Fax for Medicare agents during open enrollment

For seven weeks a year, a Medicare agency runs on fax, and for the other forty-five it hardly does. Medicare.gov gives the Open Enrollment Period as "October 15-December 7." Carriers still publish fax numbers for signed forms in their own agent guides. The right fax plan for that shape of year is an annual one, with a number the agency keeps.

What agents fax

Enrollment applications and the scope-of-appointment forms that go with them, disenrollment requests, and the paper that carriers ask for when a beneficiary signs by hand. Two carrier documents, read at source on September 8, 2026, show the habit in the carriers' own words.

Security Health Plan's 2026 guide for Medicare Advantage agents states that the plan "must receive disenrollment requests prior to the requested date," that "postmark dates are not considered in determining the receipt date," and that "agents should fax (715-221-9607) the signed disenrollment request the day the request is received from the member." The same guide notes that requests sent by email, even as attachments, will not be accepted.

HealthSpring's 2026 enrollment guide for its prescription drug plan lists a fax number for returning the enrollment form, beside the mailing address.

The scope-of-appointment form travels with the application. A 2026 industry guide to the form states that "a completed Scope of Appointment should be submitted to the carrier with each MAPD or PDP enrollment application," and that agents, agencies and general agents "must keep all completed SOA forms on file for a minimum of 10 years."

Receipt dates decide effective dates, so the delivery record matters as much as the send. A fax service that keeps the date, the time, the page count and a confirmation for every send is the record an agency wants when a carrier asks when a form arrived.

Why an annual plan fits the season

An agency's fax volume is a spike. It climbs into October, peaks in November, and drops after December 7. A monthly plan bought for the spike and cancelled in January loses the number, and the next October starts with a new number on every form and every card.

An annual plan keeps the number. Fax Pigeon's annual plans run from $4.99 a month billed annually for 200 pages to $159.99 a month billed annually for 10,000, and the pages are a monthly pool that the spike draws on. Every plan carries every feature: the agency's own number or a free port in, unlimited people at no per-seat charge for the seasonal team, fax by email so a form can go out from an agent's own inbox, a summary written on every incoming fax, e-signatures, cover sheets and delivery proof on every send.

Read at their own pricing pages on October 7, 2026, the competitors' plans that carry a signed agreement start at $12.60 a month at SRFax and run to $99.99 at Fax.Plus, and several charge per user, which is the wrong shape for a team that grows for seven weeks.

The agreement question

Whether a Medicare agency must sign a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement depends on its relationship with each carrier and on what the carrier's contract requires. Fax Pigeon includes the agreement on every plan, signed when you sign up, with the full text public at faxpigeon.com/baa before anyone pays. An agency that is asked for one has it. An agency that is not still gets encrypted storage and the audit record.

One honest concession. An agency that submits every application through a carrier's electronic portal and never touches paper has less to fax than this page describes. The fax line then earns its keep on the exceptions, the signed forms and the disenrollments that the carriers still want by fax.

Who this is for

An independent agent or a small agency that works the annual enrollment period, keeps a fax number on its business cards and forms, and would rather pay once a year than buy and drop a plan every autumn.

Who should look elsewhere: a large agency inside a field marketing organization that supplies its fax line, and an agent who submits everything electronically and receives nothing by fax.

See the plans, or read the agreement first at faxpigeon.com/baa.

Fax Pigeon is not affiliated with Medicare, CMS or any carrier. Medicare.gov, the carrier guides and the scope-of-appointment guide were read at source on September 8, 2026. Competitor prices were read at their own pages on October 7, 2026.