AEP, the Annual Enrollment Period, is the window each fall when US Medicare beneficiaries can join, switch or drop Medicare Advantage and Part D plans. It runs from October 15 to December 7. For Medicare campaigns it concentrates most of the year's volume into a few weeks.
The staffing problem AEP creates, hiring in September for work that ends in December, is the clearest case for capacity that can be ordered and stood down.
What AEP looks like on a floor
A Medicare floor in Lahore may run a modest team for most of the year, then need far more fronters from early October. Leads come in faster, closers at the US agency are fully booked, and every unqualified transfer costs more because licensed time is at its scarcest. After December 7 the volume drops sharply. There is a smaller window early in the year, the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period from January 1 to March 31, with tighter rules on what can change.
How AEP shows up in reports
Transfers per day, closer acceptance rate and hold time before a closer answers all move during AEP. If hold times climb, more fronters will not help; the closer queue is the limit, and transfers are being wasted. Compare week-on-week numbers against the same weeks last year.
Common mistakes
Hiring and training too late, so new fronters are still learning the script in November.
Running last year's disclosure and disclaimer. CMS updates the rules, so confirm the current script with the plan's compliance team.
Scaling fronters without checking the client's closer capacity.
Capacity for the season
The cost of AEP is not just wages. It is recruiting, training, quality drift from new hires and letting people go in January. Capacity that can be added in October and reduced in December, whether seats from a staffing partner or bots ordered for the season, avoids most of that.