Health and Wellness Show 04-19-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning and welcome in time now for the Health
and Wellness Show on one three point five FM and
five sixty AMWBOC. Coming up, we'll talk about the process
with Jim Snell and Aubrey miss Woods if you will,
from the law office of James Snell. You've been hurt
in an accident, A little timid to call an attorney
about this, You don't need to be. We'll talk about

(00:20):
how that works. Jeff Howe from Health Markets, What does
medicare look like in twenty twenty five? What could be
on the horizon for us? So we got that coming
up first up this morning, we want to talk about,
specifically for small business owners, a process and a method
to to help you improve your overall results, your bottom line.

(00:43):
And we're glad to welcome in Ben Bixby, who's the
founder of Work Better Team, and Casey Alexander, who's part
of the team as Welcome more to you both.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, good morning, Gary, thanks for having us on.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Nice to meet you.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Ben.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Good morning, good Casey.

Speaker 4 (00:55):
You're not to be the pocket Protector guy anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
We found a new role.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
For Casey is ditched the pocket protector Work Better Team man.
All right, but we had a lot to talk about here.
Let's let's let's get a little background first up though,
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.

Speaker 5 (01:18):
Word helping people solve problems? Yeah, really is my superpower? Right,
done it for years and years and years.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
And you've started a company a couple of years back,
that's right, And uh, this is the work Work Better
team And the name says wordly what it is, really better? Right?

Speaker 5 (01:33):
Do you hate work? And if so, you'd make a
great client. We can help you, and then the would want.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
To talk to you about the how absolutely, And this
has to do with the again, it's that it's tough
being a small business owner.

Speaker 6 (01:49):
It's really hard.

Speaker 5 (01:50):
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 (02:02):
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.

Speaker 6 (02:09):
It sure was.

Speaker 5 (02:10):
I think everybody was trying to figure out who they
were and what to do and are we going to
survive this whole pandemic thing. We were just coming out
of that right.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Exactly, and a lot unfortunately a lot of small businesses
didn't survive.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
That's true.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
But even in good times, a lot of small businesses
they don't make it because I don't know. Can we
say you're too close to the forest to see the trees?

Speaker 5 (02:33):
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 really

(02:54):
is what we love to do. We just fundamentally believe
no small business owners would 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 (03:14):
So's it's a mentoring process.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
A lot of it is.

Speaker 4 (03:17):
It's 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 understanding.
And the first time I sat down with Ben, uh,

(03:39):
you know, 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 (03:55):
And it could be easy to speak to people, but
it's never easy for most of us to listen to people.

Speaker 5 (04:00):
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 (04:14):
You might be shocked.

Speaker 5 (04:15):
And so that's where we start a lot of times,
is hey, we got we gotta hold up a mirror
for you so you can see how much of.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
The problem you're contributing. Tom.

Speaker 5 (04:24):
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 I don't want.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
To go either.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
So 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, uh, such a positive
thing that sometimes has such a negative connotation.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, yeah, you put the reins on me. Man's not
gonna be free to do what I want to do.

Speaker 6 (04:55):
Lock me down.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yes, But when you go in and first start working
with small business has been what do you find that
most have not enough structure or I guess you could
have such thing as too much structure too can Yeah?

Speaker 5 (05:09):
Yeah, I mean 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,

(05:30):
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

(05:52):
that you've got the right bookkeeping, accounting and all that
kind of stuff in place, but you've you've strangled cash
flow in the way that you're trying to manage it.
And so we which ever side of that you fall on,
we kind of diagnosed 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 (06:15):
So Casey, I'm curious again you coming into this, uh,
from from being being a business person. I mean, hell,
what do you think you were too much or not enough?

Speaker 4 (06:25):
Oh 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 you know,
and that's the I need structure myself. And yeah, level
I will say even this, you know, after utilizing Ben's

(06:49):
services before 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

(07:11):
for 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.
So it's not just something that that you leave at work.

(07:32):
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 (07:46):
So so Ben, in most cases, it's more likely going
to walk into a company and it's gonna be not
enough as a post it 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 fly on the wall here,
don't it's right, don't, don't pay attention to me. I'm

(08:07):
just here to.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
I want to ask you a couple of questions.

Speaker 5 (08:10):
Some of them might hurt a little bit, but I'm
really I'm for you, right, We really come at this
as guides, like I want you to win. So 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 gossip. There's some undealt with
stuff in the people part of the culture. And Gary,

(08:34):
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

(08:54):
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.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
Is that they struggle with.

Speaker 5 (09:05):
Right, I don't want to hurt them, so it's kind
of giving them ideas like no.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
That makes it worse, So it does.

Speaker 7 (09:10):
It.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
A lot of times it does right.

Speaker 5 (09:13):
So it's god, 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

(09:35):
a really awesome coffee maker.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
It works.

Speaker 5 (09:37):
We gather around the coffee maker and we yeah, yeah, yeah,
we chat and 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, Yeah, the product part,

(10:00):
the 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 we got too much

(10:20):
waste in the way 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.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
Come a long way, and with.

Speaker 5 (10:43):
Some really well 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 (10:55):
Okay, So now you have me thinking about this, that
two letter acronym and how much has that come out
to play now at Artificial intelligence AI?

Speaker 5 (11:02):
Yeah, sure, we I mean we 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

(11:25):
can be cumbersome at 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,

(11:49):
what makes sense for you and your business, and we'll
build something that works.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
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 good. 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 making. Yeah, you're selling it, you're accounting for it,

(12:14):
you doing all 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 from really from client to client. And is
it with a smaller business, is it really quicker than

(12:36):
a larger business? Are going to be just the.

Speaker 5 (12:37):
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

(12:59):
being opened up. And so we're excited. We're launching that
this month with a workshop at the end of the month.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah. When is that workshop?

Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yes, Yeah, April twenty third.

Speaker 5 (13:09):
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

(13:31):
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.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
Like that's our heart and we're excited about that.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
So that's April twenty third, that's right, Lection and Chamber
of Commerce. That's right. How do folks get signed up?

Speaker 5 (13:49):
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 (14:01):
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 5 (14:09):
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

(14:30):
can interview us see if we're a good fit for
you all day long.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
We'd love to touch base with you that way.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
Okay, it is the Work Better team.

Speaker 5 (14:39):
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 people.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
Sometimes forget there's other things.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
On the dot com say in the sky's the limit
these days?

Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, well Ben, it's it's It's great to meet.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
You man, Gary, Thank you so much and continue the.

Speaker 1 (14:59):
Good work with folks. Casey's good to see again, Bobs brother.

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Speaker 1 (17:16):
It's the Health and All the Show on one O
three point five FM and five sixty AMWVOC and good
to have you with us on this Saturday morning, so
so good to have you joined us. We are now
going to sit down and spend some time with Jim
Snell from the law office of James Snell. Jim, good
morning to you, sir.

Speaker 6 (17:33):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
And Aubrey, who is the gatekeeper at the offices, is
with us as well. I'll be good to see you again.

Speaker 7 (17:40):
Good morning, good to see you.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
So I guess we're going to talk about the process
here today a little bit.

Speaker 6 (17:46):
Yeah, yeah, just just you know, the and again I
know I've mentioned this before. I don't know how many
years have I been doing this program. Oh gosh, thirty five,
forty years something like that seems no, well, yeah, it
seems like great, they're thirty fives. I've been in a
few years now, I think five six years. Yeah, and
again what so, one thing I am aware of because

(18:10):
I've been doing representing clients in you know, what's called
personal injury, but you know, work accidents, car accidents, gosh,
even even horrible situations where people are killed in accidents
for over twenty years now. And one one thing that

(18:30):
I am very consciously aware of is that a lot
of people that have have found themselves in one of
these situations right which they never chose to be in,
and it just happened, you know it to life.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
They are.

Speaker 6 (18:48):
Obviously their lawyers don't have the greatest reputation generally you're
fantastic and no, but I mean just look at a
lot of times lawyers, I mean just have a way
of turning people off, whether or not you know, somebody

(19:09):
has had to deal with you know them in a
in a professional context, like they had a family court
case or something, and it's awful or or they just
have have known lawyers that just were just awful. I
don't know, but people can be kind of nervous to
reach out. They can be just kind of scared. Other

(19:30):
thing is and that's one of the reason I did
this program. There there are I don't even know how
many millions of dollars are spent in the in the
local market by by crazy average people, but lawyers advertising.
It's it can be very confusing. People just don't know
which way to.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
Turn well, and you're sometimes you feel like they can't.
That's that sounds way too good to be true. And
sometimes it.

Speaker 6 (19:50):
Is so yes, no, no, no, that's that that no,
that's absolutely true. And it's and when you have something
that's really of really significant importance to your your family,
it just can be kind of kind of nerve wracking,
you know. And all right, so I'm aware of that.
So all right, so so and and I've you know,

(20:13):
Aubrey here, I call her missus Woods. Who I just
called you, miss missus me, missus Woods. But no, so
one thing I've I've taked to talked to her, and
I think you've heard me kind of add nauseum is
just you know, when when people you know, reach out

(20:36):
and actually reach out to the office. That's actually a
pretty big step. And for a lot of people, I mean,
that's that's that's a big decision just to pick up
the phone and make that call. And and you know,
you know, you can do a lot, you know, reading
websites and and this and that. But at the end
of the day, if you've got to got a legal case,

(20:56):
like an injury case, and you want to get help,
I mean, at some point you do got to pick
up the phone and call in office and just un
plug it right now, Yeah, yes, it's it's eight zero
three three five nine three three zero one and uh
and we do offer free consultations, right so I'm talking
about that. But basically, when people call Aubrey, here is

(21:19):
one of the ones that could could take that call initially,
and it's kind of her job to sor that's missus Wood,
missus Woods. It's it's her job a couple of things
to sort of be welcoming. Actually, how do you what
do you see when he answered the.

Speaker 7 (21:36):
Phone, Welcome to the law as a James Snow, my
name is Aubrey. How can I help you?

Speaker 1 (21:41):
Right there?

Speaker 6 (21:42):
You get well, get and but but to be friendly
and and just listen. You know, you got to find
out you know, people are calling again, it's a big
step for them. I mean, what kind of you get
when they call after that? Welcome?

Speaker 7 (22:01):
What?

Speaker 6 (22:02):
What kind of you know?

Speaker 1 (22:03):
What are you?

Speaker 6 (22:03):
What are you asking for? What are you listening for?

Speaker 7 (22:06):
Yeah, I think the biggest thing is to kind of
gauge how the person on the other end of the
phone is feeling initially, and that's kind of how I
gauge which questions I'm going to ask first.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
That could be that could be scared, it could be mad, exact.

Speaker 7 (22:20):
Exactly, So you kind of have to gauge the personality
and the person that you're speaking with. But initially I'll ask,
you know, what happened? What are we what are we
looking at? Are we looking at a slip and fall case,
a motor vehicle case or workers comp case? And then
the questions kind of gauge from there. So, for instance,
in a motor vehicle case, I'd say, you know, what happened,

(22:41):
where were you? Where the police called? Was there an
incident report? Just kind of getting basic information and then
gauging also if there were any serious injuries, if anybody
was taken to the hospital or broken bones, things like that,
to just kind of gauge the verity of the accident
as well and see if it's something that we're immediately

(23:04):
able to help with.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
So this this first phone call, this intake. So I
guess how much time you spend talking to the potential
client can vary.

Speaker 7 (23:15):
Yeah, it definitely varies. It definitely varies on the severity
on how nervous we're anxious the person on the other
end of the phone is. I really try to calm
their nerves and make sure that I'm getting all the
information that I need. On average, i'd say it takes
anywhere from five to fifteen minutes to get an initial intake,

(23:36):
and then I'll schedule a consultation with the attorney.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
What's helpful for you in making that determination, because I
know Jim's totals before. I mean, there are times when
you know it's not in your best interest to hire
an attorney, Yeah, I mean upfront about that.

Speaker 7 (23:53):
Yeah. So that's where those screening questions are really important, engaging,
you know, because if you just hit your head on
the window, for example, and you just have a headache
for a few days, it's probably not worth hiring an
attorney at that point, because you're not going to have
medical bills and we won't be able to necessarily help
you get the settlement amount that you might be looking for,

(24:14):
as opposed to like a broken bone or you had
to go to the hospital. There's going to be some
bills there that that person might not be able to
pay out of pocket.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
And that's that's important too, because often we think we
have to be grievously injured. But as just said, you
could break an arm exactly, and okay, you're going to
recover from that more than likely. I mean, I've done
that before myself. But you do you incur expenses now
exactly how you have medical bills to pay? And that's again,

(24:45):
don't you know, don't don't sleep on that.

Speaker 7 (24:48):
Yeah, yeah, And the main thing is not to be afraid.
It's really more of a natural conversation than people think
it is, and it's really just us talking like we
are now and just getting basic information and really we're
not scary. We're here to help you and that's our job.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
So so what what sort of information before somebody picks
up the phone and.

Speaker 6 (25:07):
Calls eight zero three three five nine three three zero one.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
Thank you, mister. An answer when they make that call,
what sort of information should you have in fun of
you before you reach out?

Speaker 7 (25:20):
Yeah, I mean really not much. Just have your situation.
You know, what happened to you, if you did have
to go to the hospital, it's always helpful to know,
like where you went, if you know which doctors you saw,
that's always helpful down the line, you know, knowing what
kind of injuries that you have, whether that be like
if you broke your arm, if you know what part

(25:40):
of your arm, or if it was your wrist, or
if you're going to have to have a future surgery,
down the line, just things like that so that we're
more prepared to know how to help them.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
Okay, all right, So five to maybe fifteen minutes on
the phone with miss Woods, yeah exactly, and then the
next step.

Speaker 6 (25:57):
Yeah yeah, and then and I say, part of this
a couple of things. And it's not a quiz, so
you know, people call it they're not getting they're not
getting quiz. I mean, it's just it's conversational and and
you know people you know that they you know the information.
This is all stuff that people, I mean most people
just would know and if you know, and obviously if

(26:18):
you don't know the name of some doctor, what I mean,
that's that that's that's actually not that significant. But I
mean kind of what we're what we're looking for is
to verify that there is a potential case, right, you know,
wh're you know that this is some things again, you know,

(26:39):
you know the general public halls, right, anybody's worked with
the general public knows, you know, as lawyer Hugh Rogers
in their building, he's ninety four. Yeah, he talks about
the great American public. You know, every now and then
somebody will call because they've gotten a wreck in the
nineteen seventies, you know, really just something you know, people
but but but you know, look, we gotta make we

(26:59):
get a very or this is something that happened, you
know in South Carolina. You know, if they gotten the
reckon maybe another state or somewhere else, you know, we
wouldn't be at a help obviously. No, it's got to
be within you know, there's typically if there's a statute
of limitations, it's got to be recent enough that we're

(27:24):
still able to get what we need done within the statue.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
What is that statute limitation? I only asked this because
let's say someone could have been in an accident of
years ago and just now recently something's popped up. They
gone to a doctor and said, oh, yeah, this is
a complication of X that happened ten years ago. I
mean you're out of luck.

Speaker 6 (27:44):
Well, okay, yeah, it's a it's a big question. But
I will tell you. For for most things like car accidents,
it's three years.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
Three years.

Speaker 6 (27:55):
If it involves a government entity as being yet fault party,
it could be two years.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
Oh, isn't that cozy?

Speaker 6 (28:04):
Workers compensation cases generally have a two year time period
to file the claim. Doesn't mean the case has to
be finished. It just means it's got to be submitted
within that time period. Right, And I'll tell you you
don't what you're getting. And I think your question is
actually pretty pretty interesting. When you get into a situation

(28:27):
where you maybe don't know you have a claim until
like years and years later, right, You don't really see
that in personal injury because you know you had a
car wreck, right. I mean, so so the fact that
you don't know all your damages at that time, you
do know there was that occurrence, so that that generally
would start that clock running, But there is something called

(28:48):
the discovery rule where the statute may not actually start
running and people should have reasonable notice of the claim.
And you know, and and just by way of example,
you might see that more likely in like a construction
defect case where everything looks good on the outside and
maybe you live in the house for three years before

(29:09):
you find that the insulation really is cotton candy. You know.
I mean so so that that what you're describing actually
is something the law deals with.

Speaker 1 (29:19):
Because I think you could have been in an accident
and several years later you didn't you felt like no problems.
When you may developed back issues and you may go
to a doctor and orthopedis they may say you ever
been in a car wreck.

Speaker 6 (29:31):
Yeah, but but the issue is you know you were
in the car wreck, right, So I think for most
intents and purposes, that's when the clock should start running.
And again I'm gonna say this, I'm just talking generally.
Anybody that thinks should have a plane, reach out to
a lawyer, get actual legal advice. We're just talking on
the radio. But that clock starts running when you know

(29:52):
you have a claim, okay, And yeah, and if you
and and and that's it. Here's the other thing. One
of the things I've talked about before is people rushing
to settle, and sometimes insurance companies will reach out very
soon after an accident and even try to get people
to settle their cases over the phone, not even writing,
before they've even gotten all their medical bills, before they

(30:13):
finish their medical treatments. And if you are you know,
even if you don't know you're gonna have to have
that surgery or you don't have your final diagnosis, you know,
legally you can settle your case. So that's why I
always encourage people to take their time, make sure they
know what their injuries are, know what their treatments are

(30:34):
going to be, before they make any decisions as far
as settlement. So kind of the job is screening to
make sure the wreck happened close enough in time, within
the statue that we've got, you know, we've got time
to do our job, happened in South Carolina where we're

(30:54):
licensed to practice, that the that there was, whatever the
the story is, it's something where the injuries was caused,
you know, through eve an employment situation or the negligence
of a corporation or company or another individual, and there
actually were were injuries because you know some people, do

(31:17):
you know the people Sometimes people do call and you know,
they say, well, somebody ran a red light and they
came six inches from me, but they didn't hit me,
but they could have killed me, could have they could
have killed me. And then look, those people are concerned.
It was a scary situation for them. They and they
don't know what to do, so they reach out and
I mean, part of our job is to listen, uh

(31:38):
understand and then if you know, if we're not able
to help, you.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
Know, just and can that be determined? Miss Woods? In
that initial phone call, I mean that happened, you would
just say, you know, we don't really have a case here.

Speaker 7 (31:51):
Yeah, yeah, and I have. I have informed people that before,
and I just say it nicely and I say, you know,
in this case, it might not be worth hiring an attorney,
you know, because there were the lack of injuries. So
we can't really submit any bills to the insurance company
and we're not going to get the settlement that you're
looking for. Right.

Speaker 6 (32:10):
I'm going to pick up on this just very briefly.
If it's anything that is clearly we help on you
know obviously you know that the appointments just set promptly.
You know again what people call and it's it's say,
somebody calls because they gotten a car wreck in the
nineteen seventies. Right, you know, I've got staff has you know,

(32:33):
kind of clear sort of direction on how those situation
are handled. Anything in the middle they get the staff,
staff gets information. It's reviewed by a lawyer. Right, yeah, obviously, right,
so we don't anybody think anything slipping through.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
Interesting to go. You know this the statue of limitations
that that doesn't seem to apply in other things like
class action lawsuits when now it's been discovered that you know,
somebody hid that some pharmaceutical thing doing this to people
and all these years later, and yeah, you hear by
those all the time.

Speaker 6 (33:04):
Well again, same thing. You something called the discovery rule,
all right, where people don't know they have a claim
till they have it. It's actually a really interesting top
in class actions are their own are their own special thing.
Mass torts, which is kind of similar but different than
the class actions, right, also really interesting world. But I want,

(33:24):
I just want to leave you all with this because rights,
I want people enjoy their Saturday I'm glad that you
know we're out of the guy. I love this time
of year with the weather. Oh yeah, anybody thinks you
know that. If anybody wants to talk to us, please
reach out. We're at eight zero three three five nine
three three zero one. Main office is in downtown Lexington
at one twenty three Harmon Street. But we're absolutely able

(33:46):
to help people in Columbia, Lexington and all around the state.
So just please reach out. We're happy to talk to
you and online Snell Snell Law dot com three ls
Snell Law dot com.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
All right, Ms Woods Aubrey, nice to see you again.

Speaker 7 (34:00):
Nice to see you as well.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
All right, Jim, have you so agree with we all
have a great easter guest see too.

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Speaker 1 (36:09):
And welcome back to the Health and Wellness Show on
one of three point five FM and five sixty AMWBOC.
As we welcome in Jeff Howe, the owner of Health
Markets over and Lexi, who joins us again this morning. Jeff,
good morning do you sir?

Speaker 3 (36:21):
Good morning Gary.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
Medicare in twenty twenty five. Okay, well, we have a
lot of uncertainty, needless to say, a lot of volatility,
and a lot of things right now. There's a lot
going on, lots of balls up in the air, and
again with the Doge efforts and all going on, there's
been a lot of talk about how might this or
will this impact things like medicare and other benefits. So

(36:44):
I thought we maybe take a few minutes to take
a look at that this morning. What are you saying?
And by the way, we should remind people to Jeff
that you spend a fair amount of time in DC
as a lobbyist for health insurance agencies and for folks
on health and share us like Medicare.

Speaker 3 (37:00):
Rightzation called the National Association of Benefit Insurance Professionals, and
we go to d C every year in person and
talk to our South Carolina senators and congressman about how
we can keep prescription drug costs down for the seniors,

(37:23):
how we can keep health insurance prices load for small
business owners, very important topics for me. I'm very passionate
about all those things. And then throughout the year I
keep up on a weekly basis on what's going on
in d C and what's going on in Columbia the
state House issues affecting you know, health insurance and Medicare.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
Now, I'm just going to guess that in all the
years of doing this, there's probably not been as great
an amount of uncertainty as we as we have right now.

Speaker 3 (37:56):
For store, when I was I was in d C
in February, and of all all my trips I've ever
been to d C, there's never been one where I
felt like DC was more unstable and more us did
not know really, you know, the Congressman and the staff
of the Congressman, and the senators who we met with
couldn't really give us any headway or any predictions, as

(38:18):
you know, everything is day to day there right now.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
Yeah, yeah, it is that. Well, let's let's start here
that I guess, Jeff, as we rolled into twenty twenty five,
coming out of last year, were there big changes for
Medicare for the new year for twenty twenty five.

Speaker 3 (38:37):
Something that happened recently is that the Medicare advantage of course,
doctor Oz was just confirmed as head of CMS, and
one of the first things he did was he gave
a huge raise to Medicare advantage plans. Normally, you know,
every year, the federal government will give Medicare advantage plans

(38:58):
essentially a cost of living or inflation type raise, you know,
two percent to where they give them money you know,
of course to giving out benefits to there to of
course to the policy holders, right and then whatever whatever
they don't spend on policy holders they get to keep
for themselves as profit. Right. Well, this this year they

(39:21):
did not get their rigor two percent. They got over
five percent.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (39:25):
Okay, So that sends a clear message and we knew
that's going into it, you know, you know, during the election, process.
Of course, after you know, Trump with elected president. Everything
we had heard is that Medicare advantage is going to
be a key priority for this administration. And doctor Oz

(39:46):
has certainly been on record that he is very much
for Medicare advantage. So Medicare advantage is going to be
strengthened under this administration. Certainly was you know, just follow
the money, right, and so with all the c they're
going on, if you get a you know, over double
increase what you normally get, the administration is telling you

(40:07):
all you need to know about how they feel about
Medicare advantage. Definitely very pro Medicare advantage.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
And as this should be comes a surprise. I guess
Trump is in favor of privatizing a lot of things,
and this basically I guess obviously the aim is is
to make it so much more advantageous for seniors to
take care of the advantage plans, to take advantage of
the advantage plans, that they move away from the more
traditional stuff and that maybe eventually goes away.

Speaker 3 (40:34):
That's exactly right. So I think that you know, every
person that signs up for a Medicare advantage plan is
coming off the Medicare books right. And so essentially, when
a person signs up for a Blue Cross Blue Shield
of South Carolina Medicare advantage plan, there's you know, the
government saying blue Cross. You know John Doe who just
turned sixty five, and it shows a Blue Cross Medicare

(40:55):
advantage plan, he is your responsibility. So the real because
now all yours and so I think that's, like you say,
that's very consistent with everything else that's going on. You know,
the federal government's telling a lot of employees, you know,
take this early retirement check and go on, go on
your way what you want to do, right, right, So

(41:18):
very consistent.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
Now parts in part B though, to these this is
not affected by all this, right, Or how does that work?
I mean, if you sign up for an advantage plan,
does does that that then that blue Cross Blue Shield
type provider cover A and B as well? Or how
does that shake out?

Speaker 3 (41:34):
No, that's a great question. So everyone has to go
get A and B first. So first you've got to
get square with the government and get your A and
B set up when you turn sixty five. And so
you know right now that for most Americans at the one
hundred and eighty five dollars a month. A is three
and B is one hundred and eighty five dollars a month.

(41:56):
Once you get your A and B set up and
you choose a Medicare advantage plan, a person will continue
to pay that one to eighty five to Medicare. You can.
You don't get out of that, right However, most Medicare
advange plans as zero premiums. So whereas while and this
is where it could be confusing to a lot of people,
while you're still paying Medicare, Medicare no longer is administering

(42:16):
your Medicare. The Medicare advantage plan is that last example,
Blue Cross is the one that all doctors' offices, pharmacies,
dental visions, all the bills get set to Blue Cross
and are processed by blue Cross. Medicare is out of
the picture altogether.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
Well, that sounds like an advantage to begin with, right there, Jeff,
Because the less you can have to deal with the
government or anything to better, I say, right right, so
is now I'll say in this case an example of
using blue Cross as an example here, Now, is the
government fording your eighty five year paying them to blue
Cross to handle all that? Or is that still.

Speaker 3 (42:58):
Behind the scene. Essentially, once once that person, let's say
that John Doe turned sixty five, he chooses Blue Cross
Medicare advantage. Behind the scenes, Medicare sends blue Cross money.
Of course, you know I talked to earlier how they're
getting a pay raise five per some more. But they
send Blue Cross money, and then Blue Cross takes that
money and they use it to pay all of John

(43:22):
Doe's medical claims and his dental bills and his vision,
his eyeglasses, things of that nature. And of course blue
Cross or any insurance companies hoping that there'll be some
left over for them once all these claims are paid
for all their clients. So that's essentially the business, the
medicare advantage.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
Well, it must be working because all these companies are
still doing it, right, I mean, you gotta have to
make this work. So yeah, And.

Speaker 3 (43:47):
If you call the stock market at all, all the stocks,
you know I had Healthcare Humanity at a signal, they
all got way up after that announcement came up with
that pay raise, so absolutely right, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
Okay, So that's been the big change so far for
twenty twenty five and one. I guess again, no big
surprise with this an administration favoriting privatization of a lot
of things, and this is certainly the best way to
make this happen when it comes to to Medicare coverage.
But what else? Get out your crystal ball here for us,
mister Howell. I mean, what other changes do you think

(44:20):
we may be seeing in twenty twenty five, this year
and beyond.

Speaker 3 (44:25):
That's the more difficult question is. But I do think
in general the trend is towards Medicare advantage in the
Medicare space. But I do not think Medicare supplements will
necessarily go anywhere. I think it will always be out
there as an option. We could see maybe the Medicare
supplement price is going up, and so that will give

(44:46):
more of incentive for people to go to Medicare advantage.
I mean, obviously, you know a Medicare supplement is tried
and true. You know a person is on Medicare, Medicare
is primary, it pays eighty perc they purchased a Medicare supplement,
it pays the other twenty percent minus a deductible. At
one time deductile this year, that deduct was only two

(45:07):
hundred fifty seven dollars on Part B. So that's not
much risk, right, your whole calendar year, your whole risk
is only two hundred fifty seven dollars.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
That's not bad.

Speaker 3 (45:16):
It's a pretty solid plan. And your network is Medicare.
You know, any doctor hospital it takes Medicare in the country,
that's your network. So Medicare supplements, I don't think we'll
go anywhere, but we may see some price increases, not
only at the beginning and when person a person's turning
sixty five, but also every year a person gets older,
of Medicare supplement goes up in price. Normally we see

(45:39):
that at four six percent. We could see those percentages
maybe go up to eight to ten or twelve to
fifteen percent every year to where a person could unfortunately
be priced out of a Medicare supplement down the road.
I say unfortunate, I mean they would switch to Medicare advantage.
That's not necessarily a bad thing. But if that person
likes their care supplement and that's what they prefer to have,

(46:03):
but it becomes cost prohibitive and they have to go
to Medicare advantage, then you know they would certainly have
to make that adjustment.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
Right, and again a lot of people ask the question,
we'll dog on if you know this, You know advantage
plan is going to give me all this free stuff
and I don't have to pay out a pocket for it.
Why would I not do that?

Speaker 10 (46:24):
Right?

Speaker 3 (46:24):
I mean, there are certainly a lot of good things
about Medicare advantage plans, but there's also some disadvantages. I mean,
we saw in late December how ATNA and Lexa Medical
Center got into a fight after the annual and ROMA,
and certainly everyone who had ATNACARB certainly became worried that
they couldn't go to their electa medical center doctors or

(46:45):
hospitals or you know, you know in twenty twenty five,
and so a lot of people had to make a
change from at OVER to a Blue Cross or United
Healthcare or whoever. You know someone that elects of medical
center was in network with. Those are problems you don't
have with the Medicare supplement because Medicare is primary. So

(47:06):
Medicare advantage does come with a lot of great perks. However,
sometimes you have these network issues that can be frustrating.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
Yeah, so can we construct here in the last four
or five minutes we have left here the perfect candidate
for either of these plans. Who is the perfect candidate
to stick with the traditional Medicare and Medicare supplement plan Jeff.

Speaker 3 (47:27):
That's a great question. Yeah, everything different, and so they're
really it's hard to really fit, you know, one person
qualification into one or one or the other. For example,
you would say, Okay, someone who has a lot of money,
they might want to go Medicare Sphare because they can
afford the premiums. But however, you can look at you

(47:48):
can flip that, look at it the other way. Someone
who has a lot of money in the bank, they
can afford the nine thousand out of pocket. Ever, you're
a Medicare advantage, so they'll instead go with the zero premium,
and you flip it the other way. Well, maybe someone
who does is very limited an income, maybe they should
go Medicare advantage because they're a premium. However, someone limited

(48:10):
income may not have that nine thousand dollars out of
pocket in the banks, get hit with and they would
prefer the Medicare supplement. So income was I see it
both ways. Now, if you talk health wise, someone who
maybe is undergoing chemotherapy or kidney dialysis, I think certainly,
someone like that they can afford a Medicare supplement, they

(48:30):
should go with the Medicare supplement. So I think that's
that's why the easiest way to answer that question is
the Medicare supplement is probably best for someone in that
circumstance if they can afford it.

Speaker 1 (48:41):
And that's because your your deductibles are capped a tw
hundred and fifty seven bucks a.

Speaker 3 (48:46):
Year, right, no therapy, and you know that you're in
fifty seven dollars is your worst case scenario for the year,
then it makes financial sense to certainly go with the
Medicare supplement. Round you would say, someone in perfect health,
Medicare advantage makes perfect sense. However, as we all know,
perfect health is good today, gone tomorrow. It's just hard

(49:10):
to count on. And so, but you know, Medicare advantage
has a max amount of pocket like any health plan
anyone's ever been on with their company or whether it's
through the marketplace, on the individual plan, and so whether
that's six thousand and eight thousand, nine thousand, whatever, the
max amount of pocket is on these various plans, that

(49:32):
is your worst case scenario. And the statistics shows that
less than one percent of people hit their max amount
of pocket on a Medicare advantage plan. That's that's it,
yes' because on most of these plans, your copey is
a hostel, are limited to like three hundred and ninety
five dollars a day for the first four days of
the first five days, and so you have caps you know,

(49:56):
as you go along. And so the Medicare vange plans
you do limit your liability and do put a lot
of responsibility on the insurance company for those costs.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
You know, totally unrelated because we're seeing this over the
state House here in Columbia. There's they're working on this
path this bill for liquor liability things, and we've heard
this the horristorys of insurance companies, you know, pricing these
premiums out of the market and such. U I suspect
in this scenario with the health insurance I mean, that's
that's regulated, right. I mean they can't just willingly say, hey,

(50:31):
we're going to give you a less we're going to
raise the rates or whatever. I mean that that's that's
strictly regulated by the government.

Speaker 3 (50:37):
Is it not correct? Any any insurance rate would have
to go increase, would have to go through the South
Carona Department of Insurance to be improved. That's correct.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
Okay, So when I'm worried about we're just not going
to write or we're going to just leave the marketplace,
not write policies because that that winds up being very problematic.
And we see that from time to time, don't.

Speaker 3 (50:57):
We, right, That's right. I mean, companies do go out
of business, and you know, you know business, you know,
insurance companies are a business and business decisions have to be made.
But I will say the Medicare advantage space is very
profitable right now. So I think that is the future.
You know, whether the people can devey where that's good, bad,

(51:19):
or indifferent, but the writings on the wall, the Medicare
advantage is certainly the future in this country.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
Way you get any other changes you might see for
the for twenty twenty.

Speaker 3 (51:27):
Five, Jeff, well, the under sixty five affordable care at market,
that's that's the one. We're all waiting with baited breath
on to see if these expanded subsidies or a cound
continue past December thirty first, twenty twenty five. I've read
some articles and heard some scuttle butt that the administration

(51:49):
because it's kind of been pushed down the road, you know,
with everything else is going on in DC, with the
terraff and everything. They may be extended for maybe one
more year possibly, So we'll see. We may not know
until October or even November how that's going to turn out,
which could really make my job difficult. More importantly, make

(52:10):
it difficult for all my clients to make a decision
in early November on what to do. We just may
have to play a waiting game and wait till Thanksgiving
or early December to know what to do on these
expanded subsidies.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
Okay, well, we'll keep it on the radar then, Jeff
howl Health Markets over in election. How do folks reach
you into and get your free help? By the way,
it's free, right right.

Speaker 3 (52:33):
My services are free. I sit down and look at
your doctors, look at your prescriptions and make sure you're
in the right plan for you at the right price.
My office is right outside the flight Deck restaurant in Lexington.
My phone number text or call is eight zero three
six seven eight eight one two one. That's eight oh
three six seven eight eighty one twenty one.

Speaker 1 (52:54):
All right, Jeff, Always great information appreciate it so much.
Have yourself a good weekend, my friend.

Speaker 3 (52:59):
You do, Gary, thank you the.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
Health and Weala show that's going to wrap it up
for us this morning here on one oh three point
five FM and five sixty am WVOC have a great weekend.
The lawyers and staff at the Law Office of James
Snell are there to help those with injuries and workers'
compensation claims, car accidents on the job and other accidents
resulting in injuries. They want to help everyone resolve their

(53:22):
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(53:42):
to take every small mishap, but focus on real injuries
that deserve to be taken seriously. The Law Office of
James Snell. I'm Jim Snell. Contact me at Snell Law
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law office of James Snell since two thousand and four,
with the office is in Lexington and Columbia