Medicare Agent Websites

CMS Medicare Agent Website Approval

Medicare agent websites catered towards consumers must be submitted to CMS for approval. CMS has taken a strong approach to making sure consumer facing websites are held to the best standards.

CMS Website Guidelines

The following is a list of guidelines pulled directly from CMS

• If displaying the CMS identity mark on your website, follow CMS brand identity guidelines.
• Your site MUST be compliant with section 508 (See related links outside CMS)
• Your site MUST comply with all other applicable CMS and program requirements
• Your site MUST display its privacy policy. If you collect information from site visitors, you MUST indicate what you do with the information you collect. In addition to providing a human-readable policy, you should also provide a machine-readable format using P3P specification

CMS Identity Mark Guidelines

• The following is information directly from CMS.gov
• Do not alter the position of the identity mark elements
• Do not alter or change the typeface
• Do not rotate any of the identity mark elements
• Do not combine the mark with other elements to create a new mark, symbol, etc.
• Do not stretch, distort, or otherwise alter the aspect ratio of the identity mark.
• Do not position the identity mark too close to other items or images.
• Do not alter the color of any of the identity mark elements.
• Do not position the identity mark on colors that do not compliment the mark’s colors.
• Do not position the identity mark on a photographic background where there is insufficient contrast between the photographic image and the identity mark and typography.

How To Stay Section 508 Compliant

The following are some tips from Section508.gov to stay section 508 compliant on your medicare website.

Documents

• Save documents in .docx format to preserve accessibility features. Other formats that can be produced by Microsoft Word may not be accessible.
• Develop reusable accessible design templates to reduce the level of effort to create accessible content.
• Follow responsive design principles that support accessibility on different types of devices.
• Advocate for the use of authoring tools and document converters that enable users to easily create accessible documents. Where possible, upgrade existing tools to the latest version. Benefits include:
• Authoring and evaluation features that make it easier to create accessible documents.
  Conformance to requirements for software-authoring tools requirement in the revised 508 standards.
  

PDFs

• When generating PDF documents through conversion from another format, or through an automated tool, ensure the resulting PDF file is properly tagged to support accessibility.
• If using an authoring tool, make sure the tool is capable of generating accessible PDF documents that conform to PDF/UA.

Captioned Media

• Avoid relying solely on auto-captioning for pre-recorded media.
• Plan for captioning and avoid inefficiencies when producing media. Use speaker scripts, automated/manual captioning from live media events, and other text-based materials in your pre-recorded media captioning procedures.
• Synchronized media content with speech should have accessible captions that are synchronized to appear at approximately the same time as the corresponding audio, and equivalent to the spoken words and other audio information.
• Spoken words should have text equivalents. Sounds and other audio elements necessary to understand and enjoy the entertainment experience should be captioned. Audio elements that are often overlooked by captioners include additional information provided verbally for a text element on a presentation slide.
• The style captioned elements should be consistent throughout the project.

Accessible Audio, Video, And Social Media

• Ensure video content includes synchronized captions.
• Carefully review and edit the accuracy and synchronized timing of the captions, even if captions are provided through automated captioning software.
• Ensure audio descriptions for people with visual disabilities are included in the default soundtrack, or as a separate selectable soundtrack.
• If you are providing a multimedia player to view electronic content, make sure the player addresses the software provisions in the standards.
• If you are providing a learning management system tool to help users locate and track usage of content, make sure that:
• The system addresses the software requirements; and
• The electronic content provided through the system meets the electronic document provisions.

Section 508 compliance has very extensive rules and it is recommended you check them out on their website Section508.gov

For a more comprehensive overview of Medicare marketing, check out our Medicare Marketing Dos and Don’ts blog post!

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