Here is what you’ll find in this week’s newsletter!

1. Important links 🔗 - The best articles we found this week about the Medicare Market along with links to Jared’s recent LinkedIn posts.

2. Deep Dive 📚 - Built for Scale: Evaluating Lead Generation Partners 📈

3. Sponsor Snapshot 🚀 - Brought to you by Quote Velocity

4. Compliance Chatter 📢 - Several new regulations to review!

It’s only a 5 minute read, but it will make you 10x smarter.

DEEP DIVE 📚

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This week’s deep dive comes from one of our sponsors, Quote Velocity, a Medicare lead generation firm. They’ve shared their perspective on what to look for when evaluating a lead gen partner — especially heading into AEP.

I think many readers will find the operational and compliance insights useful when thinking about how vendors fit into their distribution strategy.

Keeping consumer complaint levels down, and LTVs up is extremely important in today’s environment and your lead vendor should help lead that effort!

-Jared

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Built for Scale: Evaluating Lead Generation Partners 📈

What to look for in a partner who's ready to perform, scale, and stay compliant through AEP and beyond.

Why Vendor Structure Matters.

As the Medicare lead generation market becomes more complex and compliance standards continue to tighten, brokers and carriers need to be selective when choosing lead gen partners.

Success depends not only on call volume or cost per acquisition (CPA), but on whether a vendor has the internal infrastructure, compliance maturity, and business intelligence to sustain performance through AEP and beyond.

Vertical Integration: Why It Matters

One of the clearest differentiators among vendors is how much of the process they own internally versus outsourcing through affiliates.

A fully integrated partner will include:

• Internal media team – Direct visibility into daily performance, regulatory changes, and local market trends.

• Owned and operated, CMS-compliant websites – O&O websites allow for tight control of consumer messaging, disclosures, and tracking—all of which are essential for both compliance and conversion optimization.

• In-house compliance oversight – Third-party legal vendors are no substitute for embedded compliance staff who can continuously educate marketing, media, and contact center agents. Continuous oversight that’s harder to achieve when compliance is outsourced.

• Internal call centers – For those driving warm transfer campaigns, owning call center ops ensures adherence to state-level dialing laws, TCPA rules, and overall ethical standards that directly affect partner outcomes.

• Direct carrier engagement – A high-performance partner communicates regularly with carriers, updates creatives based on seasonal guidance, and uses feedback to adjust strategy in real time.

Integrated operations typically mean more accountability and control.

Affiliate-heavy models can create blind spots in compliance and consumer experience.

A practical evaluation question: Which parts of your lead funnel do you directly own and operate?

Compliance Orientation: Proactive vs. Reactive

Compliance is no longer just a box to check — it’s become a key differentiator.

The most capable partners take a proactive approach, anticipating regulatory changes and maintaining audit readiness.

Signals of a compliance-first partner:

• Engagement with CMS and carriers – Are they actively involved in direct communication with CMS and carriers? Do they anticipate changes to disclaimers or file updated creatives on time?

• Dedicated compliance officers – Mature partners have full-time personnel responsible for interpreting CMS guardrails, educating teams, and executing reviews.

• US-based infrastructure – Having the core team and data centers on U.S. soil is not just preferable—it’s essential for jurisdiction and accountability.

• Audit readiness – Top partners maintain detailed records of their marketing, call routing, and consumer journey, etc.

The question isn’t whether a vendor has a compliance function — it’s whether compliance is built into the culture and operations.

Performance Optimization: Looking Beyond Volume

Lead generation is not just about producing more leads — it’s about producing better ones.

Strong vendors focus on outcomes such as conversion and persistency, not just top-of-funnel activity.

What performance-optimized partners do:

• CPA and LTV tracking at a granular level – It’s not enough to optimize nationally. Performance varies dramatically by county, by partner, by plan. The best partners tune campaigns by micro-market.

• Embedded Business Intelligence teams – BI is not a reporting function, it’s a strategic one. These teams cross-analyze marketing data with partner disposition reports, surfacing actionable insights on conversion patterns, drop-off points, and channel attribution.

• Feedback loops with brokers and carriers – Campaign decisions should be influenced by downstream data—whether calls convert, whether policies stick, and whether agent capacity aligns with call volume.

Effective vendors treat performance as dynamic — constantly learning and adjusting based on results.

Questions That Reveal Operational Depth

High-level promises about volume or CPA are easy to make.

What separates stronger vendors are their answers to more operationally focused questions, such as:

• Do you own your media channels and websites, or use affiliates?

• How do you ensure TCPA compliance within your call center?

• Who on your team is responsible for tracking CMS updates and communication?

• How do you handle carrier audit or compliance requests?

• What changes are you making for this upcoming AEP based on last year’s performance?

Specific answers signal maturity; vague responses are red flags.

Takeaway: What to Look For

Medicare lead generation isn’t a transactional service—it’s a long‑term partnership built on compliance, control, and continuous optimization.

When evaluating a lead generation partner, look for vendors that:

• Control key operational elements (media, websites, call centers).

• Have embedded compliance oversight and clear audit readiness.

• Tracks CPA and LTV down to the county and partner level.

• Use BI-driven feedback loops to adjust strategy based on outcomes.

Choosing a vendor is less about chasing the lowest CPA and more about assessing structural readiness.

The right partner should be able to scale responsibly while meeting compliance standards and adapting to market pressures.

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Thanks to Quote Velocity for contributing this week’s analysis.

As always, MMI shares a range of perspectives to help readers sharpen their view of the Medicare market. This is not an endorsement, but one lens on how to evaluate lead gen partners.

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If you’re ready, here are some ways we can help you:

• Newsletter Sponsorship opportunities: Promote your product or services to leaders in the Medicare space. Let’s discuss. (link)

• Market Research: Reports that help you wrap your arms around the Senior focused insurance markets. (link)

• Consulting: We can help you develop new insurance products for the Medicare market, appraise your books of business, and keep you compliant. Let’s discuss. (link)