Michael Graham
They know their biz: Comprehensive Benefits adapts to clients’ situations
Adapt and survive. That evolutionary principle is testing businesses of all kinds during the coronavirus pandemic.
For Comprehensive Benefits, LLC, a thriving Medicare-benefits agency with offices in St. Louis and Festus, 310 W. Main St., the key is flexibility.
“You have to be very flexible (with customers),” said Michael Graham, co-owner of the firm he helped launch in 2014. “This year’s been tough. We had to change some things we were doing.
“We can actually do all the enrollment, the reviews and everything over the phone,” he said. “If you’re OK with us coming out (to meet) face-to-face, we’re going to have a mask on, we’re going to social-distance.
“So far it’s been successful.”
Graham, 58, was a Humana agent for 12 years when he and about a dozen colleagues left to form Comprehensive Benefits as an independent agency working with all the major Medicare benefits companies, including Humana, Aetna, Anthem and United Healthcare. The firm supports 42 independent brokers serving more than 10,000 clients across Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee, and recently opened a call center in St. Louis with two employed agents enrolling customers entirely by phone.
The company offers the full gamut of Medicare Advantage (Part C), Medicare supplement and prescription drug (Part D) plans, as well as dental, vision, hospital indemnity and final-expense coverage – a one-stop shop for a wide range of seniors’ needs.
“The thing that sets us apart is our agents are very knowledgeable,” said Graham, who still personally works directly with clients by phone and in person. “They (the firm’s agents) have been in the business a long time.”
And the market demands that professionalism.
“Every eight seconds, somebody turns 65 in this country, so this business is not going to slow down for the next seven to 10 years. It’s a boom business.”