The Field Notes Blog

Built by agents.
Written for agents.

AEP playbooks, compliance updates, commission reconciliation, and the CRM workflows that actually move the needle. No fluff. No SEO bait. Just the operational details we wish someone had written down for us.

Compliance
SOA · Drug List · Audit Trail

What CMS auditors actually look for in 2026 — and the eight CRM fields that make audits a 12-minute job.

After a year of working with agencies through actual audits, we mapped every CMS request to the exact Smart Agent field it lives in. Here's the cheat sheet — and the report that exports the whole packet in one click.

Commissions
Carrier Sync · Reconciliation

The hidden $14,000: how to find every commission a carrier didn't pay you this quarter.

A walkthrough of the expected-vs-actual report inside Smart Agent's Commission Module — including the three exceptions we see most often (carrier-side mis-keyed effective dates, missing renewal flags, and split misallocations).

AEP & OEP
Calendar & Dialer Cadence

How we got our AEP day-one outbound to 380 dials per agent without burning anyone out.

Click-to-call, dispositions on the Policy record, and the one SMS automation that stopped our follow-ups from aging out. Real numbers from an 8-agent agency.

Medicare 101
Turning 65 · Enrollment Windows

"Contact Turning 65" — the one automation that pays for the platform inside a single AEP.

Setup, timing, the email template we ship by default, and the customizations our top agencies have layered on top. Walk through the flow that watches every contact's DOB and fires automatically.

Product
Smart Agent v2026.3

What shipped in v2026.3: bulk SOA re-issue, RingCentral call-recording on the Policy timeline, and 11 carrier additions.

Quarterly release recap. Highlights for AEP prep, what's behind a feature flag, and what's on the deck for v2026.4 (commission statements via API, drug-list versioning, ICHRA premium imports).

ICHRA & Group
Group Policies · Employee Roster

You're already selling ICHRA. Stop tracking employees in spreadsheets.

The Group → Employee record type model, how it maps to a real ICHRA reimbursement structure, and the dashboard panels that keep employer renewals on the books year over year.

Compliance
MFA · CyberFin · Encryption

What "bank-grade security" actually means for a Health/Medicare CRM — and why your IT person will sleep better tonight.

Salesforce Shield, CyberFin's monitoring stack, MFA via Salesforce Authenticator, and the audit logs that ship by default. With the questions an enterprise IT review will ask you — and the one-page answer to each.

AEP & OEP
Dashboard · KPIs

The four reports you should be running every morning during AEP (and the one most agencies forget).

Pending Policies by Carrier, Applications Not Yet Submitted, SOAs Expiring This Week, and the often-forgotten "Contacts with Birthdate in Next 60 Days" — built right into Smart Agent's standard report library.

Commissions
Agent Splits · Recoupment

How to model agent splits without breaking everyone's W-9 at the end of the year.

Three split scenarios we see most often — full-cycle, renewal-only, and override-on-downline — and how to configure each one inside the Commission Module so payroll matches the carrier statement on the first try.

Medicare 101
PDP · MA · MAPD · Med Supp

Decoding the Medicare Product Type field: PDP vs. MA vs. MAPD vs. Med Supp vs. Hospital Indemnity.

A new-agent primer for understanding what the carrier is actually selling, what to call it in your CRM, and the reporting cuts that matter when you're 40 policies in and trying to forecast renewals.

AEP & OEP
Lead Lists · Segmentation

Segmenting your book for AEP: the five lists every agency should be working from Oct 1st.

T-65, current plan disruption, drug-list change risk, OOP-max change, and silent cross-sell. How to build each list as a Smart Agent saved view, and the SMS + email cadence we use for each.

Product
Roadmap · 2027

What we're building for 2027: API-direct carrier statements, drug-list versioning, and ICHRA premium imports.

Our public roadmap update. What's confirmed, what's being scoped, and what we're still arguing about internally. Tell us where your team is hitting friction and we'll factor it in.

Compliance
CMS Marketing Rules · 2026

The 2026 CMS marketing rule changes, summarized for agents who don't have time to read the Federal Register.

What changed for TPMO disclosures, third-party lead generation, and recording requirements. How those changes ripple into your Smart Agent setup — and the four configuration tweaks we recommend before Oct 1.

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Operational notes from real Medicare and Health agencies running Smart Agent. The good experiments, the failed ones, and the workflow templates we'll send you when we figure them out.

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Start Here

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Reading is good.
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Want to see any of these workflows running on your actual book? Book a personalized demo. We'll walk through your carrier mix, your audit risks, and your AEP plan — with the real product.

612.867.4665 · todd.zuerlein@smartagentcrm.com