fresh and aged data in separate lists, newest first, so a fresh beneficiary never waits behind old records. Dial fresh leads within seconds. Spread retries across different times of day, and stop after a sensible number of attempts so your caller IDs are not flagged.
Speak slowly and clearly. Many beneficiaries are hard of hearing or cautious about calls, and a fast, scripted delivery loses them. Confirm answers back, explain the transfer before it happens, and stay on the line until the agent picks up. A clean warm handoff, where the fronter introduces the beneficiary by name and passes on their answers, is what turns a transfer into a billable call.
Track results by source every day during AEP: contact rate, eligibility rate, transfer rate and billable rate. Medicare buyers are quick to cut vendors whose transfers do not hold, so catch problems in days, not weeks. Our post on what a fronter bot does on a Medicare call walks through a full call from greeting to handoff.
Where do bots fit on a Medicare floor?
AEP is seven weeks long and every floor wants more fronters for exactly the same weeks. Hiring and training a seasonal team takes time you do not have in October. The B3 Voice Medicare bot runs on your existing dialer, asks your buyer's qualifying questions on your own script and warm-transfers eligible beneficiaries to your licensed closers.
Each Fronter bot is $40 per month with unlimited calls and no per-minute cost, with a minimum of 15 bots and a 3-day free trial. You can clone your best fronter's voice, and the client dashboard shows the live transcript, transfers and dispositions of every call, which helps your QA team check that disclaimers and wording were followed.
A simple plan for your next Medicare season
Work backwards from October 15. In the summer, agree criteria, volumes and pricing with your buyers. In August and September, test lead vendors on small paid batches and keep only those with solid consent and good contact rates. Finalize scripts with your buyer's compliance team. Train fronters, set up bots if you use them, and run a short pilot before AEP starts.
During AEP, review contact, transfer and billable rates daily by source. After December 7, switch to T65 and MA OEP campaigns with updated qualifiers. Keep your records: what each source cost, how it converted and what the buyer rejected. That record is how next year's plan gets better.
