🩺 Industry · Insurance · Medicare T65

Medicare turning 65 mailing list — T65 leads, AEP timing, and the LeadsPlease® playbook.

A Medicare turning 65 mailing list (T65 list) targets U.S. consumers in the 7-month Initial Enrollment Period (IEP) that opens 3 months before the 65th birthday and closes 3 months after. It is the single most predictable, highest-intent audience in U.S. direct mail: ~330,000 Americans cross 65 every month, the eligibility window is hard-coded by federal rule, and the recipient knows they have to choose a plan. Medicare Advantage, Med Supp, and Part D agents who lean on T65 mailing lists during the IEP consistently see 0.8–1.8% response on cold mail and 4–8% with the Intent Data overlay — an order of magnitude above generic 65+ outreach.

T65 vs “age 65+”: birthday-cohort filtering wins

Most generic Medicare lists filter to “age 65 and up” — an audience of ~58 million Americans, the vast majority of whom enrolled in Medicare years ago and are now locked into a plan they're unlikely to switch outside AEP. A T65 mailing list filters specifically to the ~330,000 consumers per month who are actively in their 7-month Initial Enrollment Period. Same data set, dramatically different response economics: birthday-cohort prospects haven't picked a plan yet, the federal rule forces them to choose, and they actively want help understanding the options.

The LeadsPlease® National Consumer Database carries month and year of birth on every record. That's what makes a true T65 list buildable: filter for “consumers whose 65th birthday falls in the next 6 months” and you get a rolling cohort that updates as time passes. Layer geo (ZIP / radius / polygon / state), household income, and the intent_health_insurance_shopping overlay, and you've got a precision Medicare prospect file no AEP-only list can match.

T65 IEP vs Medicare AEP — both, not either

T65 Initial Enrollment Period (year-round, rolling)

The 7-month IEP for each consumer covers the 3 months before their 65th birthday month, the birthday month, and the 3 months after. Mail year-round on a rolling birthday cohort. Each month a fresh ~330K Americans roll into the window and ~330K roll out — perfect for the Subscriptions API.

Medicare AEP — Annual Enrollment Period (Oct 15 – Dec 7)

The 8-week window when current Medicare beneficiaries can switch plans. Audience is much larger (all 65+ on Medicare in your geo) and the mail cycle is concentrated. Volume play; you'll typically pull a one-shot AEP list each September and run drops weekly through November.

Why most agents run both

T65 IEP captures the new Medicare beneficiaries before they pick a plan; AEP captures the existing beneficiaries who can still switch. Different cohorts, different pitch, different cadence — but the same agent typically sells both Medicare Advantage and Med Supp products to both audiences.

The Criteria object — Phoenix T65 rolling cohort

Let's build a working example. We're a Medicare Advantage agent farming the Phoenix metro (five ZIPs: 85254, 85255, 85258, 85259, 85260) and we want to mail every consumer turning 65 in the next 6 months whose household income is $40K+ (filters out very-low-income households where Medicaid dual-eligibility likely changes the conversation). Wrapped in a Subscription, this becomes auto-pilot:

// T65 rolling cohort — Phoenix metro, IEP window
{
  "listType": "consumer",
  "geoCriteriaType": "manual",
  "affiliateCode": "lp",
  "contactDataPoints": ["direct_mail", "phone"],
  "geos": [
    { "name": "85254", "type": "zip" },
    { "name": "85255", "type": "zip" },
    { "name": "85258", "type": "zip" },
    { "name": "85259", "type": "zip" },
    { "name": "85260", "type": "zip" }
  ],
  "demographics": [
    { "name": "birthday_window",  "codes": ["turning_65_next_6_months"] },
    { "name": "household_income", "codes": ["40K+"] }
  ]
}

// Then wrap in a Subscription for monthly auto-delivery:
POST /subscriptions
{
  "name": "Phoenix T65 — rolling 6-month IEP",
  "searchCriteriaId": "<criteria id from above>",
  "deliveryChannels": ["EMAIL"]
}

Layering the Intent Data overlay

The LeadsPlease® National Consumer Database carries an Intent Data field on every record — multiple intent categories each scored on a 1–100 percentile basis. For Medicare specifically, intent_health_insurance_shopping catches consumers actively researching health-insurance plans right now. Layered on the T65 cohort, the audience shrinks to the in-market subset:

// Same T65 list, layered with health-insurance-shopping intent
{
  "listType": "consumer",
  "demographics": [
    { "name": "birthday_window",                  "codes": ["turning_65_next_6_months"] },
    { "name": "household_income",                 "codes": ["40K+"] },
    { "name": "intent_health_insurance_shopping", "codes": ["P75+"] }
  ],
  "geos": [ /* same five Phoenix ZIPs */ ]
}

The cadence that wins

The 7-month Initial Enrollment Period is long enough for a 4–5 touch cadence. The pattern that compounds:

1. Month -3 — Introduction postcard with personalized birthday awareness (“your 65th is approaching”) and a clear plan-comparison CTA
2. Month -2 — Educational letter or booklet: Parts A/B/C/D explained, common mistakes to avoid
3. Month -1 — Specific plan-comparison piece for your local market with a hard deadline (“enrollment opens [birthday month]”)
4. Month 0 (birthday month) — Birthday card with personalized appointment-booking CTA — this is the highest-response touch in the entire sequence
5. Month +1 to +3 — Two follow-up touches for non-responders before the IEP closes

Layer the Subscriptions API on top so every new birthday cohort that rolls into the 6-month window gets queued automatically. Five touches across seven months consistently converts 6–12% of T65 prospects into application starts.

Deliverability + compliance

All LeadsPlease® mailing-list records are USPS CASS-certified and refreshed monthly. Medicare-specific compliance: respect CMS Medicare Marketing Guidelines (no scare tactics, no unsolicited appointments, required disclaimers on plan-comparison pieces, no use of the Medicare logo unless authorized), respect Do-Not-Mail / DNS / DNC suppression (the API auto-suppresses), and respect state-specific Medicare solicitation rules (especially CA, NY, FL, TX, where carrier oversight is heaviest).

Other ways to access T65 data

You don't have to integrate the API yourself. Three paths to LeadsPlease® T65 lists:

• The Data API — for insurtech platforms, FMOs, and IMOs building T65 list-pulling into their agent dashboards. JWT auth, OpenAPI 3.0 spec, no order minimum, Subscriptions API for daily auto-delivery.
• The Mailing List MCP Server — if your team uses Claude / Cursor / ChatGPT, plug LeadsPlease® in and ask conversationally (“how many people are turning 65 in the next 90 days in Phoenix-metro ZIPs?”).
• The website checkout — one-time T65 pulls without writing any code. $124.95 minimum per order applies; the API has no minimum.

Related playbooks