Rethink Healthcare Together - Maximizing Medicare this open enrollment

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi's Ryan Thomas, host to the fifty five care Scen
Morning Show at least Monday through Friday, five am to
nine am on SIME days. At this time, I consider
myself a facilitator of what we call rethink Healthcare Together.
It's Brian Thomas and John Rouman from Cover. Since he
you're gonna want the number, you're gonna want the website.
Let me give it to you upfront, and I'll make
sure I give it to you again during the segment
five one three eight hundred and two two five five.

(00:21):
That's the number for Cover sincey or go to coversincy
dot com and you can initiate the process by calling
or going to the website and filling a format. The
process being having the team at Cover. Since you look
at your options for medical care, maybe what you've got now,
what the employer is offering you that's coming up on
open enrollment. Of course we're here, it's that time of year,
and of course Medicare. It's Medicare time as well. John

(00:43):
and the team can help you navigate the giant holes
and pitfalls you can face when dealing with Medicare. Welcome back, John,
It's always great seeing you brother, you too, Ryan Gordon,
it's the phone been ringing off the hook of late. Yeah,
we've we've been helping a lot of people get scheduled
out for Medicare. That's a that's a big thing right now.
A lot of changes and we'll talk about that on
the show.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
But it's you know, it's if you're on a Medicare
advantage plan, you have to start looking. You know, every
year things change, plans change. We're seeing prescription plans, crazy
rate increases. So it's you know, it's at time that
they can shop between October fifteenth and December seventh, but
that's the only time they can change their plan. So

(01:23):
if they don't look at what other options are available,
and they didn't really look at their annual notice of change,
and they go into January, go wait, why is this
so much more expensive than last year?

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Now now the time to act. And you're thinking to so, well,
I don't know what I'm looking at or what I
need to change or what my options are. Well, that's
what John on the team at cover sins you for.
You are getting ready to go on Medicare, You're getting
ready to face these changes and challenges. Just talk to
them call them up. It's not going to cost you
a time. They know what they're doing. I mean, I
can't emphasize that enough. For all things medical insurance, their

(01:55):
services don't cost you anything additional. So let's get that
out front in the opens. Yeah, it is no risk.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
It is no risk. And and the other thing too.
It's also breast cancer wearing miss mom.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah, I'm sorry, didn't start with that.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
No, no, no, it's all excited.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
About opening rollment.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
John, Yeah, well I appreciate that, but it's you know
for us too. You know, cancer is always something that
is something we see so often now, you know, in
our office, and you know, it's one of those things
that we actually track numbers when clients call in, and
you know, every year, you know, we do the kind
of numbers for the first quarter of like clients that
have called in and you know, we're advising and what

(02:33):
to do through their cancer situation on their medical side,
and you know, every year we see a pretty big
bump in the call ins that we have. You know,
I remember getting to this business and going, oh wow,
God forbid, I had a client, one client this year
I cancer. But now it's you know, you're talking about
dozens and dozens at you know, first quarter. I don't
know what it is about the area and getting cancer

(02:54):
in the beginning of the year, but.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
All the numbers are going up across the board, it
really is.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
And and the worst part of out is so many
people just aren't planned for that type of situation. And
you know, there's there's so many things they can do
ahead of time to protect themselves better so that it
takes the sting out of that situation well.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
And part of preparing yourself better is to have John
on the team. Look at what you got by way
of medical coverage. Where are people unprepared to deal with
the challenge of a diagnosis like that?

Speaker 2 (03:21):
I would say the biggest thing is just think about
loss of income, right, I mean, most people you know
work for an employer, or they might have sick time,
they might have vacation time, but they're not in a
situation where they can take off months and months or
god forbid a year or more. You know, while going
through that situation, you know, and that's sick time, that

(03:45):
vacation times, I'm going to do so much and then
then they're relying on others to help them out. I mean,
we always say, you know, gofund me is one of
the leading sources of you know, help in these situations
in it and thank god it's even there. But I mean,
at the end of the time, that's just because people
don't plan.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
You know, for that.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
And and you're right, I mean, that's cancer, I feel
is more prevalent now than I've ever seen in this
business of twenty years. And you know, the first thing
when you know one of my care team, that's usually
who's answering it. You know, they're, hey, John, you got
x y Z client just got diagnosed with cancer. I
mean I always say this on even on the show,
but this is exactly what I do. The first question

(04:25):
I go is, hey, do they have a cancer policy
or critical in this coverage?

Speaker 1 (04:28):
You know, because we.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Want to get money into the hands of our clients
asap so that they know what they can do. And
you know, I have clients every year that travel out
of state to get get their treatment. You know, there's
no health insurance plan that's gonna pay for you to
go get lodging down at M D Anderson, you know,

(04:49):
or another major hospital so that you can stay there
and get your treatment and your chemotherapy at a different location.
You know, so many people end up getting stuck local,
you know, And and you know that's why we really
try to plan, you know, for that future, because you know,
I always tell clients, you know, it's not a question
of it, it's when, you know, and I'm hoping it's

(05:10):
way later in life. But you know the fact that
we see this more and more prevalent with even clients
in their forties and their fifties, it's just we want
to make sure they're protected better.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
I understand that. And we've talked in the past about
those I consider eye popping amazing policies that when you
get a cancer diagnosis, you get a big check. The
diagnosis is it's not related to your your your previously
incurred medical expenses or some you know, connection with the
damages that you're struggling with. It's just you get a

(05:42):
cancer diagnosis, you get a check.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, And and then and equate that to the out
of pocket expenses on your health insurance, right, I mean
it's you know, we're looking at next year on the
Affordable Care Act plans, right, I mean, the out of
pocket on those plan is going to be over ten
thousand dollars ten thousand, six hundred is the maxim ount
of pocket next year for an individual. And that's if

(06:04):
everything that you do is in network, right, I mean,
what HAPs you do get to go out of network,
They're not going to pay anything. So it's you know,
most people, I mean, let's be honest, ten grand is
a lot of money to a lot of people to
have to come up it's ten and if you have
a family twenty right, yeah, I mean it's and that's

(06:24):
just the first part of that financial burden that you're
going to run into. Right, So now you're gonna come
up with a ten thousand dollars plus to cover because
that's your portion of your out of pocket expense. Now
you're not working, you know, now, you know? And I always,
you know, it's funny. I always get these guys that
are like, well, you know, but let's just cover my
wife or something like that. It was like, well, where
are you gonna be if your wife's going through cancer?

(06:47):
You know, are you wanting to go to work?

Speaker 1 (06:49):
Are you?

Speaker 2 (06:50):
I mean, you're gonna take her to get her there
there there when she's going through chemo or god forbid
radiation treatment. So it's like it's a financial hardship for
the entire family.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
You know, multiple people.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Have to step up and try to help out with
kids and different things like that. So it's you know,
we want to make sure that money is in their hands.
And there's a lot of plans out there today. People
look at different types of cancer policies and I review clients'
policies all the time, even with stuff that they already have.
And you know, you look at the plans that are
typically sold at work, you know, like by the Duck

(07:23):
and other companies like that, right, I mean, they're good policies,
but you know, these are plans that are going to
give you a few hundred dollars. Like every time you
go in and get chemo or treatment or maybe get
an them riy, they hand you three hundred bucks. Yeah,
that's going to take away some of this thing, but
you're still going to be out of pocket a lot
of money. And then you know, maybe by your thirtieth

(07:44):
treatment you have enough money to cover other expenses. I've
always looked at this, you know, the opposite way. I'm like,
if I get diagnosed, or if a client gets diagnosed
with any type of serious illness and not even just cancer,
hardt toack stroke, you know, even the mental illnesses that
bring people down like Alzheimer's. You know, I want my

(08:04):
clients to get a big lump sum check. And I'm
not talking just five grand. I'm talking thirty forty to fifty.
I mean, I have clients with hundreds of thousands of
dollars in coverage if that happens to them, because it's
it's that is that loss income. You know, if you're
making fifty sixty one hundred grand a year and you
can't work for a year, well where's one hundred grand

(08:25):
coming from? You're gonna need that replacement. And people go, well,
I got life insurance. Well that's only gonna help if
you pass away more often than not even I mean,
the best part about medicine nowadays is that we're going
to survive these things. And it's the financial burden on
the back end that might want you to put a
foot in the grave. You know. It's you know that
the more people are, of course filing bankruptcy because of

(08:47):
medical expenses than pretty much any other thing that they
deal with, and like it's a leading college to bankruptcy.
And the worst part about it is majority of people
have health insurance.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
The ones that Fiakacy, Yes they had. They're scary.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, it's it's it's it's a huge burden. And you
know that's why these things are so important to get
and it's something that we talk about with every single
client that comes in our door. We mentioned like, we
have these policies, we show them what they look like,
and you know, a lot of times, Brian, I mean,
these are policies that cost less than a dollar a

(09:22):
day to add on. You know, they're not overly expensive,
and you know they can last you for a majority
of your life, especially through those working years where that
financial hit can be detrimental to what you're doing. And
even if you have money, I get a lot of
clients to go, oh, I have money stopped away. I mean,
what's the last thing you want to do going through
something like cancer? Do you want to start tapping into retirement?

(09:45):
Do you want to start taking out your savings to
get you through that situation? I mean, I can't imagine
having worked twenty five thirty years of my life and
then turn around and go, oh, I'm just gonna liquidate
everything I saved up for retirement and at fifty years old.
I'm going to start it zero and.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
Trying to build that MESTA Hospitals and doctors.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah, and then build that n MESSEC back up. I
mean you can't. You can't do that, you know. So
it's it is so important.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
When you're talking about cancer insurance and the concept that
you always engage in is you have these multiple hundreds
of insurance companies. There are thousands of different types of
medical insurance policies you layer covered. So when I'm sitting
down with you and going through this process and I think, okay,
red flag, I might get cancer someday, Yeah, and I
got cancer, you present this as it's one of the layers,

(10:30):
this separate cancer policy. Correct, So you got your major medical,
you got your catastrophic or then there's this extra separate
existing policy that deals exclusively with cancer.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah. I mean, typically, Brian, when I look at you know,
I don't like playing roulette. You know, I'm not going
to pick black or red. So you know, when I
talk to a clown, I'm like, listen, let's pick black
and red. So let's make sure we have the heart
attack stroke on there too, because that's the one that
takes you down. Like we want to make sure that
you have that too. Yeah, and then the cancer one.

(11:03):
But yeah, you're absolutely right. It's it's about layering coverage.
I mean the best way. I mean I look at
dealing with finances, and that's what insurance is about, right,
We're protecting your financial future. I look at the same
way your your investment guy would look at it. You know,
it's I'm not going to put all of your investment
dollars into one stock or one option, right, I mean

(11:26):
the goal here is to layer you with multiple different
policies to plug the holes in every single plan. And
you know, in this case, I mean a lot of
clients that might have four or five different plans that
even with different insurance companies, that we layer them with
because you know that's going to protect you the best way.
Because there's no insurance plan out there. I tell you,

(11:47):
there's not one package. You can go to an insurance company,
and I don't care which insurance company is and go
take take that off the shelf product with all those
little bells and whistles. I'll buy that product because that
company doesn't have the best products in every single segment, right, Right.
So they might say, okay, this is a good, a
decent product, but we're double the price of our competitor.

(12:07):
But because you're buying our catastrophic plan, we're going to
making more money off you because you buy the package.
We don't want to do that. I'm gonna say, well,
we'll buy what they do best. I'm going to go
to a different insurance company and buy what they do best.
And then that's the beauty of working with us at
Cover Senci.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
And so we'll walk me through. And I know you
have an illustration that of a family locally that was
able to avoid financial hardship because of having a supplemental
cancer plan. But maybe using that as a springboard to
answer my question, which is you have I'm insured through you.
I've got my major medical policy. Here's my cancer policy

(12:42):
over here. Those two work together, right, There will be
a component under the major medical policy that they'll deal
with a portion of the claims. Because if that's all
I've got and I'm flying solo, I still get some
kind of coverage for a cancer. Do oh?

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Absolutely? So think about it this way. Number one, you
look at your catastrophic your major medical plan. You're whatever
the plan is going to pay for that cancer, right,
So The first thing you always want to look at
is like, all right, well where can I go use this? Right,
So if it's if it's an ACA plan, right, a
marketplace plan, Obamacare, whatever you want to call it, local plan,
so you're like, Okay, it's only covering the local hospitals.

(13:15):
So that's something you have to be very aware of maybe,
but yeah, I mean you have to be very aware
of that because if you get diagnosed with maybe a
rare form of cancer, well maybe they haven't seen it
here locally. You know, where do you want to get
that treatment? And so I mean I always joke with clients,
but like, if I get cancer, I'm headed on the
MD Anderson. It's the best cancer hospital in the world.

(13:36):
So you have to understand this might help.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
Hey, you for making that statement because you said that.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
I know you, I know you know why I can't.
I have clients that are there and they've lived because
they went there. Fair enough for me, I will plug
that hospital all day long for the people that come
back and go I survive. Maybe you'll be there like yeah,
I heard about John and you've been talking about us.
They will come me your break. But you know, but yeah,
I mean that's a big thing for us. So making

(14:01):
sure that you have access to that care and then
like you're right, I mean, you're gonna have out of
pocket expenses. They're not gonna cover any of your financial
problems that you're gonna have because you're not working right.
And then you're gonna have your deductible. I don't care
what it is. It could be a five hundred bucks
if you're really lucky and have a plan from nineteen seventy.
But you know, let's be honest, most people have plans
from today, and you're gonna have seven, eight, ten thousand

(14:23):
dollars out of pocket, So you've got to figure out
where that money's coming from. This is where the secondary
policies come from. Most of the clients that we have,
we partner our health insurance plans with an indemnity insurance plan.
So the goal there, Brian, is to make sure that
that policy itself is going to cover the out of
pocket expenses, regardless of what it is. It could be cancer,
could be an accident, it could be, Hey, I just

(14:44):
had a hernia surgery, So we want to minimize that deductible.
Then the third option that we're gonna be looking at
So this is your third level of coverage, right, is
going to be something like that cancer policy, something that's
gonna give you a lump sum amount of money. Let's
say thirty grand and that's money it's paid to you
within eight, you know, four to eight weeks of diagnosis.

(15:04):
Here's a check in your hand, your money. You do
whatever it is what you want with them money, cover
your mortgage, cover your car payment, food travel, or maybe
that experimental treatment. Then your health insurance policy doesn't want
to be exactly So I mean, it's it's it's that
peace of mind, you know, and it makes it so
much better because you know, you know, I've had many

(15:26):
local clients, but you know I had one here in
the last like three years that was in that exact situation.
You know, she got diagnosed with cancer. She actually ended
up having to go to John Hopkins. So that was
like the only place that really dealt with this rare
form of cancer. She ended up spending forty days in
the hospital my go you know for that. It was

(15:48):
a very rare form of leukemia. And so she was
on a you know, she had a major medical plan.
It was able. She was one hundred percent able to
go to John Hopkins was in network with her Cincinnati plan,
right she then, so that she had had out of
pocket on that, but she had a secondary plan, one
of those indemnity plans that we always talking about. It
actually paid four grand a day while she was in

(16:10):
the hospital, so it covered her out of pocket expense.
And I mean, you know what's quick math four times forty, Right,
So one hundred and sixty thousand dollars her secondary policy
paid out. That money went to her. She actually cash
in that check, that one hundred and sixty thousand dollars
that came to her, But she also had one hundred
thousand dollars critical in this policy, so then she was

(16:32):
also able to get one hundred thousand dollars because of
her diagnosis. So we're talking about someone that almost got
three hundred grand. I think she almost did get three
hundred grand from that situation. That's a perfect situation and
a really bad spot. But I mean, true enough, those
checks went out there and she got that. Now you know,
she was also very high income, so she was making
a few hundred thousand dollars a year and she didn't

(16:54):
worked for a year. She goes to go so if
I didn't have this. Even if I got fifty grand,
I still would have been not affording my bills because
I was living at that lifestyle that I'm pulling in
over two hundred thousand dollars a year, and then it
stopped because she wasn't working at all.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
Just because you earn it doesn't mean you have to
spend it.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
Well, we're talking to a lot of people.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
That's my default mentality. That's how I am in a
position at age sixty. I could retire right now.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Well, don't do that, like you on the show.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
I appreciate that I didn't say what's going to but
I could because I don't live at my income level.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah, but I mean even most people hit that income level,
they still buy homes and have mortgages that are associated
to those things. And especially when you're younger, most people
aren't socking away a ton of money. They're trying to
get to the You know, I guess compete with the Joneses.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
But there's your problem. You just hit the now thehead.
Don't compete with the Joneses. You'd be so much happier.
Your possessions will own you.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
Here.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
Let me go into a philosophy class. I'm sorry, No,
you're right, but I mean again, most people don't, I understand,
and they wrong called to sack to go down. I apologize, you're.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
Okay, but like I said, most people don't and they
and they still need that money, right and that's why
the insurance is there for them to do that. It
is a huge peace of mind. And I remember her
calling us and going like, I mean.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
Literally crying on the You saved her financial life.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
I mean, and her husband was able to go there
with her and they stayed, you know, there together.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
That's great.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
They didn't have to worry about the money.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
Can you imagine being out of town, living in a
hospital for more than a month and not having any
loving support there with you, not because you can't afford it,
because you know your spouse can't leave the job. I mean,
you just you covered so many scenarios by creating that
package in I mean, I was like, you're not talking
about a lot of money, you said earlier. Some of
these like a buck a day, No, and actually comparable

(18:41):
to what she would have paid on an Obamacare plan.
I probably saved her money. Okay, So she had all
this coverage and you basically saved your money compared to
an obamacareplane, which would have just left her with literally nothing.

Speaker 2 (18:52):
I mean, you would never even been able to get
leave Cincinnati.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
Yeah, she couldn't have gone to the hospital.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
She never would have been able to go, John Hobbins
the treatment you need.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
Maybe it's time I mentioned the phone number again. Five
one three eight h two two five five is how
you reach John on the team of covers since you
or go to cover since he dot com get the
form filled out. This is the kind of thing that
John on the team do every single day, so better coverage,
less money. That's kind of the point of the commercials
I do for you, John. It's like every time you
tell me about how it were like, oh my god,
I can't believe this. Well, since we got open enrollment
coming up and got the you mentioned Medicare earlier, the

(19:22):
problems you might face with it, let's pivot over to
that and why this is such a critical time of
year for people to maybe get in touch with you.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
So we just started seeing the plans that are going
to be available for twenty twenty six. So this is
going to affect everyone on Medicare, So sixty five plus
or if you're on Medicare due to early due to
a disability. This absolutely affects you. So one of the
biggest things you're going to start seeing right now is
we're already seeing major insurance companies starting to roll back

(19:55):
plans or get rid of plans that you may already have.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
They're just no, not playing the game any not.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
Playing the game. So last year we implement that the
the they implemented the maximum at of pocket of two
grand for prescriptions, which was five times that year before. Right,
So pricing hasn't wasn't really set as far as like
the insurance companies didn't know, like, hey, how is this
gonna affect us financially? Well, they figured it out and

(20:23):
they're basically jacking prices up, I mean significantly. Plans that
I was writing this year for clients on even the
prescription side, uh, in some cases are growing up four
to five times. Yeah, So it's you know, it behooves everyone.
If you're on Medicare, if you're paying for a separate
prescription drug plan, we need to have a conversation because

(20:45):
some of the plans are going to be gone most
some of the most of the plans are going up significantly.
We just need to make sure that you're on the
right plan for the prescriptions that you're currently on and
not overpaying. You'd be shocked how many people are gonna
be over We're paying and there's gonna be a cheaper
option for you.

Speaker 1 (21:03):
I don't want to pin you down because everybody's different,
but you're talking about a four time increase in a
prescription plan. How does it translate into before and after dollars?
And then what you could show by way of a
comparable or better play.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
Well, I'll give you an example. One of the cheaper
plans that we were writing for twenty twenty five was
a Signal plan. It was fifteen bucks a month, very
good plan covered a lot of very expensive medications. That
plan is going from like fifteen to sixty five. Wow,
So I mean a huge increase for next year. Looking
at other options, I have another option that was comparable

(21:39):
that's like now thirty okay, So I can save you
almost four hundred bucks a year because most of is,
let's be honest, is coming out of your Social Security
check exactly. So you're on a fixed income. Let me
save you fo hundred bucks a year by giving me
a call. That's literally what I can do again, We'll
look up your prescriptions and make sure that's the plan
for you. But we have hundreds of clients that are

(21:59):
effective that that already and that we're reaching out to
them and scheduling them here. And if you're a listener
and you're like, hey, this might affect me or I
don't know where mine's at, give us a call. I
can look at it. I write all the carriers. Yeah,
I will make sure you're on the best plan for
twenty twenty six. And you need a good broker. And
I'm saying a broker, don't work with the insurance company
because they're not going to give you the alternative options
with other carriers. Work with a really good broker that

(22:22):
can do this with you every year. Because I don't
think this is going to stop. I think this is
something that we're going to see over the next few
years where these insurance companies are going to keep messing
with the plans and they're going to keep making these
prices more expensive because they're absorbing a lot more costs
because of the lull that went into play last year.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
Okay, so much like you're encouraging folks in medicare now
to get in touch with you to doing a thoughtful analysis.
This is going to be an annual thing. It is
every single one percent.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
And we didn't have to deal with this years past,
you know, because they really didn't in fluctuate that much.
But we will probably see that over the next two
or three years. So you're gonna have to go find
somebody that you can put trust that's going to reach
out to you every year and make sure that you're
on the right plan. That's what we do. So I mean,
if you're wanting to work with someone and not work
with some big call center or deal directly with an
insurance company, and you'll reach out to us. The pricing

(23:13):
is exactly the same. We don't charge you anything to
do what we do.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
That's right. That was perfect timing on that because it
was just getting ready to interject that you're on Medicare.
You're sitting there going, wait a second, I could he
could save me four hundred bucks maybe more. I know
you have a story about a client that you saved
twelve hundred dollars a year by switching up prescription coverage
after a review. That's possible too.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
One pays.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
We don't charge to do this analysis. It's free.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
Yeah. I mean that client last year was on a plan.
She wasn't even on any meds. She was just on
a plan that jumped in price, and I'm like, well,
let's just go with the cheapest option. And I mean
she was on plans like one hundred and thirty bucks
a month. I moved here to a fifteen dollars a
month plan, so I saved her one hundred and fifteen
dollars a month.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
And that plan is now thirty but it's still a
huge savings.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yeah. Well that plan is now sixty five, so I
have to call her back and probably change something else. Yea.
And it's that's we never know, you know, like I
always tell people, I don't have any allegiance to an
insurance company. You know, my goal is to sit down
with you and put you with the best plane. You're
my client. I'm gonna do the right thing for you.
So it's you know, we're gonna put you with the
right plan. And then of course that you know, that's

(24:16):
just the prescription side, which is just a part of
what we're dealing with. I mean, the other thing we're
dealing with right now is medicare advantage. So those people
that ended up getting on Medicare advantage plans, you know,
that's something you have to look at this year because
networks are changing. We see insurance companies right now because
you know, they're getting the full brunt of the medical side.

(24:36):
They're kicking doctors off, They're they're kicking hospitals off. So
if you're on a Medicare advantage and God forbid an HMO,
I mean, you don't even know if you be able
to keep your doctor next year. I just got a
letter from a client that, you know, she was on
an aDNA plan and literally the letter she got goes,
we are no longer taking it for twenty twenty six.
You need to go find a new plan. So of

(24:58):
course she calls me up and I go, well, you're
on a Medicare supplement, so it doesn't affect you. But
she was on a Medicare supplement, so that doesn't affect you.
That only affects the Medicare advantage people. So again that's
also a good conversation to have. A maybe you don't
want to be on a Medicare advantage plan. Maybe you qualify,
you can go on a supplement and you never have

(25:18):
to worry about does my doctor take this anymore, especially
in the future. So that's another conversation that we can have,
is reanalyze your current situation. I mean, last year I
could tell you, Brian, I took dozens of people off
Medicare advantage and put them back on original Medicare and
gave them a supplement. So now they can go anywhere
they want in the United States. They don't have to
worry about networks anymore. It's the best level of coverage

(25:41):
you can have if you can financially afford it.

Speaker 1 (25:43):
Well, maybe that's the answer to my question that I
was going to Why would anyone not go that route.

Speaker 2 (25:49):
Because it's more expensive? Okay, you know what I mean.
A Medicare supplement on average is going to run you
between eighty to two hundred and fifty bucks a month,
depending upon age and which plan that you want. And
some people I get it. You're a Medicare your fixed income,
you might not be able to afford to go that route.
Or maybe you're on a Medicare advantage plan and you
have some medical issues you can't qualify to get on
a supplement now. But again it's still that same mantra

(26:13):
as we should still look at the Medicare advantage plan
to see, Hey, is there a better plan for you?
Is there something we should switch you to. I'm telling
you right now, if you pull out your Medicare advantage
card and it says HMO, we should have a conversation.
You need to look at a PPO option because I've
never seen so many hospitals and doctors drop at a

(26:33):
network during the course of a year.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
Yes, that's see, there's the giant train wreck. It's the
middle of the year and the system or your provider
drops off.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yeah, if you're on an HMO plan, your doctor is
no longer a network in June. Guess what I can
do for you. Nothing. Nothing. I can't even change that
plan until it's the end of the year. And now
you're stuck trying to find a new doctor and new
primary care that you just saw thirty years of your life,
and or pay cash for them right until the end

(27:05):
of the year. And you know, that's why it's so
important to look at those options, sit down, have a
real conversation. And that's what we did. And Brian, we've
helped so many clients last year that I we just
we were just innunated. So I've literally trained my entire
staff this year, all my sales reps, all my agents
can do Medicare advantage this year because it's a special

(27:26):
certification we have. It's like eighty hours of work that
we had each agent has to go through to get
certified to do it. I made everyone in my office
do it because I know how many local people here
that that's going to affect, and I wanted to make
sure that we can't. We won't have to turn anybody
away because we don't have time for them.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
You will have time for them. We will have time
for you. To make time. Just call uh five one
three eight hundred call five one three eight hundred two
two five five and you can go to cover sincey
dot com or more about John of the team, as
well as fill the format online. Let them know what
you're looking for. Try to be complete when you're filling
up the form. They I ever sell your information, It's
not going to go out of the Internet and into
you know, some cloud where everybody's brother is going to

(28:05):
be inundating you with us solicitation through electronic communications. It's
kept in house. Your information is confidential. And this does
apply to everybody out there because we have listeners that
are beyond the reaches of the greater Cincinnati area. We're
in all fifty states, all fifty states. We can help
everybody in every market, every zip code.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
And the best part about it, it's only ever one
phone number you ever need a call, and you'll always
talk to a live person.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
Five one three eight hundred Call John Roulman, always intriguing
and interesting and enlightening conversation. Every Sunday here at this time,
it's rethink Healthcare together with John Roman from Cover since
he again all fifty states. Give them a shout. Five
one three eight hundred two two five five five one
three eight hundred. Call online it's Cover Sinsy either with
Yori coversincy dot com.