Health and Wellness Show 04-05-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Good morning. Now time for the Health and Wellness Show
on one of three point five FM and five sixty
AM WVOC. I'm Gary David. Good morning to you. Coming up,
we'll be talking to Jeff Halliver at Health Markets all
the different parts of the moving pieces when it comes
to medicare do you need this part, that part? We'll
talk about all the parts. Ben Bixby is going to
join us for the first time. He is the founder

(00:35):
of Work Better team and how his team can help
your team, your small business. We'll do just that work Better.
You'll tell us all about it now. Also about an
upcoming workshop we got coming up here later on this month.
Right now, Jim Stoll, the law office of James Snell
is in the house. Good morning, my friend, Good morning.
How are you man?

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Well?

Speaker 1 (00:55):
I tell you okay? Actually good? Although, oh this is
all so.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
I made the mistake of taking my wife to wing
Guards in Lexing. Oh yeahs ery which sells yes, all plants,
and they were all very nice.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
They had a big sale a couple of weeks and.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
They did uh. But she she had gone back and
bought uh. So I'm gonna call it concrete decorative items.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Oh that somebody's got to unload, right.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Well, it was me and I think the things. Wait,
I don't know. I did not know anything could be
that heavy. Yeah, so I'm I am. Even a couple
of days later, I'm still feeling it. And uh oh,
before we before we talk, I don't want to talk
about uh uh othough, gosh, we can talk about spring game.

(01:43):
But I uh, I know you're a big football yes,
but but but but before we talk about what I
came here to talk about, which is car insurance and
the different policies that get in play after Rex. One
thing I wanted just to throw out for anybody. I'm
technically a real estate broker, but I don't really you know, practice, Yeah,
just like I'm licensed, just so I can personally you

(02:03):
know things. But anybody wants a building in Armburg, I
got one. It's listed with cal Brunner in Orangeburg, twelve
eighty one Amelia Street. It's about nine thousand square feet. Wow,
right downtown one hundred and seventy five thousand. What for

(02:25):
nine thousand square feet? Yes, to two levels up and down.
I mean it's a little fixer upper, okay, but but
it's it's RT gains On the job right downtown. It
So if anybody's potentially looking for something in Archeburg, reach
out to mister Bruner and he'll be happy to help him.
But it's a yeah, it's a good price, and it's
a great location.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
That is a great price. Yes, okay, I did not
know you had a real estate license. Well I'll tell you.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
You know, so I first got licensed in ninety six
as a salesperson. You can become a broker with a
law degree, just if you can pass the test. Really
and in that way, Fiver, you know, want to buy something,
you know, I can you know, just access the multi
list directly or whatever, and you know, arranged to get

(03:07):
the commission.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
UH said me, alful, you are a true renaissances. I happened.
I happen to know all the different things that you
you study and you you go through and crazy, man,
I don't have your.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
You know, just try to stay busy. But but no,
I don't. I don't practice and I'm not a real
estate person. I'm a lawyer. And uh, and we're here
today talk about uh just just one of the really
probably one of one of the more significant parts of
helping people. I'll talk to you in the context of

(03:41):
of car rex and personal injury that you know a
lot of people don't you until you're kind of in
this world, you don't really get exposure to it, and
even then it can be a little tough to wrap
your head around sometimes. So one of the things that
we do when somebody calls us and then where their

(04:04):
famili has been in a wreck, right and they got hurt,
you know, one thing we have to have to begin
considering is where in the world are we going to
get the money? You know, who's who's got the money
that can be can be used to help, you know,
cover their their injuries and their bills and and everything else.

(04:28):
You know, we're what what's our what's our recovery source?
And oftentimes that's going to be insurance, sure, all right,
so hopefully there is going to be a liability policy
right where you know, whoever was at fault for the wreck,

(04:49):
you know they've got insurance, and you know, the insurance
company says, we've got you know, what's called liability coverage,
which pays you know, medical bills, lost wages, pay and
suffering whatever for somebody that was injured because of their
their person right and actually when I first started practicing,

(05:11):
the insurance companies didn't have to tell us what those
limits were.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
They would keep it a secret.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
And they passed the law, you know, creating this process
with the insurance companies have to disclose it to us,
because it used to be in order to actually very
if you had a serious case, in order to verify
the coverage, oftentimes insurance companies would not tell you and
you actually had to file a laws in it, right,
But they passed the law, so we now have a

(05:40):
process where you can request in writing to get exactly
what those limits are. And that's the liability portion so
at fault person and that is your starting off point.
Right in South Carolina, the minimum limits are twenty five thousand.
You see it a lot a lot of people, you know,
they want the cheapest insurance they can get. You know,

(06:01):
I think they're even TV commercials, you know, minimum limits
you know, will keep you legal for less kind of
whatever wherever they work it. So, and that means that
no matter what the how the wreck happened, how bad
someone was hurt, what the bills are, that insurance company
is only responsible up to that say that twenty five

(06:22):
right right, Okay, So you know, and we're talking typically
about situations where people are involved in collisions with personal vehicles.
You know, if it's a commercial vehicle or like a
truck or something, that the minimum limits can be a
lot more. But all right, So one of the other

(06:44):
things is is now, just because someone's insurance is not
significant or sufficient to cover the injuries, you know, it
doesn't mean that they're not responsible, right individually.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
Right, Yeah, what happens on those limits to reached.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
So we frequently didn't have to have to look and see,
well does this person that you know ran the red
light or reared in our person or whatever they did.
Do you know, do they have any personal assets? You know,
are they have is there any way to actually collect
money from them? Individually? And in South Carolina, unfortunately, the

(07:23):
majority of people don't own the type of assets that
you could ever actually force a collection out of them.
So our laws in South Calntin if the well hopefully not,
hopefully not, but the laws in South Carolina are actually
written to protect citizens and residents of South Carolina really

(07:44):
provide them a lot of protection against creditors. And so
that can be great if we're trying to shield our
our our citizens from you know, out of state banks, right,
but it really is not so great when you know
you're you know, the their liability is because they caused
a reckon, you know, really hurt somebody. Uh So they said,

(08:06):
you know, there's there's a time to check you know,
assets and look at that. But but typically after the
liability insurance, the other next usually most likely sorcer recovery
is going to be from our own clients underinsured. Right,
And I think we've discussed this before, but underinsured is optional,

(08:28):
but most people get it. And that's where you can
purchase insurance to cover yourself and your family in the
event that the person who hits you their liability coverage
isn't enough, okay, and that can actually be very significant
in an awful lot of cases. The the majority of

(08:49):
the recovery uh includes this underinsured coverage. And in fact,
the way the law works in South Carolina, if if
you're policy has multiple vehicles, you know, see you got
three cars on your policy, you can actually combine the
underinsured limits. It's unstacking. So for example, if you have

(09:14):
a fifty one hundred thousand dollar policy with fifty thousand
in underinsured limits, that actually combines to one hundred and
fifty thousand total available if you have three cars, good
to no example. Right, So yeah, and that gets real important,
you know, what's what's that policy? And some people are
you know, I talked to people and they're like, well,
I don't want my insurance to have to pay because

(09:37):
this other guy hit me. And it's like, well, this
is the insurance you've been paying for. You've been paying
the premium for this exact you know event. I mean,
why the word were you paying the premium if you
weren't going to use the policy?

Speaker 1 (09:49):
And I guess folks are always concerned that, wow, if
my insurance has to pay out, I'm gonna get it.
I'm gonna take it a hit for this, my rates
are going up, well whatever.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
And you know, of course, obviously insurance companies and I'll
tell the feedback I get. They don't cancel people for
filing on underinsured because again that's the whole purpose of
the policy, right, But people can Yeah, I think you
be worried about whatever their rates are or something. And
again I don't think that's affected in almost all situations,
you know, by those claims. But you know, good gosh,

(10:19):
if it's if it's an extra one hundred grand or
one hundred and fifty thousand or whatever it is. I
mean that's you know, that's that's a lot of money
to leave on the table. Yes, so uninsured it's absolutely
something to to review. And I will tell you it
is always, uh, I say, unpleasant to find somebody that
really has a really syne of an injury caused by

(10:41):
somebody with you know, low limits and to see that,
you know, find out that they either didn't purchase under
insured they somehow waived it or or you know, the
people that need it are awfully glad to have it
when the time comes.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Right, I mean, all right, so the person that hits you,
they got the bare minimum when it comes to liability, right,
they have no assets. You don't have underinsured motorist coverage.

Speaker 3 (11:12):
Sometimes you can just be out, you know, sometimes that's
just it. Yeah, And that's what's it's awful important to
be diligent about checking everything. Now if I getting too
complex on time, it's Saturday morning stuff to do. But
I will tell you that there are also coverages available
that some that can be uh, some people have and
you know, we know how to how to look for them.

(11:33):
There's something called an umbrella policy that can can somethings
be available on the UH.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
Which are very cheap.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
I got one, Yeah, very cheap one in addition to
say the liability. And frequently those umbrella policies can be
a million dollars or more. And it's you know, it's
it can be it can be very significant in a
significant case to discover that the fault driver had an
umbrella policy of play. So those are those are those

(12:02):
can be real significant. There's some it's not always easy
to find out if that exists, but there's a way,
and you know, we certainly look for those and are
able to be helpful. And then there's also something on
our own client's policy called medpay or maybe some kind
of personal injury protection and that can usually be a
smaller amount of coverage that is maybe a few thousand,

(12:28):
one thousand, five thousand, sometimes ten thousand that can cover
medical bills directly in addition to the other policies. So
it's so what I'm saying is it's sometimes it's it's
important to know what the you know, figure out how
the wreck happened, you know, be it a document, the injuries,
the damages permanent effects. Then you've also got to get

(12:50):
the wrangle with figuring out all the policies at play
and really verifying that, and we've discussed before that, you know,
then the last steps can even we'll talk about this
a whole other topic, but wrangling over the medical leans
that can come into play. So a lot of places,
a lot of kind of moving parts in these situations
where we can add value for clients. Anybody wants to

(13:12):
reach out to us. It's free consultations. We don't take
any money up front. You know, we get paid a
percent of the recovery when we actually do make recovery,
which is regularly, which is pretty good at doing it.
But it's eight zero three three five nine three three
zero one Snell Law dot Com three LS. We're located
in Lexington, having a little offic in Columbia, but we're
able to help people all around.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
Sir, good to see you, Thanks so much. You're listening
to the Health and Wellness Show on WVOC HI.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
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(14:58):
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(15:21):
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Speaker 1 (15:58):
Let's get you covered here when it comes to all
your insurance needs, health insurance needs. Jeff Howet is joining
us from health markets once again this morning. Jeff, good morning,
my friend.

Speaker 7 (16:06):
Good morning Gary.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
How you doing, my friend?

Speaker 7 (16:08):
I'm doing well on this Saturday.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
Good health insurance. And I hate to make this all
about myself, but you know, I'm the kind of the
perfect example right now. I turned sixty five this year,
and we have had conversations in the past about Medicare coverage.
I guess the secret is this, Jeff, you don't have
to wait until you're almost sixty five to start thinking about.

Speaker 7 (16:29):
This, right, that's correct. I meet with many people who
are just turning sixty, sixty three, sixty four, and they
come into my office at the Flight right by the
flight Deck restaurant in Lexington, and we do some planning.
Because health expense is the number one expense that a
person has after they retire, so it's good to plan
with someone like myself and see exactly what those expenses

(16:51):
are going to look like.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, because I was going to ask you so, so
if somebody who was sixty years old listening and they're thinking, Okay, gosh,
I got five more years, why do I need to
start right now? I guess there's a lot to consider.

Speaker 7 (17:02):
Here, that's true, And a lot of people are thinking
about retiring before they're sixty five. So what does health
insurance look like when you're sixty two? Or if, say,
if you're a spouse and you are the main employee
on a group health plan and you take Medicare at
sixty five and your spouse is still sixty two, what

(17:24):
does her health insurance costs look like? So there are
many factors to consider, right, and.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
You just mentioned this, But let's say you're planning to
retire at sixty two, sixty three, sixty four, whatever the
age is before sixty five. Well, you feel free to
retire and you can take that early social security if
you like, but you can't get Medicare through sixty five.

Speaker 7 (17:42):
Right, that's true. So we would look at a solution
on the marketplace, such as an individual Blue Cross Blue
Shield plan, and I would sit down and look what
those costs look like. And then of course when a
person turns sixty five, they would transition over to Medicare
and they we would plan on what those costs look like.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Okay, so let's say we want to get into all
the different options you have here in a second, Jeff.
But again, let's talk about somebody who's approaching that age
of sixty five. What's the timeline of when they need
to be doing what?

Speaker 7 (18:11):
Yes? Good question. So three months before the first day
or birthday month. So for example, if you turn sixty
five in June, then around March first, which would be
three three months before June first, around March first, you
would on contact Medicare social Security. You can do that
really one of three ways. You can do it online

(18:32):
SSA dot gov where it used to be Search Security
dot gov, and you can hit the apply for Medicare
button there and make sure you apply for parts A
and B. You can call Medicare Social Security one eight
hundred Medicare and they'll set you up a phone appointment
with a Medicare dot Gov specialist and they'll sign you
up for Medicare AMB. Or you can call and make

(18:55):
an appointment at a local office such as a Strong
Thurman building downtown Columbia, and you can do it.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
In person, which I again highly advise against based on
past history.

Speaker 7 (19:06):
Okay, yeah, online is always best and I do help
people at my office with the online process. So instead
of going down to Strong Thermo building waiting three hours
down there, you can come to my Health Markets office
and we can sit down on my computer and get
you all signed up for A and B. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
Okay, okay, good. But if you choose to do it
on your own online, I mean, are there any questions
you're going to encounter during the process that you go,
oh gosh, I have no idea there could be.

Speaker 7 (19:34):
So, for example, you want to keep the money part
and the health part separate. Right, So if you're turning
sixty five but you're not going to take Social Security,
you're going to wait for your full retirement age, say
sixty seven or you know, sixty six and ten months whenever.
That is. You know, different different people have, you know,
people have different max retirement ages. But if you don't

(19:57):
want to take the money and you want to just
you know, let that you know, defer that for a while.
You just want to make sure not to click on
that button that says yes, I want to take such security.
So there are some tricky parts in there. And then
of course if a person is staying on their group
health plan and they want to defer Part B and
not take Medicare right now, they would enroll in Part

(20:19):
A and defer Part B and we can do that
online also.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
Okay, So just just to be able to safe side
so you don't like, you know, hit a wrong button somewhere. Uh,
probably a good idea to come sit down with you
and make sure you're hitting all the right buttons. I guess.

Speaker 7 (20:32):
Glad to help. I've done a million times, so glad
to help. I'm glad to be a resource for that.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
Absolutely great now again, you know a lot of folks
listening this morning, you've been on Medicare maybe for a
long time. You know all these things. But again, for
those who aren't there yet, maybe it would be good
to again define a couple of things here, because you
just throw out Part A in part B. We've all
heard about that over the years, those of us who
aren't to that age yet. But exactly what what does

(20:58):
that mean Part A in part B.

Speaker 7 (21:00):
Yes, so everyone's probably seen the classic red, white and
blue card, which is a Medicare card. So part A
is the hospital, essentially room and board at the hospital.
Part B is everything else health related, such as doctors, MRIs, surgeries,
everything else. If you've worked ten years in your life

(21:22):
since you turn you know, fifteen years old, you know,
up until you turn sixty five, your barn was called
forty quarters of credits, your part A is free, so
you don't pay anything part A. What people are very
surprised about when they meet with me the first time
is that part B is not free. Part B in
twenty twenty four is one hundred and seventy four dollars

(21:42):
and seventy cents is what most people pay. However, if
your income is higher, you could pay more than that
standard amount. And so there's a chart that I show
people and we walk them through. But most people pay
the standard one hundred and seventy four dollars and seventy cents.
If a person is getting so security, take that one
seventy four seventy right out. They're soch security check if

(22:03):
they're not getting such security yet, if they're waiting on that,
then they'll be bill quarterly for that one seventy four seventy.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
Okay, do we this is maybe a stupid question, but
I mean, do we know why they decided to set
it up this way? Did split it into parts A
in part B? You know with.

Speaker 7 (22:19):
They did that in nineteen sixty eight Lyndon B. Johnson.
That's how they did it, the original original, the original
Medicare Act. Yeah. So, and then in two thousand and
six came to fruition the Part D Act to the
Prescription Drug Act. And so that's the that's the third
that's the third letter you need to know A B

(22:42):
and D and so D means prescription drugs. And so essentially,
if you don't get a prescription drug plan, you're first eligible.
You will be penalized if you ever do down the
road purchase a prescription drug plan. So really I always
find that interesting. You know, the Prescription Drug Act was
a Republican law, and it penalized you for not getting it,

(23:03):
and of course, down down some years later came the
Affordable Care Act, where people are penalized for not getting that.
There's a Democrat law. So Republican, the Democrats have the
same ideas, just in different points in time.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
They're all out together. Okay, so let's back up again
a second. Yeah, so, boy, what happened to Part C?
What they they left Part C out? What is that?

Speaker 7 (23:26):
Part C is your Medicare advantage plan?

Speaker 1 (23:28):
Oh okay, okay, your.

Speaker 7 (23:30):
Medicare advantage plans are part SEE and that's where you
can you still pay the one seventy four seventy everyone
pays that, but many Part C plans have no premium
on top of that, and they cover your health, your dental, vision, hearing.
They have prescription drug plans built in. So that's one
option for the insurance to go along with your Medicare.

Speaker 1 (23:51):
Okay, and we want to talk more about that here
in a second. But let's go back to Part D
for a moment. Make sure I got this straight here. Okay,
so originally you you're not you got A. You're coming
off your employee health plan. Okay, let's use this example.
You're going to have to sign up for parts A
and part B. Okay, if you're staying on your employee

(24:11):
health plan, you still have to sign up for Part A,
but you don't have to sign up for Part B.

Speaker 7 (24:16):
Correct right, or see or D or potentially do you
do nothing but you sign up for part and you
defer the rest.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
Okay, what if you hit sixty five and you're still
working and you're covered by your employee health plan, but
you just don't even think about it, I don't even
know about you don't sign up for a part. Ay
are any penalties for that?

Speaker 7 (24:36):
There are? So you have to do something if you
have to do something, So within those three months before
you turn sixty five, you have to let medicare and
know what you're doing. Either you're going to take Parts
A and B and enroll, or you're going to enroll
in A and defer the rest until you do one
day retire and your group health plan.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
In I'm not sure why that makes any sense, but
that's just the way it is. I guess right, that's right.

Speaker 7 (25:00):
Don't apply logic to the government, you know, well, true,
that's a good point.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
We are talking to the government after all. All right, So,
but but again my question back to Part D for
a second. Then we'll get to Part C. So you
decide that you're signing up for AMB but you're like,
you know what, I'm not. I got no medications I'm
taking here. I don't have to worry about that right now.
I'll do it later on. You just told us you

(25:26):
can do that, but you're going to be penalized when
you do. So what is that penalty, Jeff?

Speaker 7 (25:32):
So, essentially, the penalty is one percent of the average
drug card costs in your area, and right now it's
about thirty six cents, because the average drug card costs
about about thirty six dollars. So you take that, You
take that thirty six cents, you say, oh, that's not
too bad, right, Let's say let's let's say five years

(25:53):
go on. So it's thirty six to six thirty six
cents per month for every month you didn't have a
drug card per month in eligible. Oh, so, so it's
that thirty six month, thirty six cents times twelve times five.
So let's say five years later you do get a
drug card. You say, okay, well that's, you know, not
the end of the world. However, that penalty stays with

(26:14):
you the rest of your life.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
Of course it does.

Speaker 7 (26:18):
So let's say that you get a drug card, you know,
five years later, and the drug card is forty dollars
a month. Well, now with the penalty, you're now paying
fifty four dollars a month, you know, for the fourteen
dollars penalty, And that fourteen dollar penalty stays with you
the rest of your life, and no matter what drug
card you buy, you'll always pay plus fourteen dollars, even

(26:38):
when you're one hundred years old.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
Oh okay, all right, So.

Speaker 7 (26:42):
You need to get the Part D when you're first eligible. Okay,
that's that's the moral of that story.

Speaker 1 (26:46):
So let's let's let's let's cook up another scenario here. Jeff,
you take the part of either Part B. You say,
I'm not going to worry about Part D or CE
right now. It's not a big deal for me for
whatever reason. But oh year, two years down the road,
you say, you find out, Okay, I'm gonna get this
penalty if I sign up a Part DY now, so
never mind, I'll just go with Part C. Are you penalized?

(27:11):
Is there a penalty there?

Speaker 7 (27:13):
Yes? Well, most parts, most Part C plans do include
prescription drug.

Speaker 1 (27:18):
Coverage, right, so you don't need Part D if you
have Part C, that's right.

Speaker 7 (27:22):
The Part C covers everything. So the prescription drug plan
and many Part C Medicare advantage plans is built in.
So when you get a Medicare advantage plan, you first
turn sixty five, you check that box. We're having credible
Part D coverage. So you're good. You are good, But
down the road five years, ten years later, you've done
nothing on the drug card part If you purchase a

(27:45):
drug card by itself, a Part D or a Medicare
parts with prescription drug coverage, you will be penalized. Okay,
Now that there are party Medicare advantage plans that do
not include prescription drug coverage. Now, a lot of times
I sell those to people who are veterans or who
get their prescriptions through the VA, so they have credible

(28:06):
drug coverage with the VA. And a lot of times
these Medicare advantage plans without drug plan coverage have nice
extra benefits. Since they don't have to provide the drug
card benefits, money goes into other benefits like I'm putting
one hundred dollars cash back into your SOI Security check
or five thousand dollars worth of dental all these extra

(28:27):
benefits the veterans get on Medicare advantage plans without drug coverage.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
Okay, okay, gotcha. And as we've talked about the past,
the parts see the Medicare advantage plans have grown tremendously
in popularity over the last couple of years.

Speaker 7 (28:43):
Yes, so in twenty twenty two was the first year
that more Medicare Advantage plans were purchased and Medicare supplements,
So the tide has turned. It used to be throughout
my whole insurance career, I sold more Medicare supplements. Everyone
else did too, the Medicare advantage, But it's kind of
flipped now Now Medicare advantage plans are more popular. But

(29:07):
just because they're more popular does not mean they're the
right solution for everyone. You know, everyone I meet with
is different, and so if I if I sit down
with someone, Medicare supplement and drug card very well may
be the perfect solution for them, and the next person
who walks through my door, Medicare advantage may be the
right solution. So it's very tailored to everyone's particular needs.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
So let's talk about the cost of the two. So
you got your A, got your B. Now you go
with the part D. What's the cost of adding that on?

Speaker 7 (29:40):
Right, So let's let's first talk about what A and
B gets you. So if you have that red, white
and blue card and you've gotten am B, what do
you have in your hand. Essentially, you have a card
at a doctor and hospital will cover eighty percent of
medical costs you have. You have some deductibles there also,
but let's just talk in generality. Eighty percent of your
medical costs are covered. So now you're on the hook

(30:03):
for twenty percent of the medical costs plus some deductibles.
So that's what a Medicare supplement would cover. It's also
called a medic gap plan, meaning it covers the gaps
that Medicare has, So you get what's called a plan G.
It covers the gaps of Medicare. So now when you
go into a doc or hospital, you give them your red, white,
blue Medicare card, you give them your Medicare supplement cards

(30:26):
and other than a one time part be deductible, which
is this year two hundred and forty dollars. Once you
meet that two hundred and forty dollars deductible, you're covered
one hundred percent. I mean, it's the best insurance in
the world. You could be in a coma all summer,
wake up and you'll do nothing when you wake up, Prismo,
Lex and Medical Center wherever you are. The great thing

(30:46):
about doing it that way is that Medicare is your network.
So when Medicare is primary, so every hospital in the
country takes Medicare and every you know, little system, so
you really have no worries about traveling out of state.
You have no worries about Oh I'm worried about you know,

(31:08):
will Prisma take you know? No, yes, you're good. Prison
will take that, Lex and Medical Center would take that MUOC,
Providence would take that all day you have Medicare. Some
of these Medicare advantage plans, for example, United Healthcare and
prisoner in a fight right now, Yes, prison is not
taking United Healthcare and Medicare advantage. So everyone who has
the United Healthcare Medicare advantage card in their hands. If

(31:30):
they have Prisma doctors, they're in the Prisma system, they
might be looking for other options.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
Right now, yeah, right, right, So so in this scenario,
you got A, you got B, you've got G, you.

Speaker 7 (31:45):
Got the Medicare sophomones didn't have letters, right because, so
what does.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
All that add up to and on a monthly basis
for your typical client if if you're taking the buying
the part D and the part G to go along
with your A and B, No.

Speaker 7 (32:00):
Good question. Yeah, So we would shop at with different companies.
I'm going to independent insurance brokers. So we would shop
at based on the person's zip code and various factors.
If they have to one the household, they would get
a household discount. With many of my companies, for example,
they have some when their household is on a Blue
Cross plan, they would get a discount for that. But
a typical plan G for a sixty five year old

(32:21):
is going to run about one hundred and twenty dollars
a month. That's the average. And then a drug card
average is around forty dollars a month. So one twenty
plus forty you're at one sixty. There had one six
seventy four. Yeah, you're about it? What three thirty four? Yep?

(32:42):
So at three thirty four, that's really good coverage, meaning
your max amount of pocket on the health side's only
two hundred and forty dollars. You no group health plan
can can beat that.

Speaker 5 (32:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
No, But then and we're out of time here, un
fortune living. We'll have to hold the discussion until next
time though again and get deeper into the weeds on
the Medicare advantage plans because those you can often get
at no cost at all.

Speaker 7 (33:06):
Right, correct, And we can talk about the benefits and
some of the drawbacks to Medicare advantage plans.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
Absolutely, all right. I wish we had more time today,
but we don't. We'll hold that for our next discussion. Jeff,
how health markets? All right? You want to help somebody,
somebody to help you sift through the maze here of
all this. Here's your guy. How to folks reach Jeff?

Speaker 7 (33:25):
Yes, my author is right beside the flight Deck restaurant
in Lexington. My phone number where you can text recall
is eight zero three six seven eight eight one two
one eight oh three six seven eight eight one two one.
Website by name Jeff Howl dot com.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
All right, Thank you, Jeff, Thank you Gerry.

Speaker 6 (33:43):
The hunt for quality insurance is more important than ever,
and with Jeff Howell and the team at Health Markets
and Lexington, finding that perfect plan is easier than ever,
whether health or medicare insurance, let the experts guide you
toward ease of mind at a healthier future. And who
couldn't use that nowadays?

Speaker 1 (34:00):
Jeff Howell in Health.

Speaker 6 (34:01):
Markets do all the grunt work for you. They make
the calls, compare the plans and prices, and find you
the insurance plan that fits your needs. Best of all,
their help is at no cost to you. They work
with nationally recognized insurance companies to give you the affordable
insurance you're looking for. So whether you're self employed or
in a small business, an individual or seeking a family plan,

(34:23):
they have you covered literally from head to toe. Called
Jeff Howell in Health Markets at eight O three six
seven eight eight one two one, or visit Jeffhowel dot com.
That's eight oh three six seven eight eight one two
one or Jeff Howle dot com and let them find
the right insurance for you.

Speaker 8 (34:44):
Good morning, This is Larry Harris with Classic Systems. I'm
a certified molde inspector. We can help you test the
air in your home ten minutes per sample, one sample inside,
one sample outside. If we do it in the morning,
we'll have the left report that afternoon and then we
can discuss with you what protocols you need to take

(35:06):
to clean the air in your home, particularly if you
have coughing, sneezing rashes on your body. This could be
because of mole that's in the air. Let us come
do air testing for you. The fee is only seventy
five dollars per sample and we can get the lab
report back the same day, so you know if you

(35:27):
have any airborne issues in your home. This is Larry
Harris with Classic Systems eight three six two six two
seven four eight aight O three six two six two
seven four.

Speaker 1 (35:38):
Eight Welcome back to the Health and Wellness Show on
one oh three point five FM and five sixty am
WVOC and our final segment we want to introduce you
to well So when we have not had on the program,

(35:58):
somebody who's been with us in the past, but now
with UH in a new capacity, and we want to
talk about, specifically for small business owners UH a process
and a method to to help you improve your your
overall results, your bottom line. And we're glad to welcome
in Ben Bixby, who's the founder of Work Better Team,

(36:20):
and Casey Alexander, who's part of the team as welcome
more to you both.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
Yeah, good morning Gary, thanks for having us on.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
Nice to meet you, Bend.

Speaker 5 (36:28):
You're not to be the pocket Protector guy anymore.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
We found a new role for.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
Casey is digital pocket protector Work Better Team. All right, Ben,
we had a lot of talk about here. Let's let's
let's get a little background first up. For sure, you
were you have been in the business for a long
time of uh, let's see what's what's the right word?

Speaker 2 (36:51):
Helping people solve problems? Really is my superpower?

Speaker 1 (36:54):
Right?

Speaker 2 (36:55):
Done it for years and years and years.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
And you've started a company a couple of years back.
That's right, right, and uh, this is a Worked Better
Team And the name says reordly what it is really better? Right?

Speaker 2 (37:06):
Do you hate work? And if so, you'd make a
great client. We can help you.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
And what they would want to talk to you about
the how absolutely and this has to do with the again,
it's man, it's tough being a small business owner.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
It's really hard. I'd say most of our people lay
in bed at night worried they're either going to run
out of cash or lose their best people, right, yeah, right,
And I feel that right as a small business owner.
That's what keeps me up at night.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
Yes, And you started working specifically with small businesses I
think about three years ago, right, yeah. And that was
an interesting time, wasn't it. It sure was.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
I think everybody was trying to figure out who they
were and.

Speaker 1 (37:45):
What to do, and are we going to survive this
whole pandemic thing.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
We were just coming out of that, right.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
Exactly, and a lot of unfortunately, a lot of small
businesses didn't survive.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
That's true.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
But even in good times, a lot of small businesses
they don't make it because I don't know. Could we
say you're you're too close to the forest to see
the trees.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
A lot of times? Yeah, man, you are in it
every day. You're probably in a truck driving around doing
the stuff, wishing you could get out of it, right
like that. That's where a lot of our people start.
So they come to me and they say, I just
don't know what I'm doing. Can you help me with
enough structure to run the business effectively, and that that

(38:27):
really is what we love to do. We just fundamentally
believe no small business owners should have to do it alone,
so we come alongside. We bring just enough structure to
help them become more profitable, start seeing their business grow,
get some stability, get some cash flowing through it, and
coach them to hit their goals.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
So it's a mentoring process.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
A lot of it is.

Speaker 5 (38:51):
I mean, it's helped me not only in a business aspect,
but in a personal aspect, you know, some of the
some of the things that we do and what we're
trying to move forward with here. With that structure also,
you know, provides a means of communication and an understanding.
And the first time I sat down with Ben, you know,

(39:12):
one of the things we did just learn about, you know,
how I spoke to people and how I listen to people,
and and it in that structure right there alone allowed me,
you know, and when I pivoted, you know, Ben was
one of the people that I called.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
Yeah, And it could be easy to speak to people,
but it's never easy for most of us to listen
to people.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
Yeah, we say, do you know what it's like to
be on the other side? Of you, because most of
us don't really have a good mirror, We don't have
a good language to understand what other people experience across
the table from us.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
You might be shocked.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
And so that's where we start a lot of times,
is hey, we gotta hold up a mirror for you
so you can see how much of the problem you're
contributing to m M. And that's probably one of the
biggest problems, right Gary, Like none of us want to
go to the doctor. I don't want to have that.

Speaker 1 (40:03):
I don't want to go That's a whole other story
right there. Before we came on the air, you were
talking about people, products, processes, structure, and culture. So that
word structure such a positive thing that sometimes has such
a negative connotation.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
Yeah, yeah, you put the reins on me, man, I'm
not gonna be free to do what I want to do.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
Lock me down.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
Yes, But when you go in and first start working
with small businesses, Ben, what do you find that most
have not enough structure or I guess you could have
such as as too much structure too can Yeah?

Speaker 2 (40:41):
Yeah, I mean that that really is you kind of
walk the edge of a knife, right like you fall
one way or the other. Most of the people that
I first meet with just don't have enough structure. I
don't know if it's because they you know, to your point,
they kind of avoid it, like I don't want to
be limited. I don't want to be tied down. I
want my freedom. That's why I started this company anyway,

(41:03):
And so that that's a lot of the time you
just haven't put enough structure in place to get the
value out of the company. We do see it every
now and then. You're putting too much structure and you've
adopted some system that's it's crushing you, whether it's too
many meetings or too much time spent on the wrong things,
or you know, you're running and gunning and you think

(41:24):
that you've got the right bookkeeping, accounting and all that
kind of stuff in place, but you've you've strangled cash
flow and the way that you're trying to manage it.
And so we whichever side of that you fall on,
we kind of diagnose that and we say, all right,
you don't have enough structure. Let's put some simple stuff
in place, proven best practices that people from lots of
different industries use every day to help them with clarity.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
So Casey, I'm curious again you coming into this from
being being a business person. I mean, hell, what do
you think you were too much or not enough?

Speaker 7 (41:57):
Ah?

Speaker 5 (41:58):
Well, I tried to implement you know a lot of
different structure that that that just you know, at the time,
you know, probably needed more structure, and and I and
that's the I need structure myself. And yeah, I will
say even this, you know, after utilizing Ben's services before

(42:24):
joining work Better team, you know, I learned you know
that maybe that I was trying to be too rigid personally,
and and so where I was, you know, in an
environment without you know, a whole lot of structure. I
was also trying to you know implement and and for

(42:44):
me had too much. So it was just a clash.
And it was always, you know that that back and forth.
So I think that the balance there that he talks
about is is what I learned. And and honestly, more
so than than in business, personally, it has helped me.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
So it's not just.

Speaker 5 (43:02):
Something that that you leave at work. It's something that
you can take home and utilize in your in your
home life, in your personal life. And a lot of
these aspects translate you know a lot of things that
he coaches, and that just really just it's all across
the board.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
So so Ben, in most cases, it's more likely you
can walk into a company and it's gonna be not
enough as a post too much, that's right. So what
are the what are the big red flags for you?
You you walk into a business and you it's gonna
take a little time to observe, right of course, So
you're just kind of the the fly on the wall here.
Don't it's right, don't, don't pay attention to me. I'm

(43:40):
just here to how things.

Speaker 2 (43:41):
I want to ask you a couple of questions. Some
of them might hurt a little bit, but I'm really
I'm for you, right we we really come at this
as guides, like I want you to win. I'm going
to ask you the questions I think I need to
to get underneath it. For most of the time, it's
drama in your people, it's gossip. There's some undealt with

(44:02):
stuff in the people part of the culture. And Gary,
I'll be honest, we're just we're not real good with
conflict and healthy conflict and how do we talk through things.
So a lot of the clients that we work with.
We're helping solve team dynamics level personal level issues between
teammates and help them communicate with one another. A lot

(44:27):
of managers hint at the changes they want their team
to make instead of just being clear for a fear
of hurting the relationship or whatever it is that they
struggle with. Right, I don't want to hurt them, so
it's kind of giving them ideas like no.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
That makes it worse. So it does it a lot
of times it does.

Speaker 7 (44:44):
Right.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
So it's drama, it's gossip, or it's overspending, spending on
the wrong things, not thinking with a profit first mentality
that protects and guards the company's resources. So it's it's
in the profit and loss statement. It's in the water
cooler room, or I saw you guys have a really

(45:08):
awesome coffee maker.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
It works.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
We gather around the coffee maker and we yeah, yeah, yeah,
we chat, we chat. So we just get in the
middle of all that mess and ask the questions to say, Okay,
where is this thing getting toxic? Because we want it
to be healthy. That really is the goal. We want
to grow a healthy business. Where's the toxic stuff happening?
So that's the people part, yeap, the product part, the

(45:33):
product part. You know, it's interesting whether it's products or services.
Are we delivering what we do in the most profitable way?
Can we get underneath that and look at how the
sausage gets made and figure out more efficient ways to
do it. Some of that is on the operations side,
like we just got too much waste in the way

(45:54):
that we do what we do, and our team can
come in. We can see that from a third party perspective. Honestly, spreadsheets,
copy and paste, manually and paper are great ways to
get things done in like the eighties and nineties, but
technologies come a long way, and with some really well

(46:17):
chosen software, we can find profitability in what you do
if we just did it in a more digital way,
twenty first century way.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
Okay, so now you have me thinking about this. Is
that two letter acronym and how much has that come
into play now at Artificial intelligence AI?

Speaker 5 (46:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (46:35):
Sure, I mean we think it's a great tool. Finding
the way if you're going to use it in your business.
Leveraging AI can be a tricky process and I don't
think everyone should necessarily, and so we do advocate for
it in some situations. But it can be cumbersome at

(46:59):
the same time, and so we prefer simple, clean technologies
with or without AI. So if you needed an application,
a piece of software that would replace the manual copy
and paste, we could build that for you. And so
we we do. We do a lot of streamlining of
operations just based on what's intuitive, what makes sense for

(47:22):
you and your business, and we'll build something that works.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
So I'm guessing again that a lot of small business
owners you're you're again you're so in the smaller business,
the more overwhelmed you can be. You know you're you're
doing everything spread then, right, you know you're you're you
are people, you are product, you are process, you are everything,
you're selling it, you're accounting for it, you're doing all

(47:47):
this stuff. Yes, and it's impossible to see where you
know this could be done better, that could be done better.
Typically when you go in ben what kind of timeline
or time FRA. I know it varies from really from
client to client. And is it with a smaller business,

(48:07):
is it really quicker than a larger business?

Speaker 2 (48:09):
Are going to be just the opposite, It can be
the opposite, And so you know that has a hard
question to answer. Sometimes and this is rare, but sometimes
we sit down for one ninety minute session and I
can solve your biggest pain point and it unlocks you
for a year and you are able to make great
progress just off that one bottleneck being opened up. And

(48:34):
I've seen it where we sit with a team takes
us ninety minutes to get to the bottom of the problem.
I unlock one little piece of your lead generation, or
to improve your clothes rate on sales, or one little
operational piece that if you just did it differently and
you call me a year later and you say, you
just tripled our revenue in one year, can we do more?

Speaker 1 (48:56):
Right?

Speaker 2 (48:56):
It's just it's that simple. Sometimes most of our clients
work with us for nine months to eighteen months to
get that change truly into the culture of the organization,
and then once they feel like they're good, they're running.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
Do you ever get to a point, and I'm sure
if it hadn't happened yet, it will where you just
meet so much resistance, did you go, Okay, listen, yes
this is gonna work for you.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely. There are times where I'll sit
across the table and I'll say, you can't hire us
and they say why not, I say, I don't think
it's a good fit and I'm not going to do
something the dampness. And so here are my recommendations. If
you want to try those on your own, I think

(49:41):
they'll work. And if you don't find success, then don't
call me back. And if these things help you, we
could probably go far together.

Speaker 5 (49:52):
And recently, I mean, Ben's worked hard on developing a
new approach that were about get into really excited about. Yeah,
so you talk about what's coming up or yeah, sure.
I just over the years.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
That I've focused on small business, I've noticed a couple
of well we'll call them operating systems the business owners
choose to adopt to help them grow their business, and
some of them are they're just cumbersome. It's the overstructured
approach to trying to solve some of these problems. And

(50:27):
so I've taken our learning and our language and I've
applied it to what we call the seven pillar ecosystem.
It's seven pillars, seven questions that every small business has
to answer. You've got to have an answer and a
plan for each of these seven things, and if you do,
then you'll be able to solve the bottlenecks that pop

(50:49):
up and you take them one at a time and
over time install a language and an ecosystem where your
business can grow in the way that it's designed to.
And so we're excited. We're launching that this month with
a workshop at the end of the month.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Yeah. When is that workshop? Yes, yeah, April twenty third.

Speaker 2 (51:08):
It's going to be at the Lexington Chamber downtown Lexington
April twenty third from eleven am to two pm. It
includes lunch. And it's funny people say, is this just
a sales pitch. I'm like, no, it's not a sales pitch.
Like legitimately, I want to give you an ecosystem that works.
You can leave this workshop and after two and a

(51:30):
half three hours worth of conversation you can go back
to your team and immediately apply valuable insights that are
going to make you more profitable. Like that's our heart
and we're excited about that.

Speaker 1 (51:41):
So that's April twenty third, that's right, Legs and Chamber
of Commerce, that's right. How do folks get signed up?

Speaker 2 (51:48):
Yeah, there's a simple website the number seven seven Pillar
ecosystem dot com. You can go to go to that website,
find all the details about that lunch workshop and register
there now.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
If so, If folks want to contact you and sit
down to talk about you actually coming into their business, yeah,
through the same site, or is there a better way
to contact.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
Well, I'll give you my phone number. It's eight oh
three eight one four fifty eight ninety nine, and that
rings through to our team. You'll get somebody from the
Work Better team on the phone. Eight O three eight
one four fifty eight ninety nine, and we'd love to
set up just an initial fifteen minute get to know
your conversation for free. Hear what you're struggling with. You

(52:29):
can interview us see if we're a good fit for
you all day long. We'd love to touch base with
you that way.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
Okay, it is the Work Better team.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
At Workbetter dot pro. If you prefer a website to
go see a little bit more about us Work Better
dot pro pro. That's right, Work Better dot.

Speaker 1 (52:48):
People sometimes forget there's the other things of.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
The dot com stay in the Sky's the limit these day?

Speaker 1 (52:53):
Is yeah? Well, Ben, it's it's it's great to meet
you man, Gary, Thank you so much, and continue the
good work with folks in Casey's good to see you again, brother.
All right, that's our time for today. Thanks for joining
us for the Health and Wellness Show on one O
three point five FM and five sixty AM WVOC. The
lawyers and staff at the Law Office of James Snell
are there to help those with injuries and workers' compensation claims,

(53:16):
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(53:37):
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(53:57):
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