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How a Medicare Brokerage Quietly Rebuilt Its Phone Operation With AI
Most Medicare brokerages do not think of themselves as technology companies.
But when your entire business runs on the phone, technology decisions end up shaping everything.
That was the situation at MyPlanAdvocate, a fast growing Medicare brokerage that handles thousands of inbound calls every day. For them, phone calls are not a support channel. They are the business.
So when the AI system they relied on for call handling suddenly disappeared, the company had a choice to make. Scramble to replace what they had, or rethink how the front door of their business actually worked.
They chose the second option.
The Hidden Cost of “Good Enough” Call Handling
In Medicare, not every call is valuable.
Brokerages often buy inbound calls in real time. Once a call passes a certain length, they pay for it whether it leads to a sale or not. That means even small inefficiencies, such as callers who are not eligible, outside service areas, or simply not a fit, quietly drain money at scale.
Before making changes, MyPlanAdvocate accepted this as a cost of doing business. Human agents did their best to qualify callers, but people naturally vary. Some rush. Some linger. Some push transfers earlier than they should.
None of this is malicious. It is just what happens when humans are asked to repeat the same task thousands of times a day.
Over time, those small inconsistencies added up.
When an AI Vendor Shuts Down Overnight
The turning point came unexpectedly.
The AI provider MyPlanAdvocate used to help manage inbound calls exited the market entirely. There was no long transition period and no gradual wind down. The system they depended on simply went away.
Internally, the takeaway was clear. If call handling was this critical, it could not live inside a black box they did not control.
They needed something flexible, transparent, and fast to adapt, especially in a highly regulated industry like Medicare.
A Different Way to Think About AI on the Phone
Instead of looking for a drop in replacement, MyPlanAdvocate experimented with a more modular approach using Bland.
Rather than asking AI to sound human or replace agents entirely, they focused on something narrower and more practical.
Let AI handle the repetitive, rules based parts of calls.
Let humans focus on judgment, persuasion, and actual selling.
One AI agent took on the role of answering and qualifying inbound calls. Another handled long, mandatory disclosures that agents previously had to read word for word, multiple times a day.
Nothing flashy. Just removing friction where it clearly did not need to exist.
What Changed Once AI Took the First Pass
As Bland's trusted implementation partner, Bland Labs stepped in to continue building the agent, the effects showed up quickly.
Unqualified calls dropped dramatically, not because AI was smarter, but because it was consistent. It did not rush. It did not get tired. It did not optimize for personal incentives.
Meanwhile, agents got something rare in high volume call centers. Time back.
Instead of spending large chunks of the day repeating the same disclosures or sorting through low intent calls, they focused on conversations that actually mattered. Sales felt less rushed. Burnout dropped. Even recruiting got easier, because new hires could see they would spend more time selling than slogging through scripts.
Interestingly, customers adapted just as fast, including older callers. Most did not notice anything different. Some even thanked the AI by name.
The Bigger Lesson: AI as Infrastructure, Not a Gimmick
What is notable about MyPlanAdvocate’s experience is not the technology itself. It is the mindset shift.
They did not adopt AI to chase novelty or headlines. They used it the same way companies once adopted CRMs or call routing software. As infrastructure.
Quiet. Reliable. Boring in the best way.
Today, they are extending the same approach into training, callbacks, and post sale workflows. Not because AI can, but because it removes bottlenecks humans were never meant to handle at scale.
A Glimpse at Where Phone First Businesses Are Headed
For industries like Medicare, insurance, logistics, or financial services, the phone is not going away. But the way calls are handled is clearly changing.
MyPlanAdvocate’s story shows what happens when companies stop asking whether AI sounds human and start asking whether it makes the system work better.
Sometimes the most meaningful transformations are not loud.
They are the ones callers barely notice at all.
Curious how AI would look for your Medicare business? Book a call today to get started!
