Medicare's Annual Enrollment Period runs October 15 through December 7, 2026 (Medicare.gov, 2026). Every sales and marketing call an independent Medicare agent takes during that window has been subject to a federal recording mandate since 2022 — and this is the first AEP where a new CMS rule lets agencies retain six years of records instead of ten, with a transcript allowed for the back half of that period (Ritter Insurance Marketing, 2026; Crowell & Moring, 2026).
The recording mandate isn't new. What changed is how long you have to keep it.
CMS has required Medicare Advantage and Part D agents to record marketing, sales, and enrollment calls in their entirety since October 1, 2022, under a rule that also set a 10-year retention period (Ritter Insurance Marketing, 2026). That requirement never went away. What changed is the retention math: CMS's Contract Year 2027 final rule, finalized in April 2026, cuts the retention window for marketing and sales calls from 10 years to 6 — three years of audio, then three more years where a complete and accurate transcript satisfies the requirement instead of the recording itself (Crowell & Moring, 2026). Calls that result in an actual enrollment stay on the original 10-year track; only the marketing and sales portion got shorter (Crowell & Moring, 2026).
Why this specific AEP is the first one under the new rule
The six-year retention policy applies to marketing and sales communications made on or after October 1, 2026 (Crowell & Moring, 2026) — two weeks before this year's Annual Enrollment Period opens. Every AEP since 2022 has run under the old 10-year, audio-only standard. This is the first one where an agency's recordkeeping can legally treat years four through six as a transcript problem instead of an audio-storage problem, right as call volume peaks for the year.
What actually has to be recorded, and who it applies to
- Every inbound and outbound call that touches marketing, sales, or enrollment for a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan — there's no minimum call-volume exception (PSM Brokerage, 2026).
- The requirement reaches independent agents, captive agents, call center reps, and the FMOs/GAs (field marketing organizations/general agencies) above them — CMS groups this whole category as a Third-Party Marketing Organization, or TPMO (PSM Brokerage, 2026).
- If a beneficiary declines to be recorded, there's no workaround: the agent has to end that call and offer an in-person meeting instead, which isn't subject to the recording rule (Ritter Insurance Marketing, 2026).
- The mandate runs year-round, not just during AEP — but AEP is when the volume of covered calls is highest, packed into a 53-day window (Medicare.gov, 2026).
| 2022–2026 rule | CY2027 rule — starts Oct 1, 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing/sales call retention | 10 years, audio required throughout | 6 years — audio years 1–3, audio or transcript years 4–6 |
| Enrollment call retention | 10 years | 10 years (unchanged) |
| Who it applies to | TPMOs: agents, brokers, call centers, FMOs/GAs | Same |
| Beneficiary declines recording | Agent must end call, no waiver | Same |
Where the phone system a Medicare agency uses actually intersects with this
None of this changes based on whether a call is answered by a person or by an AI phone system — the recording obligation attaches to the call itself, not to who or what picks it up. What it does change is the storage and retrieval side. An agency running near-continuous inbound and outbound Medicare calls for 53 straight days now has a smaller, but real, question to answer: does whatever handles those calls make it easy to produce the audio or transcript CMS could ask for years from now, or does it create a second manual filing job on top of an already compressed season? That's a call for your agency's compliance officer or upline FMO to sign off on, not a vendor's marketing page — but it's worth asking directly of whatever system answers your phones this AEP.
The recordkeeping question lands hardest on the smallest agencies
Tinseth & Associates, a family-owned independent agency in Kalispell, is typical of how Medicare gets sold outside Montana's population centers — one office comparing Medicare Supplement, MAPD, and Part D plans across multiple carriers for clients across the Flathead Valley (Tinseth & Associates, 2026). Small independent agencies like this typically don't run a dedicated compliance department — the same one or two people fielding calls in November are often the ones who'd have to locate that recording years later if CMS asked for it. A 53-day enrollment window is tight enough without that recordkeeping question turning into an afterthought.