Ted Botten is devoted to protecting his clients by helping them choose the right health insurance plans for themselves, their families, and their employees. His commitment to client care even extends to his agency’s phone system. Here’s why Ted Botten Agency turned to Cady for secure communications, CMS Medicare-compliant call recording, and HIPAA-compliant encrypted fax – and how they streamlined remote work in the process.
Secure, Compliant Call Recording and Transcription
Now in their 34th year, Ted Botten Agency provides health insurance plans (including Medicare, dental, and vision) to more than 4,000 clients from their Saint Louis Park, Minnesota location.
The agency needed to upgrade its phone system when the new CMS Medicare call recording requirements went into effect in October 2022.
The rules mandate that insurance agents and brokers who sell Medicare supplemental insurance must record phone calls with beneficiaries for Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug Plans, and they must securely store those recordings for ten years.
Cady was there to help. We replaced Ted Botten Agency’s traditional phone system with a cloud hosted system that automates compliance. Their new system automatically records only the types of calls required by law, ensuring compliance while protecting client privacy.
The call recording service securely stores recordings on the cloud for ten (or more) years, allowing Ted Botten Agency to retrieve the recordings if needed.
“Cady gave me the ability to record in the cloud,” says agency owner Ted Botten. “That’s important because the government changed the rules. Anyone who wants to have a phone appointment to review Medicare policies we have to record.”
The new phone system also automatically transcribes calls, which helps Ted Botten Agency manage callers during its busiest times.
“A big thing we use in the office is the transcription part of the service. Based on the way my business is run, during a really heavy fourth quarter, we might have 100 or 200 calls per day,” Ted says. “We have transcriptions of who we’re going to call so we have documentation of everything. We can divvy up who needs to call whom based on transcription documents before we receive phone calls. The transcription was really a plus, it’s a great thing.”
Encrypted Fax
Secure faxing is vital to the insurance industry, so Cady implemented encrypted faxing to prevent Protected Health Information (PHI) from being intercepted during transmission. An encrypted fax system also helps Ted Botten Agency maintain HIPAA compliance.
“We still fax, and Cady gave us the ability to encrypt faxing, which we did not have before,” Ted says. “The HIPAA privacy law says anything with any person’s data, such as ID numbers, birthdays, and addresses, can’t be sent over public airways, and everything we do is about data privacy. We protect that at all costs, so that’s why encrypted faxing is so important.”
Seamless Remote Communications
Ted Botten Agency went from a standard phone system to a cloud-based unified communication solution. The easy-to-use system allows Ted’s employees to work in the office – and anywhere in the world with a softphone and Internet connection.
The new system also solved a problem with remote work inefficiencies, enabling Ted’s employees to work seamlessly from home.
“Before, we would have a person working remote at her house, but she couldn’t forward anything,” Ted says. “This gives her the ability to have her own line and work from home yet still be tied to the office, which is great. The flexibility of the system is so important for us. We can be working remotely or in the office and not miss a step.”
Business Texting
Cady also provided Ted Botten Agency with business texting services, which routes SMS messages through a business line and enables agency employees to send and receive client texts without disclosing their personal phone numbers.
“We now have the ability to have people text us. We didn’t want to give out personal phone numbers for texts, but this is tied to the main number so people can text us,” Ted says.
Personalized Service and White Glove Support
Ted says he is most impressed with Cady’s professionalism, knowledge, and dedication to customer service.
“We went from a ‘dummy’ phone system to a very capable phone system, but we didn’t know how to use it. They walked us through everything and taught us how to use it,” Ted says. “The few times that we’ve needed the customer service team, we called the local telephone number, and we got answers and solutions within a few minutes. Not too many places can fix what you need fixed on your time frame, which is immediate, which was great.”
Ted adds that Cady has helped him not only modernize his agency’s communications for today, but also keep an eye on the future to remain competitive tomorrow.
“I’ve had conversations with my team from Cady about terms of contracts and what we need to do to upgrade,” he says. “Everything has been laid out in front of me so I can make an educated decision. This is my 34th year of being self-employed, and I’ve always had to make all the decisions about the phone system myself. With Cady, I don’t have to worry about it, and I don’t have to guess at anything.”
What advice would Ted offer to those considering Cady?
“If you want a one-stop shop that you can trust and hand over all responsibility to take care of your phone system, meaning you don’t have to worry about it, Cady is the place,” he says.
Reliable, secure communications and white glove service are crucial to Ted Botten Agency’s success. Cady is proud to be their partner and to ensure communications remain a strength for their team and a differentiator for their business.
