Brokers who pursue federal marketplace training this year will pursue a different path if they are new to the marketplace or renewing their registration.
A returning broker who can use the streamlined refresher training is one who was registered for the marketplace in 2017. To ensure eligibility for refresher training a broker should confirm that their NPN appears on the Agent and Broker FFM Registration Completion List for plan year 2017. This list is available here.
A new broker is one who is completing marketplace training and registration for the first time. A new broker is also one who may have participated in the marketplace in a prior plan year but did not complete registration and training for the 2017 plan year. New brokers are required to complete the full individual marketplace training for plan year 2018.
CMS has a presentation slide deck that new brokers should review in advance of attempting to register for the federal exchange. They will find this deck particularly helpful as it walks through creation of the CMS Enterprise Portal account and other required steps. The deck is available here.
The slide deck also contains instructions for brokers who wish to use an approved vendor for training. Vendors are required to offer five continuing education credits in federal marketplace states.
Marketplace training and registration is no longer available for the 2017 plan year. In fact, the system entered the “go-dark” period on July 21, 2017 in order to prepare for the launch of training for the 2018 plan year.
CMS has a resources page for agents and brokers. It can be accessed here.
Other resources that may be useful include:
New agent and broker guide to registration and training.
Returning agent and broker guide to registration and training.
Slide deck for returning agents and brokers.
Compliance NOW! 