Back in the old days, doctors did business a little differently– rather than making the patient come to them, they went to thepatient, medical bag in hand. The society was more rural at thetime, hospitals were fewer and further between, and most patientswould either recover or die at home, in their own bed. Over time,this started to change – physicians realized they could do morebusiness and provide better results by seeing patients in a setlocation, so they traded in their black bag for a clinic with awaiting room.

Sometime later they stopped taking chickens and pigs as payment,opting instead for cash and insurance. The funny thing is, themajority of insurance agents still do business like the doctors ofyesteryear. No, we normally don’t accept farm animals in lieu ofcommission, but we do make “house calls” most if not all of thetime. That’s certainly how I got my start in insurance. In 1997, Iwas hired by a Medicare Advantage company – at the time it wascalled Medicare + Choice – to sell their Medicare HMO product.

I spent all day calling on seniors in their homes, and likeanyone who’s done that job can tell you, it was an eye-openingexperience. I have a million war stories, most of which youprobably wouldn’t believe. At the time, this seemed like thelogical way to do business – frankly, it never occurred to us thatthere might be another way. Danielle and David Kunkle, abrother-and-sister team in Fort Worth, seem to have found the otherway. Their company, Boomer Benefits, specializes in Medicareproducts, and they’re quick to tell you that they don’t make housecalls.