October 5, 2023 • 29 mins
Navigating Insurance Options during Open Enrollment What do you need to know when you pick health coverage for 2024? We are joined by Ryan Stanford from Alfa insurance who will walk us through all the things to consider with regard to picking your health plan for next year, especially considering how it fits into Medicare.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
This is Viewpoint Alabama, a publicservice show where we talk about the people,
places and things making news across ourstate. My name is John Mounts
and I've joined in studio by AlphaInsurance the health manager Ryan Stanford. Ryan,
Welcome to the show. Hi,John, How you doing. I'm
doing great. It's that time ofyear. The leaves are changing color,
football is fully underway, and we'refaced once again with that open enrollment question.
(00:28):
And I know a lot of peoplehave a lot of questions, and
that's why we brought you in asthe expert. So what is the first
thing people should have in mind whenthey're thinking about their insurance plan and what
they need to be looking out for. Well, I like your football analogy.
Quarter four, So quarter four ofeach year that's when the open rollment
time frame us. So we're aboutto head into our Medicare open enrollment,
which starts on October fifteenth, andit overlaps November first with major medical open
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rollment, so basically end of theyear, that's when everything starts to ramp
up for the first of the yearcoverage. A lot of people they say,
well, I've got in assurance throughmy healthcare provider or whatever, but
you could you could also have Medicarein addition to or does it work independent
of one another. So typically peoplewill go on Medicare at traditional Medicare age,
which is sixty five. Some cango on earlier due to medical conditions
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like end stage renal failure or disability. We're here to help people understand what
those differences are and how to makea change during this enrollment period. And
this is the time that you haveto consider because if it gets to be
February March, April, you're kindof out of luck because that's not the
time you can do it unless there'sexemptions, aren't there. Yeah, So
open enrollment basically means you can changeyour plan, you can shop during that
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timeframe. The rest theory you haveto have what's called a special enrollment period
and a qualifier. So some ofthose are loss of coverage. Maybe your
company shuttered and you're looking for healthinsurance because you lost it, or you've
had a qualifying life event change that'swhat I was looking for, a change
of life event. That's change oflife event a birth, a death,
a marriage, a divorce, somethinglike that. So without a special enrollment
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period, open rollments of time ofyear you want to make those changes.
What are the exact dates here inAlabama? In Alabama Medicare open ROLLMA is
from October fifteenth through December seventh,and it overlaps with Major Medical open Rollment,
which is November first, and youwant to try to get it done
by December fifteenth for January first effectivedate, but there's a grace period into
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January fifteenth for February first. Sobasically what that means is if you want
it for January one, you needto get it done before Christmas at least
ten days before, or you're goingto have to wait until after the first
year and it's going to push everythingto February first. After that, you
have to have a qualifier. Iknow Alpha is just one of many providers,
but there are a lot of veryvery similar So welcomes to the process.
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At Alpha, what do consumers needto know to pick the best plan?
So Alpha we have a dedicated healthdepartment with licensed and appointed agents and
a call center that you can reachout to. Also, you can step
into one of our two hundred andseventy one service centers throughout every county in
the state talk to a sales repwho's licensed talk to you some pricing.
We're here to support those service centersthroughout the state. You're getting the same
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alpha customer service that you expect withall the other property lines and things that
we're known for. But yeah,we have a corporate function then also we
can help at the service center leveltoo. Some of the things that you
need to think about, of course, are not only just like the premium,
and then there's also deductibles and thatkind of thing, and the types
of coverage not only for hospitalization,also for pharmaceuticals that kind of thing.
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And I guess these are some ofthe things that you would think about.
So medical insurance can get really complicated. So to break it down, I
say, it's kind of like theOlympics. The Affordable Care Act classified major
medical insurance into bronze, silver,and gold plans. So we help people
pick the right coverage. Most willgo with that middle that silver level,
find out what kind of tax subsidy, cost sharing reduction that they're eligible for
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through the federal government based on theirincome, based on qualifications, their household
size, where they live. There'sa thing called community rating, so where
you live within the state, thehospital network system helps determine some of those
rates so we can help people navigatethose options, talk over what the premiums
are going to be like and whatkind of subsidy you're going to get,
and then help make an election.Something that always confuses me is the ABC's
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You always hear about the Medicare partA, part B, part C party.
What does all that mean? Okay, so A, B, C
and D. If you can countto four, you can understand all the
four parts of Medicare. So Aand B are federally provided. So hospital
part A okay, so that's goingto be any hospital stays that you have,
and the medical part B and youcan go on to this at age
sixty five. C and D iswhere it gets tricky because C and D
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are going to be through private insurers. So you can get what's called a
Medicare advantage, which kind of rollssome of the C and D together and
works with A and B, oryou can get standalone C and D plans.
So we realize there's a lot ofalphabet soup, but basically, in
Layman's terms, A and B isgoing to be federally provided, and C
and D private insurers. You mentionedage sixty five, but people under sixty
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five can also qualify for Medicare too, can't pies. People under sixty five
can qualify from to care if theyhave a certain diagnosis, like in stage
renal disease they're on dialysis. LukeGrigg's disease is another als There are certain
disability factors that allow you going toMedicare early. Another fun fact is that
when you actually reach traditional age sixtyfive, you get a reset. So
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if you've been paying a little bitmore because you qualified for Medicare early at
age sixty five, you can getthe rate that you traditionally would get.
And people don't know that, socall off the health We can help save
you some money. How does itwork? If you happen to be the
head of a household and you havedependence, can they also be on if
you're on Medicaid Medicaid and I keepusing the interchangeably, Medicaid and Medicare are
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different. I know. So Medicaidis a social program. People have a
certain income level can qualify. It'smanaged by the state and the federal government.
Medicare is federally funded insurance. Itwas set up originally in the thirties
for our seniors, and back whenit was set up, the life expectancy
was age fifty eight. So nowwe have people that are electing Medicare at
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age sixty five until like age seventyto get on it, and there's penalties
for that. So you know,people are living a lot longer than they
used to. So definitely look atMedicare and look at supplements because medicare alone,
the way that it was originally intendedto provide coverage for people, it
just doesn't cover the same as itdid. Especially there's so many procedures out
there, so many prescriptions. Sothat's where I think Alpha Health can help
our senior population. Is Alpha doyou primarily deal with the individual or also
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do you work with companies and whoare looking for, like say, insurance
for their entire operation for all thepeople. Yes. So our Alpha insurance
agents throughout the service centers in thestate are working with small businesses, commercial
owners. If they're interested in thesmall group, they can reach out to
an agent that can be connected withAlpha Health. We can talk through some
of those options. It's a littlebit different. Primarily been working with consumers
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like direct to consumers and then alsoMedicare recipients, but we're looking at some
other options for small groups and forenrolling people, probably in the twenty to
fifty space for employees. So ifthere's an employer that wants to offer health
insurance to their employees as a retentionbenefit, they can reach out to us
and we can kind of do itone off. It's going to be a
little more in depth to Priby setout. There's different plan levels to look
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at, but we can we cantalk about that too. This is your
Point Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network. My name is John Mounts. I'm
speaking with Ryan Stanford from Alpha.He's the Alpha Health Manager. Ryan,
compare, if you would, ifwe could put all these things out on
the table, what should we lookat when If I'm going to look at
this from you know, from thebeginning and go okay, what do I
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want to look at as I comparehealth plans? What are some of the
things the boxes I should go rightdown and check that I want to look
at as I look at different providersand different coverages. Well, you want
to look at what your premium isgoing to be. That's the biggest question
we have. You know, what'sthe bottom line when am I paying per
month. But in addition to that, sometimes people take a lesser premium for
a higher deductible, So there's what'scalled high deductible health plans. There are
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plans that are kind of middle ofthe road where you're deductibles, you know,
kind of average, and then youryour premium is also probably fairly average.
And then you have a higher tierplan where you're paying more on premium
but you have less of a deductible. So you want to look at those
costs and within that. So premiumallows you to have the insurance on a
monthly basis. Your deductible is theportion that you need to meet each year.
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But then there's copays, like forprescriptions, like is it going to
be ten dollars or twenty dollars whenyou go get that prescription filled at CVS
or Walgreens or Adams Drugs. Andthen you're going to be looking at co
insurance, which is a percent thatyou're on the hook for when you have
a hospital stay or an emergency roomvisit. And there's other flat fees as
well. So there's a lot ofdifferent factors that go into it. We
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believe that when you call out thehealth we can ask some of those questions,
Hey, what are some things thatyou might be at risk of?
What do you think you might encounterin the next few years here, and
can help price that out and youmay pay a little bit more on premium,
but on the back end you cansave some costs in the co insurance
and kind of deductible maximount of pocketspace. And I imagine it has to
do with the season of life you'rein, because people who are maybe right
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out of mom and dad's house andthey're otherwise healthy, they need a different
kind of insurance than somebody who's middleaged, somebody who's maybe thinking of becoming
a parent, a mother, orsomebody who's retired. You're in different places
in life, and so I guessit depends on what they call like a
healthy people insurance, you know,the kind basically it covers in case you're
in a car accident but otherwise youdon't really have a lot to worry about.
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Or somebody who needs a lot ofmedication, a lot of a lot
of prescriptions. And I guess thatdepends on what kind of deductible you want
to deal with versus what kind ofpremium you want to have. That's absolutely
correct. In fact, there's what'scalled a catastrophic plan that's really for young
people and it's just going to coverif they're in a hospital stay, maybe
they're in a car accident something likethat. It's not going to cover any
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co insurance or copays or visits tourgent care. But we also have plans
that are they're going to cover themost, and then plans that are going
to kind of cover the middle,and then plans that will you know,
if someone's healthy, maybe they justneed a high deductible health plan because they're
a low health risk. I've gotno pre existing conditions, they're not any
prescriptions. They only really need itif they're going to get a cutter or
scrape or in an accident. Ryan, can you speak a little bit about
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the prescription coverage that you would needif let's say you are a younger person
and maybe you don't need you're noton anything. Would you not need the
same level of prescription coverage that ifsay somebody who was on either Medicaid,
like some people are on just maintenancemedications like the crest stores or those kind
of things for cholesterol or maybe somethingor you're on. Or then again maybe
you actually you have something like it, like a cancer, and you're taking
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a very heavy drug, very expensivedrug. What are the differences there in
terms of the premiums. So I'mgoing to be really straightforward with you.
We are not pharmacists at Alpha Health, sir. Which is awesome people that
work in the pharmaceutical space. Imean, they've got to know a lot
of chemistry. But we have toolswhere we can talk language, we can
understand the difference between a generic likewhat the different tiers are, what a
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specialty drug would be, what thekind of drug that would have to be
shipped in and maybe kept on dryice or in a cooler. You know,
people don't understand that some things arevery hard to come by and have
to be special ordered. So we'reable to put a list of prescriptions.
I've even how people email these tome before into kind of a quoter tool
and then kind of make a selectionon Hey, if you go on this
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planet's actually going to cover the mostand you can have the smallest copays if
you pay a little bit more onpremium. So what we're good at is
asking questions and also following up andgetting documentation and then being able to provide
some of that pricing. Let meask you about taxes and how that works
with when you go to when yougo to file your taxes, there's a
lot of things you can deduct,a lot of things you can't deduct.
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What sort of consideration should you makeif you're thinking about those kind of things
in selection of a healthcare plan.Well, in twenty fourteen, the Affordable
Care Act kind of changed the world. And one of the things that it
did was for both employers and forprivate consumers, there's a tax form that
you file based on whether you havehealth insurance coverage and you're receiving a government
subsidy. So one of the thingsthat we do is we actually have what's
called an enhanced direct Enrollment tool.We will rate what that tax credit is
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going to be and provide like amarketplace eligibility determination. Notice, I know
this sounds like a mouthful of Basicallywhat that means is this is how much
advanced tax credit you're going to getbased on your household income, and you
need to turn this four minute taxtime and basically settle out with the irs
making sure that you're receiving the rightamount of tax credit. You're listening to
Viewpoint Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network. My name is John Mounts. I'm
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talking with Ryan Stanford. He's theAlpha Health Manager and Ryan, there's a
lot of things people should consider thistime of year because you have to kind
of reassess all of your health needs. And one of the ones we briefly
touched on is your animals, yourfur babies, because nowadays, when you
take your dog or cat to thevet, it's not as simple as Okay,
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here's ten dollars and we're done.Sometimes it costs eight hundred, one
thousand, three thousand dollars for aprocedure because they are major medical procedures.
Do they have plans like that thatcan also cover animals. Yeah, So
it's really interesting to talk about this. We've had more of these questions as
a member benefit. We've reached outto our membership and ask hey, what
kind of benefits do you want usto provide for being a member of the
album A Farmer's Federation and pet insurancewas one that just kept coming up,
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so it kind of bridges over intohealth. In fact, some of our
licensed health reps actually used to workat a veterinary hospital and you'd be surprised.
There's a lot of similarities between theprescriptions that you know, our for
children and you know, there's genericdrug has been around for a long time
and human beings actually receive you know, it's painkillers and that kind of thing.
So we have pet Insurance in additionto that Alpha Health and our member
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benefits, We've got medical air transportationservices, so if you need to get
metavacked to a hospital somewhere, youknow, a different part of the state,
that's a benefit that you could explore. And then also we have what's
called an America's Pharmacy Source. It'sa discount prescription program for our member.
So if they're in the Medicare gapwhere they've already met their deductible but haven't
gotten to their MAXI amount of pocket, they could potentially save some of that
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costs through this member benefit. Soour benefits are fairly robust. And yeah,
pet insurance is just kind of theneatest one that people have been asking
about recently. And there's more becausethe F in Alpha stands for farm right
it does, so does this covermore than just cats and dogs? To
just cover horses and the other animalsas well. Orf just it could the
large the large animals, Yes,you could get them written because that that
can be for those who own horses, that can be a very biggest best
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you you get like a colic orsomething like that, and the vet has
to come out on weekend. You'relooking at thousands of dollars. Yeah.
I always thinking there's probably gonna besome folks that have you know, exotic
you know, pets or something orcockatoo. Yeah, like a cockatoo or
a ferret or something else. Butyes, pet insurance will cover those,
and that's that's really good to know. It's one of the insurance is one
of the things you don't think aboutuntil you need it, and once you
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need it, it's kind of toolate to start thinking about it. That's
true. And you mentioned the metafact thing I wanted to go back that
I was thinking about. You know, Alabama is a very big state,
but there's a whole lot of ruralareas that don't have the best medical care,
especially if you need like serious longterm care for something. Maybe you
live in the Wiregrass, but thedoctor you need is in the Huntsville area.
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So Alpha has the ability to tofly you from one place to another
for care. Yet we have anew member benefits called MASSA and it's really
just pennies on the dollar, doesn'tcost on that much. But basically to
your point, in the rural hospitals, they focus on stabilization and getting to
one of the big systems. Soif they're in a rural area, which
is kind of where we started,you know, rural health, and they
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had this member benefit, provided theycould get stabilized and then some of those
bills that can be tens of thousandsof dollars, you know, and they
can get metavacked to a larger hospitalsystem and have that emergency surgery that can
be life saving. So one moretime, the dates we have to keep
in mind is when when does openenrollment start and when does it close.
So Medicare products open enrollment, sothat's for age sixty five plus typically is
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going to be October fifteenth through Decemberseventh. I think that December seventh is
a Friday, so we'll be reallybusy that night. And then November one
through January fifteenth, it's about aten week period to elect major medical coverage.
And while you're signing up for that, what do you do when it
comes to private insurance that co insurancethings like that, like you would get
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through Alpha or your employer, whoeverit might be. So there's a what's
called an affordability standard. So ifthe employer covers that you're on is more
than nine point one two percent ofyour household income, you could give Alpha
Health a call on you can kindof price shop during openrollment. Otherwise you
have to elect your employer covers.Just kind of how the healthcare laws are
written, and uh to give AlphaHealth a call. What's what's the number
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or website? So we have Alphahealth dot net is our website, and
then we have a one eight hundrednumber. It's one eight hundred six nine
three five six. Again that's Alphahealth dot net and one eight hundred six
nine three five six. Ryan Stafford, the Alpha Health manager, thank you
so much for joining us today onViewpoint Alabama. Thank you for having me
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and now speaking about healthcare and yourhealth, let's talk about virus prevention.
Here's Ryan Gorman. The AD Council, the American Medical Association and the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention are launchingtheir annual campaign Get My Flu Shot and
join me to talk more about this. I have doctor Leandris Labert from the
CDC and doctor Willie Underwood from theAmerican Medical Association. I want to thank
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you both so much for taking afew minutes to come on the show.
And doctor Lebert, let me startwith you tell us about the Get My
Flu Shot campaign and also what wecan potentially expect from flu season this year.
Well, first of all, thecampaign is intended to motivate people to
get a flu shot, to getit early, and to protect themselves,
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their families and their communities. Inrecent years, especially during the pandemic,
we saw milder flu seasons, inlarge part because people were taking different precautions
due to COVID nineteen. Any ideaof what we can expect in terms of
the severity of this year's flu seasonor is that something that we just don't
know yet? So let me saywhen we that you're right. I mean
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during COVID there was fewer cases ofthe flu, but during the last flu
season, CDC estimates that there wereat least twenty seven million flu illnesses that
resulted in for some three hundred thousandflu hospitalizations. And then regretfully, there
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were nineteen thousand deaths related to theflu, and this was our last blue
season in twenty twenty two. Aswe are approaching this year's blue season,
it's extremely difficult for us to actuallypredict the intensity or the severity of flu.
(18:44):
So that's why we are partnering withthe AD Council and the AMA to
just get the word out. Getyour flu shot now. It's the best
decision that you're going to make goinginto this flu season. Doctor Underwood,
let me turn to you now,as part of the American Medical Association,
what are some of the messages thatyou're trying to get out to everyone listening
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about the importance of getting a flushot. I believe doctor Bird said it
best. The key is to preventthe flu. Get vaccination. Also the
understanding there's those who are great riskcompared to others, but we're all at
risk. So those who are sixmonths years of age to five years are
a great risk, those who aresixty five years of age or older,
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and those Hispanics, African Americans,and Native Americans, but we're all at
risk. You know, one thingwe talked a lot about during the course
of the pandemic, the vulnerabilities thatcertain communities across the country face in these
situations, and I'm curious in Blackand Hispanic communities in particular, are we
seeing high vaccination rates when it comesto the flu or lower vaccination rates.
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We actually see very low vaccination coverageAfrican Americans and Hispanics and Latinos, and
this has been a longstanding trend thatwe hope will we'll start to reverse and
certainly this year that we'll see vaccinationcoverage go up. I want to add
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that contributing to the low vaccination coverageare issues like not having health insurance,
issues like not having transportation to geta flu shot, and in some instances
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not having a job where you cantake time off and actually go get a
flu shot. So these are barriersthat these communities typically confront and that you
know, lead to lower levels ofvaccination coverage. We also want to do
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more to increase confidence in vaccines amongAfrican Americans and Hispanics and Latinos as well
as be able to help increase access. There were some questions and there was
certainly some confusion about when it cameto the COVID nineteen vaccines, what exactly
(21:21):
they did and what they were aimingto do with the flu shot. What
exactly is the purpose of the flushot? Is it to prevent infection?
Is it to prevent getting a severereaction from the flu? Can you help
break that down for us, Yes, So, the purpose of the flu
shot is to prevent serious complications thatcan be associated with the flu, and
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it's intended to prevent severe cases ofthe flu. The flu shot does not
present one contracting the flu, butit can prevent serious complications and more severe
cases of the flu. And whatabout the effectiveness of flu vaccines in doing
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what they aim to do? Sowe know that that the flu shot is
forty to sixty percent effective, andas I said before, it's it's not
to necessarily prevent one from getting theflu, but it's certainly effective in preventing
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severe cases of the flu. Andthen last question on the vaccine itself.
If someone's had a flu shot inthe past, they might think to themselves,
well, I'm I'm vaccinated against theflu. Why is it that this
is something that we're supposed to getevery year? So yearly we monitor flu
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progress globally see which flues are outthere. The vaccines are created yearly based
upon the potential flu virus that willbe impacting us for that season. Right,
so each shot each year it maybe a different vaccine, there's geared
toward the flu virus that's prevalent thatyear. And finally, where can people
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find out more about all of this, including where to get a flu vaccine
this year? So please send youraudience to get by flu shot dot org.
That's get myflu shot dot org.And at that website they'll be able
to find out where to access theflute shot as well as there are lots
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of questions and answers that are availableon that website so that people can understand
certainly what we described today and moreabout the flu and about protecting themselves.
Again, the website is get myflushot dot org. That's get myflu shot
dot org. The AD Council,the American Medical Association and the CDC coming
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together for the annual campaign get MyFlu Shot and with me doctor LEANTRISL.
Bird of the CDC and doctor WillieUnderwood of the AMA. I want to
thank both of you so much forcoming on the show sharing all of that
information. We really appreciate it.Thank you for having us all right,
I'm Ryan Gorman here on iHeartRadio Communities, and now I want to bring in
our final guest. We're joined bydoctor Bob Murray, chief medical officer of
(24:29):
next Gen Healthcare, to talk aboutmental health in light of Mental Illness Awareness
Week and World Mental Health Day.Doctor Murray, thank you so much for
taking a few minutes to come onthe show. And let's start with two
conditions that are experienced rather frequently acrossthe country. Tell us about the symptoms
and signs of anxiety and depression.Well, Ryan, I mean, symptoms
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of anxiety and depression in the UnitedStates are actually very common. We have
some very recent data the CDC thatshow that as many as one in four
US adults show some constellation of thesesymptoms. Do you find that people today
are more willing to seek help?That's a good question. I mean,
(25:14):
in addition to being the chief medicalofficer for Next Set of Healthcare, I
also am a practicing family physician,and I do think that people are more
open to bringing this up with theirprimary care physician, which is great.
I do think that's the first placethat people should should begin a discussion of
these kinds of symptoms. I alsothink that younger people there's less stigma around
(25:38):
describing what they are experiencing and askingfor help than in some older adults,
but there's still a lot of barriersto people seeking actively seeking out mental health
treatment. What would some of thosebarriers be. I think the main one
is probably just a stigma that theseare not things that I can change,
(26:08):
or these are the systems are sosubtle that a person experiencing them may not
really fully realize the full extent ofhow much they're affecting their life. I
do think that for some people thesewould be signs of weakness and they wouldn't
want to bring that up. Orfor other people, they may feel that
(26:29):
they don't know who to trust withthese, you know, intensely kind of
personal feelings of negativity. I thinksome people will don't have access to a
primary care provider or feel that theyhave to see a psychiatrist, you know,
for these symptoms, and of coursethat's not true. One way to
receive mental health care that's grown exponentiallysince the start of the pandemic telehealth sessions.
(26:53):
Do we know how effective telehealth sessionsare as compared to in person sessions?
Another very good question, Ryan,and the answer essentially is yes,
telehealth is a very effective way toget treatment for mental health. So at
(27:14):
next in healthcare, you know,we offer technology to physical health providers and
behavioral health providers, and along thosetechnologies is the ability to do a virtual
visit, to do a you know, a zoom call, so to speak.
And four and a half million visitsthat we've done, about twenty five
percent of days are in behavioral health, and there's a growing body of evidence
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showing that patients and providers who areproviding or experiencing that kind of care are
very satisfied with it and that theywould prefer that it continue that way.
And it also helps access because ifvirtual visits, for instance, have a
lower no show rate because there's lesstransportation problems, you know, getting to
(28:00):
the primary care provider or the mentalhealth provider. So I do think that
telemedicine has been a very good turnand a very good kind of uh,
you know, development for mental healthtreatment. That said, not for everybody,
and that's also fine, but alot of people really do like it
(28:21):
and report wanting to continue their theirtreatments that way. And final question for
you, where can people learn more? Are there resources available that you would
recommend for those who are looking forsome kind of mental health assistance. Yeah,
there are lots of resources out there. I think I would maybe first
recommend that people go to the CPCdot gov Flash Mental Health site and just
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kind of get some you know,respected and uh, you know, authoritative
information. But there's lots of othergood sites out there. A quick Google
of virtual therapy, well, lotsof providers who can provide those telehealth visits,
and of course talking with their PCPis usually a reliable source of information.
(29:08):
But I will add that if anyoneout there is, you know,
thinking about suicide, that there's ahotline for that. It's nine eight eight,
just like you a down nine oneone for an emergency for suicide utile
nine eight eight. Doctor Bob Murray, chief medical officer of next Gen Healthcare,
with us for Mental Illness Awareness Week. Doctor Murray, want to thank
(29:30):
you so much for the time andinsight. We really appreciate it. Thank
you guy, thanks for having meon this important topic. I vision you've
been listening to Viewpoint Alabama, apublic affairs program from the Alabama Radio Network.
The opinions expressed on Viewpoint Alabama arenot necessarily those of the staff,
management, or advertisers of this station
This is Viewpoint Alabama, a publicservice show where we talk about the people,
places and things making news across ourstate. My name is John Mounts
and I've joined in studio by AlphaInsurance the health manager Ryan Stanford. Ryan,
Welcome to the show. Hi,John, How you doing. I'm
doing great. It's that time ofyear. The leaves are changing color,
football is fully underway, and we'refaced once again with that open enrollment question.
(00:28):
And I know a lot of peoplehave a lot of questions, and
that's why we brought you in asthe expert. So what is the first
thing people should have in mind whenthey're thinking about their insurance plan and what
they need to be looking out for. Well, I like your football analogy.
Quarter four, So quarter four ofeach year that's when the open rollment
time frame us. So we're aboutto head into our Medicare open enrollment,
which starts on October fifteenth, andit overlaps November first with major medical open
(00:53):
rollment, so basically end of theyear, that's when everything starts to ramp
up for the first of the yearcoverage. A lot of people they say,
well, I've got in assurance throughmy healthcare provider or whatever, but
you could you could also have Medicarein addition to or does it work independent
of one another. So typically peoplewill go on Medicare at traditional Medicare age,
which is sixty five. Some cango on earlier due to medical conditions
(01:15):
like end stage renal failure or disability. We're here to help people understand what
those differences are and how to makea change during this enrollment period. And
this is the time that you haveto consider because if it gets to be
February March, April, you're kindof out of luck because that's not the
time you can do it unless there'sexemptions, aren't there. Yeah, So
open enrollment basically means you can changeyour plan, you can shop during that
(01:38):
timeframe. The rest theory you haveto have what's called a special enrollment period
and a qualifier. So some ofthose are loss of coverage. Maybe your
company shuttered and you're looking for healthinsurance because you lost it, or you've
had a qualifying life event change that'swhat I was looking for, a change
of life event. That's change oflife event a birth, a death,
a marriage, a divorce, somethinglike that. So without a special enrollment
(01:59):
period, open rollments of time ofyear you want to make those changes.
What are the exact dates here inAlabama? In Alabama Medicare open ROLLMA is
from October fifteenth through December seventh,and it overlaps with Major Medical open Rollment,
which is November first, and youwant to try to get it done
by December fifteenth for January first effectivedate, but there's a grace period into
(02:21):
January fifteenth for February first. Sobasically what that means is if you want
it for January one, you needto get it done before Christmas at least
ten days before, or you're goingto have to wait until after the first
year and it's going to push everythingto February first. After that, you
have to have a qualifier. Iknow Alpha is just one of many providers,
but there are a lot of veryvery similar So welcomes to the process.
(02:42):
At Alpha, what do consumers needto know to pick the best plan?
So Alpha we have a dedicated healthdepartment with licensed and appointed agents and
a call center that you can reachout to. Also, you can step
into one of our two hundred andseventy one service centers throughout every county in
the state talk to a sales repwho's licensed talk to you some pricing.
We're here to support those service centersthroughout the state. You're getting the same
(03:05):
alpha customer service that you expect withall the other property lines and things that
we're known for. But yeah,we have a corporate function then also we
can help at the service center leveltoo. Some of the things that you
need to think about, of course, are not only just like the premium,
and then there's also deductibles and thatkind of thing, and the types
of coverage not only for hospitalization,also for pharmaceuticals that kind of thing.
(03:27):
And I guess these are some ofthe things that you would think about.
So medical insurance can get really complicated. So to break it down, I
say, it's kind of like theOlympics. The Affordable Care Act classified major
medical insurance into bronze, silver,and gold plans. So we help people
pick the right coverage. Most willgo with that middle that silver level,
find out what kind of tax subsidy, cost sharing reduction that they're eligible for
(03:49):
through the federal government based on theirincome, based on qualifications, their household
size, where they live. There'sa thing called community rating, so where
you live within the state, thehospital network system helps determine some of those
rates so we can help people navigatethose options, talk over what the premiums
are going to be like and whatkind of subsidy you're going to get,
and then help make an election.Something that always confuses me is the ABC's
(04:11):
You always hear about the Medicare partA, part B, part C party.
What does all that mean? Okay, so A, B, C
and D. If you can countto four, you can understand all the
four parts of Medicare. So Aand B are federally provided. So hospital
part A okay, so that's goingto be any hospital stays that you have,
and the medical part B and youcan go on to this at age
sixty five. C and D iswhere it gets tricky because C and D
(04:34):
are going to be through private insurers. So you can get what's called a
Medicare advantage, which kind of rollssome of the C and D together and
works with A and B, oryou can get standalone C and D plans.
So we realize there's a lot ofalphabet soup, but basically, in
Layman's terms, A and B isgoing to be federally provided, and C
and D private insurers. You mentionedage sixty five, but people under sixty
(04:55):
five can also qualify for Medicare too, can't pies. People under sixty five
can qualify from to care if theyhave a certain diagnosis, like in stage
renal disease they're on dialysis. LukeGrigg's disease is another als There are certain
disability factors that allow you going toMedicare early. Another fun fact is that
when you actually reach traditional age sixtyfive, you get a reset. So
(05:16):
if you've been paying a little bitmore because you qualified for Medicare early at
age sixty five, you can getthe rate that you traditionally would get.
And people don't know that, socall off the health We can help save
you some money. How does itwork? If you happen to be the
head of a household and you havedependence, can they also be on if
you're on Medicaid Medicaid and I keepusing the interchangeably, Medicaid and Medicare are
(05:38):
different. I know. So Medicaidis a social program. People have a
certain income level can qualify. It'smanaged by the state and the federal government.
Medicare is federally funded insurance. Itwas set up originally in the thirties
for our seniors, and back whenit was set up, the life expectancy
was age fifty eight. So nowwe have people that are electing Medicare at
(05:58):
age sixty five until like age seventyto get on it, and there's penalties
for that. So you know,people are living a lot longer than they
used to. So definitely look atMedicare and look at supplements because medicare alone,
the way that it was originally intendedto provide coverage for people, it
just doesn't cover the same as itdid. Especially there's so many procedures out
there, so many prescriptions. Sothat's where I think Alpha Health can help
our senior population. Is Alpha doyou primarily deal with the individual or also
(06:24):
do you work with companies and whoare looking for, like say, insurance
for their entire operation for all thepeople. Yes. So our Alpha insurance
agents throughout the service centers in thestate are working with small businesses, commercial
owners. If they're interested in thesmall group, they can reach out to
an agent that can be connected withAlpha Health. We can talk through some
of those options. It's a littlebit different. Primarily been working with consumers
(06:46):
like direct to consumers and then alsoMedicare recipients, but we're looking at some
other options for small groups and forenrolling people, probably in the twenty to
fifty space for employees. So ifthere's an employer that wants to offer health
insurance to their employees as a retentionbenefit, they can reach out to us
and we can kind of do itone off. It's going to be a
little more in depth to Priby setout. There's different plan levels to look
(07:10):
at, but we can we cantalk about that too. This is your
Point Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network. My name is John Mounts. I'm
speaking with Ryan Stanford from Alpha.He's the Alpha Health Manager. Ryan,
compare, if you would, ifwe could put all these things out on
the table, what should we lookat when If I'm going to look at
this from you know, from thebeginning and go okay, what do I
(07:30):
want to look at as I comparehealth plans? What are some of the
things the boxes I should go rightdown and check that I want to look
at as I look at different providersand different coverages. Well, you want
to look at what your premium isgoing to be. That's the biggest question
we have. You know, what'sthe bottom line when am I paying per
month. But in addition to that, sometimes people take a lesser premium for
a higher deductible, So there's what'scalled high deductible health plans. There are
(07:51):
plans that are kind of middle ofthe road where you're deductibles, you know,
kind of average, and then youryour premium is also probably fairly average.
And then you have a higher tierplan where you're paying more on premium
but you have less of a deductible. So you want to look at those
costs and within that. So premiumallows you to have the insurance on a
monthly basis. Your deductible is theportion that you need to meet each year.
(08:13):
But then there's copays, like forprescriptions, like is it going to
be ten dollars or twenty dollars whenyou go get that prescription filled at CVS
or Walgreens or Adams Drugs. Andthen you're going to be looking at co
insurance, which is a percent thatyou're on the hook for when you have
a hospital stay or an emergency roomvisit. And there's other flat fees as
well. So there's a lot ofdifferent factors that go into it. We
(08:33):
believe that when you call out thehealth we can ask some of those questions,
Hey, what are some things thatyou might be at risk of?
What do you think you might encounterin the next few years here, and
can help price that out and youmay pay a little bit more on premium,
but on the back end you cansave some costs in the co insurance
and kind of deductible maximount of pocketspace. And I imagine it has to
do with the season of life you'rein, because people who are maybe right
(08:54):
out of mom and dad's house andthey're otherwise healthy, they need a different
kind of insurance than somebody who's middleaged, somebody who's maybe thinking of becoming
a parent, a mother, orsomebody who's retired. You're in different places
in life, and so I guessit depends on what they call like a
healthy people insurance, you know,the kind basically it covers in case you're
in a car accident but otherwise youdon't really have a lot to worry about.
(09:16):
Or somebody who needs a lot ofmedication, a lot of a lot
of prescriptions. And I guess thatdepends on what kind of deductible you want
to deal with versus what kind ofpremium you want to have. That's absolutely
correct. In fact, there's what'scalled a catastrophic plan that's really for young
people and it's just going to coverif they're in a hospital stay, maybe
they're in a car accident something likethat. It's not going to cover any
(09:37):
co insurance or copays or visits tourgent care. But we also have plans
that are they're going to cover themost, and then plans that are going
to kind of cover the middle,and then plans that will you know,
if someone's healthy, maybe they justneed a high deductible health plan because they're
a low health risk. I've gotno pre existing conditions, they're not any
prescriptions. They only really need itif they're going to get a cutter or
scrape or in an accident. Ryan, can you speak a little bit about
(10:00):
the prescription coverage that you would needif let's say you are a younger person
and maybe you don't need you're noton anything. Would you not need the
same level of prescription coverage that ifsay somebody who was on either Medicaid,
like some people are on just maintenancemedications like the crest stores or those kind
of things for cholesterol or maybe somethingor you're on. Or then again maybe
you actually you have something like it, like a cancer, and you're taking
(10:24):
a very heavy drug, very expensivedrug. What are the differences there in
terms of the premiums. So I'mgoing to be really straightforward with you.
We are not pharmacists at Alpha Health, sir. Which is awesome people that
work in the pharmaceutical space. Imean, they've got to know a lot
of chemistry. But we have toolswhere we can talk language, we can
understand the difference between a generic likewhat the different tiers are, what a
(10:46):
specialty drug would be, what thekind of drug that would have to be
shipped in and maybe kept on dryice or in a cooler. You know,
people don't understand that some things arevery hard to come by and have
to be special ordered. So we'reable to put a list of prescriptions.
I've even how people email these tome before into kind of a quoter tool
and then kind of make a selectionon Hey, if you go on this
(11:07):
planet's actually going to cover the mostand you can have the smallest copays if
you pay a little bit more onpremium. So what we're good at is
asking questions and also following up andgetting documentation and then being able to provide
some of that pricing. Let meask you about taxes and how that works
with when you go to when yougo to file your taxes, there's a
lot of things you can deduct,a lot of things you can't deduct.
(11:28):
What sort of consideration should you makeif you're thinking about those kind of things
in selection of a healthcare plan.Well, in twenty fourteen, the Affordable
Care Act kind of changed the world. And one of the things that it
did was for both employers and forprivate consumers, there's a tax form that
you file based on whether you havehealth insurance coverage and you're receiving a government
subsidy. So one of the thingsthat we do is we actually have what's
called an enhanced direct Enrollment tool.We will rate what that tax credit is
(11:54):
going to be and provide like amarketplace eligibility determination. Notice, I know
this sounds like a mouthful of Basicallywhat that means is this is how much
advanced tax credit you're going to getbased on your household income, and you
need to turn this four minute taxtime and basically settle out with the irs
making sure that you're receiving the rightamount of tax credit. You're listening to
Viewpoint Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network. My name is John Mounts. I'm
(12:16):
talking with Ryan Stanford. He's theAlpha Health Manager and Ryan, there's a
lot of things people should consider thistime of year because you have to kind
of reassess all of your health needs. And one of the ones we briefly
touched on is your animals, yourfur babies, because nowadays, when you
take your dog or cat to thevet, it's not as simple as Okay,
(12:37):
here's ten dollars and we're done.Sometimes it costs eight hundred, one
thousand, three thousand dollars for aprocedure because they are major medical procedures.
Do they have plans like that thatcan also cover animals. Yeah, So
it's really interesting to talk about this. We've had more of these questions as
a member benefit. We've reached outto our membership and ask hey, what
kind of benefits do you want usto provide for being a member of the
album A Farmer's Federation and pet insurancewas one that just kept coming up,
(12:58):
so it kind of bridges over intohealth. In fact, some of our
licensed health reps actually used to workat a veterinary hospital and you'd be surprised.
There's a lot of similarities between theprescriptions that you know, our for
children and you know, there's genericdrug has been around for a long time
and human beings actually receive you know, it's painkillers and that kind of thing.
So we have pet Insurance in additionto that Alpha Health and our member
(13:22):
benefits, We've got medical air transportationservices, so if you need to get
metavacked to a hospital somewhere, youknow, a different part of the state,
that's a benefit that you could explore. And then also we have what's
called an America's Pharmacy Source. It'sa discount prescription program for our member.
So if they're in the Medicare gapwhere they've already met their deductible but haven't
gotten to their MAXI amount of pocket, they could potentially save some of that
(13:45):
costs through this member benefit. Soour benefits are fairly robust. And yeah,
pet insurance is just kind of theneatest one that people have been asking
about recently. And there's more becausethe F in Alpha stands for farm right
it does, so does this covermore than just cats and dogs? To
just cover horses and the other animalsas well. Orf just it could the
large the large animals, Yes,you could get them written because that that
can be for those who own horses, that can be a very biggest best
(14:09):
you you get like a colic orsomething like that, and the vet has
to come out on weekend. You'relooking at thousands of dollars. Yeah.
I always thinking there's probably gonna besome folks that have you know, exotic
you know, pets or something orcockatoo. Yeah, like a cockatoo or
a ferret or something else. Butyes, pet insurance will cover those,
and that's that's really good to know. It's one of the insurance is one
of the things you don't think aboutuntil you need it, and once you
(14:31):
need it, it's kind of toolate to start thinking about it. That's
true. And you mentioned the metafact thing I wanted to go back that
I was thinking about. You know, Alabama is a very big state,
but there's a whole lot of ruralareas that don't have the best medical care,
especially if you need like serious longterm care for something. Maybe you
live in the Wiregrass, but thedoctor you need is in the Huntsville area.
(14:52):
So Alpha has the ability to tofly you from one place to another
for care. Yet we have anew member benefits called MASSA and it's really
just pennies on the dollar, doesn'tcost on that much. But basically to
your point, in the rural hospitals, they focus on stabilization and getting to
one of the big systems. Soif they're in a rural area, which
is kind of where we started,you know, rural health, and they
(15:13):
had this member benefit, provided theycould get stabilized and then some of those
bills that can be tens of thousandsof dollars, you know, and they
can get metavacked to a larger hospitalsystem and have that emergency surgery that can
be life saving. So one moretime, the dates we have to keep
in mind is when when does openenrollment start and when does it close.
So Medicare products open enrollment, sothat's for age sixty five plus typically is
(15:37):
going to be October fifteenth through Decemberseventh. I think that December seventh is
a Friday, so we'll be reallybusy that night. And then November one
through January fifteenth, it's about aten week period to elect major medical coverage.
And while you're signing up for that, what do you do when it
comes to private insurance that co insurancethings like that, like you would get
(15:58):
through Alpha or your employer, whoeverit might be. So there's a what's
called an affordability standard. So ifthe employer covers that you're on is more
than nine point one two percent ofyour household income, you could give Alpha
Health a call on you can kindof price shop during openrollment. Otherwise you
have to elect your employer covers.Just kind of how the healthcare laws are
written, and uh to give AlphaHealth a call. What's what's the number
(16:22):
or website? So we have Alphahealth dot net is our website, and
then we have a one eight hundrednumber. It's one eight hundred six nine
three five six. Again that's Alphahealth dot net and one eight hundred six
nine three five six. Ryan Stafford, the Alpha Health manager, thank you
so much for joining us today onViewpoint Alabama. Thank you for having me
(16:45):
and now speaking about healthcare and yourhealth, let's talk about virus prevention.
Here's Ryan Gorman. The AD Council, the American Medical Association and the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention are launchingtheir annual campaign Get My Flu Shot and
join me to talk more about this. I have doctor Leandris Labert from the
CDC and doctor Willie Underwood from theAmerican Medical Association. I want to thank
(17:07):
you both so much for taking afew minutes to come on the show.
And doctor Lebert, let me startwith you tell us about the Get My
Flu Shot campaign and also what wecan potentially expect from flu season this year.
Well, first of all, thecampaign is intended to motivate people to
get a flu shot, to getit early, and to protect themselves,
(17:32):
their families and their communities. Inrecent years, especially during the pandemic,
we saw milder flu seasons, inlarge part because people were taking different precautions
due to COVID nineteen. Any ideaof what we can expect in terms of
the severity of this year's flu seasonor is that something that we just don't
know yet? So let me saywhen we that you're right. I mean
(17:55):
during COVID there was fewer cases ofthe flu, but during the last flu
season, CDC estimates that there wereat least twenty seven million flu illnesses that
resulted in for some three hundred thousandflu hospitalizations. And then regretfully, there
(18:21):
were nineteen thousand deaths related to theflu, and this was our last blue
season in twenty twenty two. Aswe are approaching this year's blue season,
it's extremely difficult for us to actuallypredict the intensity or the severity of flu.
(18:44):
So that's why we are partnering withthe AD Council and the AMA to
just get the word out. Getyour flu shot now. It's the best
decision that you're going to make goinginto this flu season. Doctor Underwood,
let me turn to you now,as part of the American Medical Association,
what are some of the messages thatyou're trying to get out to everyone listening
(19:08):
about the importance of getting a flushot. I believe doctor Bird said it
best. The key is to preventthe flu. Get vaccination. Also the
understanding there's those who are great riskcompared to others, but we're all at
risk. So those who are sixmonths years of age to five years are
a great risk, those who aresixty five years of age or older,
(19:30):
and those Hispanics, African Americans,and Native Americans, but we're all at
risk. You know, one thingwe talked a lot about during the course
of the pandemic, the vulnerabilities thatcertain communities across the country face in these
situations, and I'm curious in Blackand Hispanic communities in particular, are we
seeing high vaccination rates when it comesto the flu or lower vaccination rates.
(19:55):
We actually see very low vaccination coverageAfrican Americans and Hispanics and Latinos, and
this has been a longstanding trend thatwe hope will we'll start to reverse and
certainly this year that we'll see vaccinationcoverage go up. I want to add
(20:15):
that contributing to the low vaccination coverageare issues like not having health insurance,
issues like not having transportation to geta flu shot, and in some instances
(20:36):
not having a job where you cantake time off and actually go get a
flu shot. So these are barriersthat these communities typically confront and that you
know, lead to lower levels ofvaccination coverage. We also want to do
(20:59):
more to increase confidence in vaccines amongAfrican Americans and Hispanics and Latinos as well
as be able to help increase access. There were some questions and there was
certainly some confusion about when it cameto the COVID nineteen vaccines, what exactly
(21:21):
they did and what they were aimingto do with the flu shot. What
exactly is the purpose of the flushot? Is it to prevent infection?
Is it to prevent getting a severereaction from the flu? Can you help
break that down for us, Yes, So, the purpose of the flu
shot is to prevent serious complications thatcan be associated with the flu, and
(21:47):
it's intended to prevent severe cases ofthe flu. The flu shot does not
present one contracting the flu, butit can prevent serious complications and more severe
cases of the flu. And whatabout the effectiveness of flu vaccines in doing
(22:08):
what they aim to do? Sowe know that that the flu shot is
forty to sixty percent effective, andas I said before, it's it's not
to necessarily prevent one from getting theflu, but it's certainly effective in preventing
(22:33):
severe cases of the flu. Andthen last question on the vaccine itself.
If someone's had a flu shot inthe past, they might think to themselves,
well, I'm I'm vaccinated against theflu. Why is it that this
is something that we're supposed to getevery year? So yearly we monitor flu
(22:53):
progress globally see which flues are outthere. The vaccines are created yearly based
upon the potential flu virus that willbe impacting us for that season. Right,
so each shot each year it maybe a different vaccine, there's geared
toward the flu virus that's prevalent thatyear. And finally, where can people
(23:18):
find out more about all of this, including where to get a flu vaccine
this year? So please send youraudience to get by flu shot dot org.
That's get myflu shot dot org.And at that website they'll be able
to find out where to access theflute shot as well as there are lots
(23:41):
of questions and answers that are availableon that website so that people can understand
certainly what we described today and moreabout the flu and about protecting themselves.
Again, the website is get myflushot dot org. That's get myflu shot
dot org. The AD Council,the American Medical Association and the CDC coming
(24:06):
together for the annual campaign get MyFlu Shot and with me doctor LEANTRISL.
Bird of the CDC and doctor WillieUnderwood of the AMA. I want to
thank both of you so much forcoming on the show sharing all of that
information. We really appreciate it.Thank you for having us all right,
I'm Ryan Gorman here on iHeartRadio Communities, and now I want to bring in
our final guest. We're joined bydoctor Bob Murray, chief medical officer of
(24:29):
next Gen Healthcare, to talk aboutmental health in light of Mental Illness Awareness
Week and World Mental Health Day.Doctor Murray, thank you so much for
taking a few minutes to come onthe show. And let's start with two
conditions that are experienced rather frequently acrossthe country. Tell us about the symptoms
and signs of anxiety and depression.Well, Ryan, I mean, symptoms
(24:53):
of anxiety and depression in the UnitedStates are actually very common. We have
some very recent data the CDC thatshow that as many as one in four
US adults show some constellation of thesesymptoms. Do you find that people today
are more willing to seek help?That's a good question. I mean,
(25:14):
in addition to being the chief medicalofficer for Next Set of Healthcare, I
also am a practicing family physician,and I do think that people are more
open to bringing this up with theirprimary care physician, which is great.
I do think that's the first placethat people should should begin a discussion of
these kinds of symptoms. I alsothink that younger people there's less stigma around
(25:38):
describing what they are experiencing and askingfor help than in some older adults,
but there's still a lot of barriersto people seeking actively seeking out mental health
treatment. What would some of thosebarriers be. I think the main one
is probably just a stigma that theseare not things that I can change,
(26:08):
or these are the systems are sosubtle that a person experiencing them may not
really fully realize the full extent ofhow much they're affecting their life. I
do think that for some people thesewould be signs of weakness and they wouldn't
want to bring that up. Orfor other people, they may feel that
(26:29):
they don't know who to trust withthese, you know, intensely kind of
personal feelings of negativity. I thinksome people will don't have access to a
primary care provider or feel that theyhave to see a psychiatrist, you know,
for these symptoms, and of coursethat's not true. One way to
receive mental health care that's grown exponentiallysince the start of the pandemic telehealth sessions.
(26:53):
Do we know how effective telehealth sessionsare as compared to in person sessions?
Another very good question, Ryan,and the answer essentially is yes,
telehealth is a very effective way toget treatment for mental health. So at
(27:14):
next in healthcare, you know,we offer technology to physical health providers and
behavioral health providers, and along thosetechnologies is the ability to do a virtual
visit, to do a you know, a zoom call, so to speak.
And four and a half million visitsthat we've done, about twenty five
percent of days are in behavioral health, and there's a growing body of evidence
(27:36):
showing that patients and providers who areproviding or experiencing that kind of care are
very satisfied with it and that theywould prefer that it continue that way.
And it also helps access because ifvirtual visits, for instance, have a
lower no show rate because there's lesstransportation problems, you know, getting to
(28:00):
the primary care provider or the mentalhealth provider. So I do think that
telemedicine has been a very good turnand a very good kind of uh,
you know, development for mental healthtreatment. That said, not for everybody,
and that's also fine, but alot of people really do like it
(28:21):
and report wanting to continue their theirtreatments that way. And final question for
you, where can people learn more? Are there resources available that you would
recommend for those who are looking forsome kind of mental health assistance. Yeah,
there are lots of resources out there. I think I would maybe first
recommend that people go to the CPCdot gov Flash Mental Health site and just
(28:45):
kind of get some you know,respected and uh, you know, authoritative
information. But there's lots of othergood sites out there. A quick Google
of virtual therapy, well, lotsof providers who can provide those telehealth visits,
and of course talking with their PCPis usually a reliable source of information.
(29:08):
But I will add that if anyoneout there is, you know,
thinking about suicide, that there's ahotline for that. It's nine eight eight,
just like you a down nine oneone for an emergency for suicide utile
nine eight eight. Doctor Bob Murray, chief medical officer of next Gen Healthcare,
with us for Mental Illness Awareness Week. Doctor Murray, want to thank
(29:30):
you so much for the time andinsight. We really appreciate it. Thank
you guy, thanks for having meon this important topic. I vision you've
been listening to Viewpoint Alabama, apublic affairs program from the Alabama Radio Network.
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