July 28, 2025 • 45 mins
- Listen Saturday mornings at 8 as Dr. Msonthi Levine discusses medical issues and takes your calls on News Talk 560 KLVI. Dr Levine is board certified in Internal Medicine and Geriatrics. His office is located at 3080 Milam in Beaumont, Texas. He can be reached at 409-347-3621.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, welcome South East Sex's Internet radio listeners. Welcome, Welcome, welcome,
good morning. This is doctor Levine, Doctor Levine Medical Hour.
Phone lines are open eight nine six kV. I want
one hundred three to three zero ko v I. Hopefully
you're having a wonderful Saturday morning weather. It looks so
so not too hot, a little overcast as of right now.
(00:23):
Rain last night, so you don't have to water your
lawn this morning. You know that heat is just tearing
up those yards right, all the brown grass already in
the brown shrubs. Who wants that anyway? Phone lines are
open eight nine six kV. I want one hundred three
to three zero kalva. We'd love to hear from you.
This is a weekly radio show where we try and
(00:46):
talk about healthcare and medicine and try to answer some
questions and get you some clarity on your health information
and maybe what's the better thing for you or your
family to implement in your routine every day to as
the theme of the show, stay alive. Right, Who wants
(01:09):
to run to Doc Levine's office every two to three months,
so once a month, because insurance companies are asking that
to sit for a couple hours and chat with doct
Levine for five minutes and he's out of there. So, yes,
you have to do your part. As you get older,
they lie to us. The golden years are not so
(01:30):
gold and you have to put more effort into it,
and you have to do your part. There's no question
it cannot be automatic. So give us a call. We'd
love to hear from you periodically on this show. We
certainly try and bring in guests and other experts to
give their side of the picture on healthcare and healthcare
(01:53):
delivery or whatever the topic is. I don't get too
many guests, but I get one very very import and guess,
and that is missus charl Levine. How you doing this morning.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I'm wonderful, Thank you, How are.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
You doing good? Thanks for showing up today.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah you look right out in Bushytail. You're up very
early this morning.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Around four, around what four?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Right?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I dreamed about this outfit and it was really weird,
and so I was like, you know, maybe maybe I
should try to find it.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yes, absolutely, dreams What creates streams? A patient asked me
about that yesterday. What creates dreams would influence this dreams
and I didn't have an answer for him.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
I thought about that this morning, and what if you
actually live a second life, M and you go to
your second life when you're dreaming.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Yeah, that would be interesting. It's just that sometimes you
don't remember the dream, and the dreams are very sometimes
can be very weird and outlandish and don't make sense.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
But that's no different than us not remembering some of
the things that happened last week, or last month, or
last year or when we were young.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Right. Yeah, we get a lot of that those questions
as we get older, patients coming in concerned about their
memory and what can I do to preserve my memory
and memory other than the immune system? How can I
boost my immune system? That's another question we get a
lot from patients. Yes, memory health, immune health. It's all
(03:31):
about those decisions that we make every single day, and
we have to do that more importantly as we get older.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
My theory is if you don't use it, then you
lose it. So there's crossword puzzles, there's reading the newspaper, there's.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
What about retirement. A lot of patients will sort of
do a hard retirement about sixty five.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I haven't learned about retirement Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Well, I ask my patients all the time. I mean,
retirement's fun, but you know, what are you going to do?
I mean, you got to do something.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
You can't just volunteer, you know. They want to volunteer
and get back. They want to do charity work, they
want to play golf. I mean, a lot of people
have a lot of different things that they want to do.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Don't have to do that grind going to the office
every day and make it listens to the boss telling
them what to do.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Hey, I'm a great boss.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Reports and deadlines and working late and getting underpaid. Who
wants all that stress? Right?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Okay, let's look at the positive side. They have a
job and they can take care of their families and
it's not so bad. I mean, it's a pretty cool job.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
No, I hear this from my patients. So a lot
of that is going on out there, and that is
one of the exciting aspects of retirement. Is the day
is mine and whatever I want to do, whenever I
want to wake up, wherever I want to go. Man,
it's just all mine. I mean, they feel just empowered
(05:01):
to be honest with you, to be able to do that.
I'm sure it's a great feeling. But after a few
months of that and you like, is that it?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I don't think I could to retire.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Oh man, yeah, I mean you just have to find
something to do. That's it. Like you said, a volunteer,
maybe a second career, travel, maybe help help out the grandkids.
A lot of our patients have grand kids. Yeah, grandchildren.
A lot of our know.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
About a second one, dow No, I'm just saying.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
A lot of our patients have grandchild, grandkids plural, and
they help them go to school, and they take them
here and there and educate, do all these things. It
really occupies the day. A lot of them say they're
busier in their retirement than when they were at work,
but again, it's their day. They just sat what they
(05:53):
want to do. If they want to just shut it off,
they can. But certainly all of our retires out there,
you've got to do something.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Got to keep moving, move, move.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
So have that in mind when you're thinking, by retirement,
what am I going to do with myself? You can't
just sit around and watch TV. That's after a while,
that gets boring.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Come hang out with us at doctor Levine's office.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
We're pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah, we'll give you something to do.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah, there's always something to do at our office, scan, shread,
call insurances, verify appointments, chit chat with patients.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, so what's look at the weather?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Look at the weather?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Well, yeah, you never know. I mean you got to
get prepared, you know, especially this time of year. Everybody
needs to be prepared.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
This summer year.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
This is kind of our hot year, end of July, August, September.
How I know that is because my birthday is in
October and it's normally over by my birthday, so hurricane season,
which I don't have those anymore, by the.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Way, Yeah, absolutely, So what's going on on the admin
side of healthcare?
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Admin side?
Speaker 3 (06:57):
So really, what I wanted to do was get up
this morning and do my part as my good communitarian.
This microphone is very aggressive. Be careful, I mean it's scary,
you know. Just to let the general public know that
open enrollment is October to December to thirty first and
(07:19):
don't feel rushed is the big thing. A lot of
people feel rushed like they've got to hurry up and
make a decision, kind of like it's the blue light
special and there's only five of them. And if I
don't get one, then I don't get one at all.
But it's not like that. You really need to put
your health out there. Look at it full circle. What
hospitals do you go to, what medications are you on,
(07:41):
who are your doctors, what are your diagnosies? How often
do you see the doctor? How often do you need
lab done? Lab work done? Have you ever had any
injuries in your life to where you would need to
have repeat cts or MRIs or something like that. Do
(08:01):
you have family history of cancer heart disease which is
the number one and number two killers in the United States?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Still correct? Maybe that is correct? Oh yeah, I haven't lost.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
It correct just yet.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
But anyway, you know, look at full circle. Make sure
that you're making the best decision for your family and
for yourself, because some of these plans.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
They don't let you go back.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
You know, once you get out of the medicare traditional
medicare and you go into an HMO, you're kind of
locked in, and then you're in that HMO world or
the year for the year and sometimes forever, though forever.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I don't know that.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
I can't say that for a fact, but I'm going
to find that out because I need to find that out.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, it sounds on American, Well, be locked in forever
and you lose your choice and your personal decision, because
that's what makes America the best is personal choice, personal decision.
We have options. We're not locked into this or locked
into that. It seems a little unusual that they would
(09:09):
if you choose now like for the rest of your life,
you can't get out of it.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Well, I think the logical question to every person that
you talk to when you call in about these insurance
companies are about their plan or their policy, is if
I don't like it, if it doesn't work for me,
if it's something that I thought I was getting into
but wasn't, then what is my out and then just
(09:34):
document that.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
So always know what the out is, yeah, or what
are the options of getting out if you don't like it?
Speaker 3 (09:41):
I mean, you get in it, you may love it,
it's okay, that's great, but you also may get in
it and hate it, and you need to know what
your options are. I mean, I'm just trying to look
at both ends of the spectrum. Just because I've seen
patients get locked into an insurance and you have too
long ago, you just probably don't remember it to where
when they HM's first came out, you know, they were
(10:02):
just denying a lot of care. And I'm not bashing
any insurance whatsoever. I just really want the community to
understand that you can take your time. It starts October
thirty first, take your time. It ends December thirty first,
and kicks in January first. So just really honestly take
these next couple of months, put everything out there, Be
(10:24):
honest with yourself. Put everything out there. Make sure that
your hospital that you like to go to, your preferred hospital,
your preferred pharmacy, all these things that you like to
do are in that network, you know, so that you
don't have to start over. You can keep your same
(10:44):
comfortable people and surroundings as we like to do as
we get older. Right, yeah, kind of on your team.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Is there a is there some sort of service that
they can call that will help them figure that out,
because it still is somewhat complicated.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
It's very complicated.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
These questions, and make sure you get it right. I
think most patients are fairly satisfied with what their insurance
company provides them. And yes, there's a small percentage that
for whatever reason, don't like some of the aspects of
the policy and they want to change to a different policy.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Well, most of those patients I didn't mean to interrupt you, sorry, so,
but most of those patients that don't like the insurance
if they've chosen is because they've chosen a really expensive
one because they think that that most expensive one is
like gold or platinum and it's going to.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Do the best all inclusive.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah, and you know it doesn't. It doesn't mean that.
And you know, you always want to look at cope's,
you always want to look at co insurance, You always
want to look at deductibles, You always want to look
at who is in the network. You know, a lot
of people like to go to Houston. We have wonderful, wonderful,
(12:06):
wonderful facilities here, but that's culture and that's okay. There's
great physicians in Houston, and Houston's not that far. So
you just need to know the whole story so that
when things happen, you know exactly what is going to
go down.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
That's all you know.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah, So do you talking with patients and based on
what you know and what you've been exposed to, you
do you think that the is it easier for the
average person to look at a plan and decide if
it's right for them. Do you think it's changed any
or is it still just byzantine. It's complicated.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
It's complicated.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Yeah, so it's not gotten any easier.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
It's complicated because it has medical language in there that
the lay person normally doesn't understand. And you know, there's
always a one eight hundred and one, eight eight eight,
you know, one whatever, there's always a phone number you
can call. But the way I look at that is
there's a salesperson on the other side of that phone
call who's trying to sell that policy. And I always
(13:11):
love to just get with a local broker. They're all
over town for I mean, you just drive around in
there everywhere, and they don't mind helping you.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
I think one thing I hear often from patients is
the accessibility to consultants. Right, they're monthly obligation. Financial might
be good, and all these other things might be good.
But let's say we have to send them to a
gash entrologist for colonoscopy, or they need to see a
(13:42):
kidney doctor for chronic kidney disease. That say they have diabetes, Well,
the nephrologist is in Baytown, the gas neurologist is in Galveston,
and just most people don't. I mean, it sounds fine
to us, right, We're still young, we can still get
in the car, and we don't fear the open highway.
(14:03):
To be honest with you, as most of our patients
get older, they don't want to go on a highway.
That is a scary thought, is to get on the
open highway and be around trucks and cars, and no,
they just don't want to do that. And it's a
trend that I see when they're in their forties and fifties,
(14:25):
they're more than happy to drive to Houston and drive
to Katie or the Woodlands. We have patients that go
to the Woodlands for their healthcare. And then as they
get a little bit older, maybe they get a little
bit sicker that that drive takes a lot out of them.
That's a that's a big task to say, okay, because
(14:45):
really it's the whole day that you have to spend, right, Absolutely,
if you have a local physician, maybe a couple of
hours commitment, but if you're driving to Houston, Galveston, Baytown
with all these other areas, great areas, great dogs, great facilities.
And you know, in my position is because of the
(15:08):
computer world and the ability to really research the doctor,
the medical facility, their capabilities, and you have access to
that healthcare, you know, why not try to get that access.
I don't have any problem with that. But certainly trying
to stay local is super convenient, and I think your
(15:28):
primary needs to be local, right, I just think that's
a must. I get it if a consultant is not local,
because you don't really see the consultant that often, maybe
every maybe two three times a year. So yeah, that's
not a big deal that I can I can spend
one day for dialysis. Unfortunately, Well, yeah, that needs to
(15:50):
be local. But your primary certainly needs to be local.
We have some people that are sort of out of
town ish and where their primaries. You know, if they
want to come on office, that's fine with us, but
that one needs to be convenient. But the consultants, I think, yeah,
that can sort of be out of town. But that's
a whole day commitment going to these consultants and getting
(16:12):
all that done. That's the one limitation I see is
that they can find a primary here locally, they can
find an hospital, but the consultant is just way way
out and sometimes it's inaccessible, and I get that a lot,
So a lot of times they'll change for that reason.
Only Now, how in general, yes, all insurance companies are different,
(16:37):
but in general, how fast can I change from one
policy to another? In general? Do you know that answer?
Speaker 3 (16:46):
So there's always an open enrollment. So like ours at
our office is in October, I think the state of
Texas is like September. Most people's are January. That's open enrollment.
And so you can go in and out of a
policy during your open enrollment and then you're locked in
for a year once you.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
So most insurance companies, once you're locked after the deadline
of the open enrollment, that's it. That's it for the
whole year, for the whole year. Yeah, you have to
stay with it unless there's a.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Problem where there was some false representation or something like that.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
And then what you can opt out of it and
get your new policy.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Most people, you know, these are Medicare plans, right, So
these are people that are retired and their Medicare plans.
They go back to traditional Medicare for a year and
then start looking again at other options.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Okay, so the insurance plans that you're talking about are
mainly Medicare type plans, not Blue Cross, Blue Shield, United
Signa all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Well, most most commercial insurances.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Commercial, yes, yes, most commercial versus Medicare.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
You know, Medicare you've paid into your whole entire life,
So why wouldn't you want to do it?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Right?
Speaker 3 (18:02):
You know, you pay Medicare tax every time you get paid,
every time you get paid, you pay sales security, you
pay Medicare, you pay federal tax.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
So why wouldn't you want it?
Speaker 1 (18:11):
And that's another question is you can have both a
commercial policy and a Medicare policy.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
But you got a call.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
It's called coordination of benefits. You have to call Medicare
and tell them which one's primary. Both can't be primary
one's primary.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
One second, it's up to you. No to the patient.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
No.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Sometimes patients retire so they get on Medicare, but they
still work and they have insurance through their work, So
then their work insurance would become secondary instead of primary.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah, because they retired. And I see that a lot.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Well clear that up for me. What does that mean?
How can they retire and work?
Speaker 3 (18:58):
They get a little part time job or they do
whatever they want to do. I mean, they get a job.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Okay, so they were working somewhere and then they retire
from that position and then.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
They go do something else.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
They go to Walmart or I see this too, Walmart
like Lows. They just kind of want a little something
to do, get them out of the house, interact with people.
So they'll then get that job. They retired from a
previous job and didn't get a side job, and so
they still have commercial insurance that they pay for.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
They sometimes the company pays one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
There's a Walmart company will pay for that.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Whatever whatever company may or may not pay for that.
But one of the companies that I do know pay
and pay very well is the Postal Service. So if
you work for the Postal Service your whole entire life,
normally they pay your insurance.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Even after you retire, okay, and then Medicare kicks in.
Also if you're sixty five or so, I was a
postal worker, I got my postal insurance, I got my Medicare.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (20:05):
That's right?
Speaker 1 (20:06):
But that person can still pay something if they go
to the doctor, right copay or something like that, they
still might have to pay.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
It depends on if the primary and I mean, you're
getting real complicated.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
I think, yeah, I can. I know, because I think
the idea is that the average person feels like, well,
I have two insurances, I shouldn't have to pay anything.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
And that's not the case unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
And you know, I hear that one a lot. They
get upset too, I have to pay something. I have
two insurances. What are you? What are you talking about?
I got two, I'm covered, I'm double. I got it.
Made phone lines that open eight nine six kalvy, I
won ndred and three to three zero kVA. I talked
with Missus Levine about health care and insurance companies. I
have any questions, give us a call. We back in
(20:49):
two minutes. All right, welcome back to the dark WAV
(21:11):
and medical our filone lines that open eight nine to
six kV I one one hundred and three to three
zero kov. We have a guest this morning, Missus Levine.
Just talking about open enrollment, where every year, annually we
get to decide what insurance policy we want. Yeah, it's
our choice, America. It's the best right. But sometimes it's
(21:31):
pitfalls with these policies, and you had to be careful
about which one you choose because you could get stuck
with having your primary but you don't have a consultant
to go to. Well, you do, but they're three hours away.
I mean, how fun is that hopping a car and
driving on the open highway. But then you're locked in
for according to missus Leavin, a year. You can always
(21:54):
call that policy. I'll let me back up, taking missus
Levine's advice, know you're out clause before you sign the
dotted line, meaning it's already written what you have to
do to get out of the policy. If whatever reason,
something happens you don't like it, you want to switch.
This is a good question is let's say you had
(22:14):
the money to do this, you have a policy you
don't like it. Can I get a new policy? Just hey,
I need a new policy, and I'm just going to
go buy a new policy. I got the money, I'm
just going to buy a new I don't like this
when I'm in, I'm locked in, but I'm getting a
new and can I do that?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
I have no idea.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
I think if you've had that kind of money, you
probably don't need insurance.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
You just do self pay.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
No, no, no, I did not recommend self paid Bob
from Beaumont, good morning.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
Hey, good morning. I don't want to cut away from
your topic here, but on an A one C reading,
I got a seven point something the other day and
I was really happy, and they said, don't get too excited.
You supposed you'd like to get to be a six
point five? Is six point five? Said, like a seven
point five is. Obviously they need work to be done, obviously,
(23:08):
but that's that's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
I think seven point five is great.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yeah, they've they have they have tried to figure out
what's the sweet spot with the A one C and
I think seven is sort of agreed upon with everyone
that that's the best target to achieve. But the lower
the better. Absolutely. What happens is trying to get it
(23:35):
down below seven using medications can sometimes cause low blood
sugar episodes. We call that hypo glycemia, and that's sort
of a dangerous crises or a dangerous episode to happen
and the medical world and what they teach doctors is
we don't necessarily want a bunch of those episodes. So
(23:58):
that's sort of what we get into a lot of times.
If we try to push the A one seed down
below seven, people can achieve it, no question, but we
sometimes start getting into that issue with these low blood
sugar episodes, and we don't want that. We just we
want you to achieve your goals as easy and as
(24:19):
painless as possible, but we don't want to cause harm.
So a lot of times seven or even seven point
five will be the patient's goal, just because anytime we
try to push it more, be more aggressive with medications,
they start having toxicity issues or issues with low sugar
and we can't really get it down that low. But
(24:41):
seven is, in my opinion, based on my understanding of
that is sort of the target for just about everyone.
Getting it less than that. Yeah, some people, they're a
little bit more anxious about a seven. They wanted six
point five, they wanted six, they wanted five, and they
certainly can work with the healthcare professional to achieve that.
(25:04):
With the new medications we have in the market, the
injectable medications and some of these newer classes, we are
able to achieve some pretty low levels of A one
C as long as the patients are doing their part
with their diet and their beverage choice and their exercise exercise.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Yeah right, how will miss Lavina nice to hear from me.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Good morning, good morning, thank thank you, hey, thank you
for asking a question that wasn't insurance. I need it
out of the hot seat for a second.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
I wasn't sweating.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Yeah, we have a good morning. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
I appreciate it. You were sweating.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
I don't sweat. I don't sweat when I work in
the yard a hundred degree.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Whether I sweat a lot, you do.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
I sweat easy. I mean, as as everyone knows. If
you don't know, I was an athlete here and play
college ball in Houston, and yeah, man, I would sweat terribly.
You do sweat a lot, and yes, and yeah, I
know some people that yeah it's hot and that's not
a drop on their face. It's like crazy, how do
(26:13):
they do that? Anyway? So if I have the money
to Yeah, in terms of self pay, we do have
some self pay patients in the office that come to office.
They pay our copay and we see them, you know,
once or twice a year.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
And because they're healthy, they're not on any meds, they don't.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
I mean the only thing bad about that is if
you are diagnosed with a critical illness, a chronic illness
that's expensive, or you're in a car accident. I mean
it's risky. I'm not going to say that it's not risky.
But can you have two insurances because you choose to
pay for two insurances? I'm sure you can. You probably
(26:54):
at our office, I would have you sign a waiver.
If you didn't want to use the primary, I'd make
you sign a waiver. Hey, I understand, I have this
these two insurances. I choose to have those. I don't
want to use my primary insurance, so that the office
would be protected.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Now you said that you the patient decides which one
is primary. The patient decides that, or the insurance company
decides which one is primary, which one is secondary. How
does that work?
Speaker 3 (27:22):
It depends on their job. It depends on what plan
they've chosen. I mean, there's a lot of factors in that.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Have you met someone with three insurances?
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Yeah, it's called test schary.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Really, Yeah, what's the scenario there? Why would someone need
or why would someone have three policies? Well, normally it
seems excessive and complicated and just sloppy to me, it
seems that way.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
None it's none of that.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
So you should apologize to the public for saying that,
because that was extremely rude, but.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
I said, it seems I don't know. I'm just a
doctor diagnosing high blood pressure diabetes, and uh, I was like,
why would someone need three? You know, And if if
a patient came into the office and I found out
they had three insurance, I would ask them like, why
do you need three insurances? What's going on? How did
that happen?
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Okay, So a lot of times they're married, they they work,
their husband works, they both have insurance from their jobs,
and they're also retired.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
And have no no, no, they're maybe they're sixty five
and above.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Yeah, yeah, and they both worked their whole entire lives,
and so they have their own insurance through their through
their companies because they're still work.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Yeah, So, I mean it's not a it's really not
uncommon to see people.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
The tertiary policy you work.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Now those people pay.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Your spouse is married, I mean, your spouse is.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Well, I hope they're married to each other.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Like you said, it's complicated. Your spouse has a job
as well, which offers insurance to the spouse. You have
your own job that has its own insurance, and vice versa.
And then you're six five and above and so you're
eligible for medicare.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
All right, I mean, look, I love you.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
They should not have to pay it.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
I love you.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
But I came this morning honestly just to let the
public know that open enrollment was on its way in October,
and just to take their time and study these plans
and look at them carefully and make sure that everything
that they're needing for their health is on the policies
that they're choosing.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Well, if they listen to my show, they understand that
the best insurance is what you should be able to
answer this question. I think my number one fan should
be able to answer this question. What is the best
insurance policy?
Speaker 2 (29:45):
The ones that pay no? So the best in.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Diet and lifestyle. Phone lines are open eight nine six
hundred three three zero, Kalvy. I'll be back in two minutes.
(30:11):
All right, welcome back to talk with we meta by
our phone line to open eight and nine six Kovy
I won one hundred and three three zero. Kill guy
up here this morning chatting with Missus Levigne about open
enrollments again the messages, take your time, do your research,
don't make a bad decision just because sometimes you get
locked in that policy for an entire year. But if
(30:33):
you've got the cash flow, you can certainly get another
policy if you want to, Or if you're married to
someone who's working, you could have three policies. Is that right,
you're working, it's I think it's a yes. The mhm okay, yes, okay,
(31:01):
And then anything going at the office that you would
like to highlight. Things are always changing. One thing that
I see, since we're on the topic of insurance companies
and I have this discussion with patients all the time,
is that they've gotten a little bit more involved with
what happens in the office setting, right. I mean before
(31:22):
it was sort of separate, like we saw the patients,
we did our own thing, we build them, they paid us,
and then that was it. Right, But that is slowly
sort of deteriorating or going away. Right. They're now coming
into the office, they're calling you, they're working with you,
they're looking at your records. They're sending nurse practitioners out
(31:45):
to the patients' homes. Yeah, no, they do that really. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Okay, your mic is on. Yeah, I told you it
was off.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
It was getting hot.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
This big huge anaconda in your face.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
I mean, I do not know. It's ONSC.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
You broke it, Frank from Beaumont, what's going on?
Speaker 4 (32:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (32:08):
I got what I think is the best insurance ever.
But I'm I'm on Medicare, but I go through Humana,
and uh uh, I'm getting so many different answers when
(32:29):
I call of what's going on with my my dental work,
my vision things like that, and uh.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Yeah, I've been listening.
Speaker 5 (32:44):
I've been listening to you, and I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
the whole time, I agreeing with you. You know, I'm like,
wan the high five, somebody.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Oh high five? Right, Well, look we'll just virtual high five.
So right now, one two, three five, Yes.
Speaker 5 (33:01):
All right, I can do that.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Yeah, Frank, it's it's you're right, but it's complicated. Insurance
companies are not bad people. Insurance in this country is complicated.
And so the good question that Frank had Charlotte is
you call you call that one eight hundred number, trying
to get some clarity. But then you get more confused
because one person's saying this, another person saying that. Any
(33:26):
advice for Frank on.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
That, well, dental, I don't know much about dental envision
because we do healthcare, we don't do dental envision, but
I know that dental exams are not that expensive and
eye exams are not that expensive, and it's probably just
worth him going and doing his own at a local
abstamastriss or whatever they'remetrst optometrist. Yeah, and a local dentist
(33:50):
because all the dentists are out of network with insurance.
And then he can ask to give them a copy
of his bill that he paid on a HICFO and
then he can send it into his insurance company and
they'll reimburse him as themselves.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
So you know, maybe they will, maybe they won't.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
They normally do, but I don't think vision and dental
is near as serious as getting your healthcare correct.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
But what if? What if you you know, representatives of
the insurance company are giving you different messages, they're telling
you different things. Any advice on that.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
You mean, like when you call the eight hundred number,
you get two people and they tell you two different things.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
That happens all the time.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
What's what's your advice to Frank on then how to
manage that or what's what's the best way to figure
that out?
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Personally?
Speaker 3 (34:38):
I would find a local broker and go through a
broker and not go through an eight hundred number on
the back of a pamphlet because those people sells people.
They want to sell their policy. They don't want to
give you the what's best for you. A broker doesn't
care because they sell most all the policies and they'll
give you what's best for you, which is why I
(34:59):
like brokers.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Yeah, so answer your question, Frank.
Speaker 5 (35:04):
You sure did. That's a good I never thought about
going local.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
And I'll tell you.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
We have our local broker for our office, and he
may kill me on Monday. Is Mike Wolfe, and he's
out on Major and he does a great job, and
he would help anybody that asked him or called his
office and ask him anything, and he'll tell you what
the best plans are for you when you're over sixty
five or you're sixty or you're seventy or he's because
(35:33):
he's talked to me about it.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
You know.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
I'm fifty five fifty six this year. So, like I said,
I don't have birthdays anymore. But I got to start
thinking about those things because Medicare for Us is right
around the corner, and so we do have those conversations.
And I think local brokers they're everywhere. Honestly, there's one
on every street in Beaumont. If you start really paying attention,
there's a farmer's or there's a farm bureau, or there's
(36:00):
somewhere and just stop in and say, look, I need
some help. They'll be happy to help you.
Speaker 5 (36:06):
Really, farmers, that's a insurance, is my car and property.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
I mean, I think everybody that I know wants the
best for everybody in the Golden Triangle. I don't really
see any animosity. And all you have to do is
know your resources and stop and ask, you know, and
most people are happy to help you, especially when there's
(36:37):
it's confusion to us, right, but it's not to them
because that's what they do for a living. It's so
easy for them. And like healthcare, right yeah, it's like
one two.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Three running a medical office business. It seems very confusing,
which it is, and we're glad we have people like
you that can come and make sense of all that
and clear it up and make it work. Just like medicine,
being a doctor, just making sense of all the information
that patients come with and listening to those stories that
(37:08):
they all have about what happened and how it played
out and trying to make sense of that.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
I do agree with him, Humana is great insurance, but
I love my favorite and all time favorite will be
regular old medicare. It's been around forever. You paid into
it your whole entire life. Just stick with that. It
pays eighty percent. I think the deductible is like two
hundred and forty something dollars, and then they pay eighty
(37:34):
percent of everything else that you do, no matter what
you do, no matter where you go, no matter what
you need done.
Speaker 4 (37:40):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
And I don't follow this closely every day, but it
seems like the medicare model, just the old traditional medicare model,
is unsustainable because of the cost of insurance and the
way things happen in this country, inflation and all of
these different factors that impact reimbursement and how insurance policies work.
(38:04):
The traditional model is just unsustainable forever. So that's why
we have, I guess, these other policies coming in trying
to rework it the dynamics so that it doesn't run
out of money, so that it's still there, so that
doctors get paid, insurance is going to get paid, so
so forth and so on.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
Well, let me remind you. As long as Americans are working,
it's not going to run out of money. Because if
you look at your paycheck, which you don't, you pay
you pay so I know you don't look at your paycheck.
I write your paycheck. You don't look at your paycheck.
I even take it to the bank for you.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
So just as long as I'm fed, I can sleep
at night. I guess that's all I need.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
Right So, you know, but every single person that's employed
in the United States pays into Medicare, Social Security, and
Federal withholdings every single paper period. So I can't imagine
how they could go broke if you look at all
the money that's paid being paid into it every day.
(39:09):
I mean, I just don't see how it could go broke.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Kenneth from Vider How can we help you?
Speaker 6 (39:14):
Yes, sir, I've got what they diagnosed as planet of phossiatis,
and I've been going to my doctor and I've had
several shots, and I've bought special socks, magnesium wall. Nothing
seemed to work.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
Well.
Speaker 6 (39:27):
I come across this deal in Houston, the Woodlands kd
up in there. They call it TTE treatment, And do
you know anything about that?
Speaker 1 (39:37):
I don't know what the acronym stands for, do you know?
Speaker 6 (39:42):
Uh, No, it's the places called Texas in calculator or
something like that. But no, I don't know what it
stands for. I guess it's plan or plan or something.
Speaker 4 (39:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (39:57):
But they it's not supposed to be no kind of surgery.
That's what I'm trying to avoid surgery. And there's no
surgery or nothing like that. They run a tube or
something down your foot or something. I just didn't know
if you was you know, I had heard about it
or not.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Sounds like new stuff, and I think that if you're
struggling with what has been given to you so far
and you're still in severe pain, you're not getting better,
that it would be a good option to look into it.
A lot of times you can go there, get a
consultation from these practitioners and they can sort of spell
(40:36):
out what they can do for you can't do for you,
and it's up to you if you feel like it's
something that you want to do. So yes, yeah, I mean,
I think if if it's an option and you're not
getting better with the current plan of care, yeah, go
check it out. See if it can help you.
Speaker 6 (40:56):
That's where I'm headed next week. They will to call me.
I sure will doctors.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Thank you call us back and let us know how
things happen.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
Okay, I have a little bit of advice real quick.
Is it a hospitalization or is it a procedure? I
didn't catch the very beginning of that.
Speaker 6 (41:11):
No, I don't think it's a hospital thing, because I
asked them it's both fate. And I asked them if
I needed to bring somebody, you know, to drive or something,
and they said no. Okay, So it sounds real promising,
you know, listening to them, you.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
Know, yes, sir, I'm gonna sure do it.
Speaker 6 (41:29):
I am so tired. I heard six months, six months
of this.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
I would recommend that you get established with the primary
over there in case, worst case scenario you did have
something go wrong that was bad. I'm not trying to
be a negative Debbie downer, because I'm just not like that.
But I always try to look at worst case scenario,
you have an established doctor over there, because it's kind
of you don't know anyone but them.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
Is that correct?
Speaker 6 (41:56):
Yeah? I mean I've been dealing with my doctor, Aaron Beaumont,
which is a good doctor. I just trying to avoid surgery,
you know, and uh, I hear you everything, but but
I'm gonna try it out. I'm waiting on them to
call me, and if it happens to be something real good,
she'll give you a call.
Speaker 4 (42:16):
Yeah, that's my daughter.
Speaker 6 (42:18):
I talked to my daughter. She suffered with my grain
for years and years. Well here in the last year,
they come up with something. She goes in every three
months and gets a shot, and she says it's a miracle.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:30):
I think we do some of that stuff at our office.
But you know, I would get someone to drive you
just in case. I mean, you know, you don't want
to get over there and then have a little bit
of a tiny complication and then not be able to
drive home. So I would get someone to drive you,
just to be kind of on the safe side.
Speaker 6 (42:49):
Okay, I appreciate it, and I will give you a
call it happens to be something real good.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
Yeah, we can't wait to hear about it.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Okay, thank you. All right, Kenneth, have a good weekend
and drive safely. But yeah, having getting stuck in the woodlands,
I think that'd be a good thing. It's pretty over there,
it's nice and there's a lot of good things to
do over in the Woodland area. So at the end
of the show, any closing thoughts.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
No, I just my heart goes out to Hunt, Texas.
I mean, you know, I wanted to say that we
need to say a special prayer for those people that
are going through man a lot right now. And every
time I think about it, you drive around Beaumont, it's
just very heartbreaking, and yeah, I'm sorry. I hate tragedy
in the world and it happens every day. And you know,
(43:36):
my grandchild is such an awesome human being. Your grandchild,
our grandchild.
Speaker 5 (43:44):
You know.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
When it all first happened, I told her she goes
to camp, and I was like, man, letting them scared
for you to go to camp. And she's like, nnae,
you read the Bible, you believe in Jesus. You got
to live your life. You can't live in fear. You
got to live your life.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
Yeah, kids are so resilient.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
She's pretty awesome though. She'll be on the radio show.
She came home when she was like three or four,
and she's so busy though. Oh yeah, she's so busy
and she sleeps late. She better read that book I'm
gonna be drilling really late.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
She's getting real too though.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
I mean when we were young, you'd sleep till noon
or one o'clock, right, You didn't have anything to do.
You just hang in at the house all day. They're
good old days. But retirement is coming and we get
to look forward to that, right.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Yeah, that's what they say.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
Sleeping in, doing nothing, hanging out bugging you.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
No, please don't.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
That's what a lot a lot of times happens, is,
you know, in particularly like a wife and a husband,
and husband goes to work every day, right, so they're
not in the house, not around the wife all day,
and the wife has sort of their own thing going.
And then the husband retires, right, so now he's there
all day and they're like, who are you? What are
you doing here? You know, to.
Speaker 3 (44:57):
Go find Wyatt person when you're home, you never know
you're there. I mean, yes, you don't make a noise, okay.
All you do is ask for hey, you give me something,
to give me.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Something to eat? Oh please? You don't have any sect.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
Yeah, you tell a lot of my secrets. I don't
know if I could trust you on the microphone anymore.
Speaker 4 (45:20):
So.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Anyway, thanks for listening to another edition of the Doctor
Levine Medical Hour. Remember don't drink and trib water vegetables
eat a cucumber one eat one cucumber day. Just take
care
All right, welcome South East Sex's Internet radio listeners. Welcome, Welcome, welcome,
good morning. This is doctor Levine, Doctor Levine Medical Hour.
Phone lines are open eight nine six kV. I want
one hundred three to three zero ko v I. Hopefully
you're having a wonderful Saturday morning weather. It looks so
so not too hot, a little overcast as of right now.
(00:23):
Rain last night, so you don't have to water your
lawn this morning. You know that heat is just tearing
up those yards right, all the brown grass already in
the brown shrubs. Who wants that anyway? Phone lines are
open eight nine six kV. I want one hundred three
to three zero kalva. We'd love to hear from you.
This is a weekly radio show where we try and
(00:46):
talk about healthcare and medicine and try to answer some
questions and get you some clarity on your health information
and maybe what's the better thing for you or your
family to implement in your routine every day to as
the theme of the show, stay alive. Right, Who wants
(01:09):
to run to Doc Levine's office every two to three months,
so once a month, because insurance companies are asking that
to sit for a couple hours and chat with doct
Levine for five minutes and he's out of there. So, yes,
you have to do your part. As you get older,
they lie to us. The golden years are not so
(01:30):
gold and you have to put more effort into it,
and you have to do your part. There's no question
it cannot be automatic. So give us a call. We'd
love to hear from you periodically on this show. We
certainly try and bring in guests and other experts to
give their side of the picture on healthcare and healthcare
(01:53):
delivery or whatever the topic is. I don't get too
many guests, but I get one very very import and guess,
and that is missus charl Levine. How you doing this morning.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I'm wonderful, Thank you, How are.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
You doing good? Thanks for showing up today.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah you look right out in Bushytail. You're up very
early this morning.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Around four, around what four?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Right?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I dreamed about this outfit and it was really weird,
and so I was like, you know, maybe maybe I
should try to find it.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yes, absolutely, dreams What creates streams? A patient asked me
about that yesterday. What creates dreams would influence this dreams
and I didn't have an answer for him.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
I thought about that this morning, and what if you
actually live a second life, M and you go to
your second life when you're dreaming.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Yeah, that would be interesting. It's just that sometimes you
don't remember the dream, and the dreams are very sometimes
can be very weird and outlandish and don't make sense.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
But that's no different than us not remembering some of
the things that happened last week, or last month, or
last year or when we were young.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Right. Yeah, we get a lot of that those questions
as we get older, patients coming in concerned about their
memory and what can I do to preserve my memory
and memory other than the immune system? How can I
boost my immune system? That's another question we get a
lot from patients. Yes, memory health, immune health. It's all
(03:31):
about those decisions that we make every single day, and
we have to do that more importantly as we get older.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
My theory is if you don't use it, then you
lose it. So there's crossword puzzles, there's reading the newspaper, there's.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
What about retirement. A lot of patients will sort of
do a hard retirement about sixty five.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I haven't learned about retirement Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Well, I ask my patients all the time. I mean,
retirement's fun, but you know, what are you going to do?
I mean, you got to do something.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
You can't just volunteer, you know. They want to volunteer
and get back. They want to do charity work, they
want to play golf. I mean, a lot of people
have a lot of different things that they want to do.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Don't have to do that grind going to the office
every day and make it listens to the boss telling
them what to do.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Hey, I'm a great boss.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Reports and deadlines and working late and getting underpaid. Who
wants all that stress? Right?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Okay, let's look at the positive side. They have a
job and they can take care of their families and
it's not so bad. I mean, it's a pretty cool job.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
No, I hear this from my patients. So a lot
of that is going on out there, and that is
one of the exciting aspects of retirement. Is the day
is mine and whatever I want to do, whenever I
want to wake up, wherever I want to go. Man,
it's just all mine. I mean, they feel just empowered
(05:01):
to be honest with you, to be able to do that.
I'm sure it's a great feeling. But after a few
months of that and you like, is that it?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I don't think I could to retire.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Oh man, yeah, I mean you just have to find
something to do. That's it. Like you said, a volunteer,
maybe a second career, travel, maybe help help out the grandkids.
A lot of our patients have grand kids. Yeah, grandchildren.
A lot of our know.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
About a second one, dow No, I'm just saying.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
A lot of our patients have grandchild, grandkids plural, and
they help them go to school, and they take them
here and there and educate, do all these things. It
really occupies the day. A lot of them say they're
busier in their retirement than when they were at work,
but again, it's their day. They just sat what they
(05:53):
want to do. If they want to just shut it off,
they can. But certainly all of our retires out there,
you've got to do something.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Got to keep moving, move, move.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
So have that in mind when you're thinking, by retirement,
what am I going to do with myself? You can't
just sit around and watch TV. That's after a while,
that gets boring.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Come hang out with us at doctor Levine's office.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
We're pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah, we'll give you something to do.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah, there's always something to do at our office, scan, shread,
call insurances, verify appointments, chit chat with patients.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, so what's look at the weather?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Look at the weather?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Well, yeah, you never know. I mean you got to
get prepared, you know, especially this time of year. Everybody
needs to be prepared.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
This summer year.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
This is kind of our hot year, end of July, August, September.
How I know that is because my birthday is in
October and it's normally over by my birthday, so hurricane season,
which I don't have those anymore, by the.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Way, Yeah, absolutely, So what's going on on the admin
side of healthcare?
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Admin side?
Speaker 3 (06:57):
So really, what I wanted to do was get up
this morning and do my part as my good communitarian.
This microphone is very aggressive. Be careful, I mean it's scary,
you know. Just to let the general public know that
open enrollment is October to December to thirty first and
(07:19):
don't feel rushed is the big thing. A lot of
people feel rushed like they've got to hurry up and
make a decision, kind of like it's the blue light
special and there's only five of them. And if I
don't get one, then I don't get one at all.
But it's not like that. You really need to put
your health out there. Look at it full circle. What
hospitals do you go to, what medications are you on,
(07:41):
who are your doctors, what are your diagnosies? How often
do you see the doctor? How often do you need
lab done? Lab work done? Have you ever had any
injuries in your life to where you would need to
have repeat cts or MRIs or something like that. Do
(08:01):
you have family history of cancer heart disease which is
the number one and number two killers in the United States?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Still correct? Maybe that is correct? Oh yeah, I haven't lost.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
It correct just yet.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
But anyway, you know, look at full circle. Make sure
that you're making the best decision for your family and
for yourself, because some of these plans.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
They don't let you go back.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
You know, once you get out of the medicare traditional
medicare and you go into an HMO, you're kind of
locked in, and then you're in that HMO world or
the year for the year and sometimes forever, though forever.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I don't know that.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
I can't say that for a fact, but I'm going
to find that out because I need to find that out.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, it sounds on American, Well, be locked in forever
and you lose your choice and your personal decision, because
that's what makes America the best is personal choice, personal decision.
We have options. We're not locked into this or locked
into that. It seems a little unusual that they would
(09:09):
if you choose now like for the rest of your life,
you can't get out of it.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Well, I think the logical question to every person that
you talk to when you call in about these insurance
companies are about their plan or their policy, is if
I don't like it, if it doesn't work for me,
if it's something that I thought I was getting into
but wasn't, then what is my out and then just
(09:34):
document that.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
So always know what the out is, yeah, or what
are the options of getting out if you don't like it?
Speaker 3 (09:41):
I mean, you get in it, you may love it,
it's okay, that's great, but you also may get in
it and hate it, and you need to know what
your options are. I mean, I'm just trying to look
at both ends of the spectrum. Just because I've seen
patients get locked into an insurance and you have too
long ago, you just probably don't remember it to where
when they HM's first came out, you know, they were
(10:02):
just denying a lot of care. And I'm not bashing
any insurance whatsoever. I just really want the community to
understand that you can take your time. It starts October
thirty first, take your time. It ends December thirty first,
and kicks in January first. So just really honestly take
these next couple of months, put everything out there, Be
(10:24):
honest with yourself. Put everything out there. Make sure that
your hospital that you like to go to, your preferred hospital,
your preferred pharmacy, all these things that you like to
do are in that network, you know, so that you
don't have to start over. You can keep your same
(10:44):
comfortable people and surroundings as we like to do as
we get older. Right, yeah, kind of on your team.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Is there a is there some sort of service that
they can call that will help them figure that out,
because it still is somewhat complicated.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
It's very complicated.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
These questions, and make sure you get it right. I
think most patients are fairly satisfied with what their insurance
company provides them. And yes, there's a small percentage that
for whatever reason, don't like some of the aspects of
the policy and they want to change to a different policy.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Well, most of those patients I didn't mean to interrupt you, sorry, so,
but most of those patients that don't like the insurance
if they've chosen is because they've chosen a really expensive
one because they think that that most expensive one is
like gold or platinum and it's going to.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Do the best all inclusive.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah, and you know it doesn't. It doesn't mean that.
And you know, you always want to look at cope's,
you always want to look at co insurance, You always
want to look at deductibles, You always want to look
at who is in the network. You know, a lot
of people like to go to Houston. We have wonderful, wonderful,
(12:06):
wonderful facilities here, but that's culture and that's okay. There's
great physicians in Houston, and Houston's not that far. So
you just need to know the whole story so that
when things happen, you know exactly what is going to
go down.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
That's all you know.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah, So do you talking with patients and based on
what you know and what you've been exposed to, you
do you think that the is it easier for the
average person to look at a plan and decide if
it's right for them. Do you think it's changed any
or is it still just byzantine. It's complicated.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
It's complicated.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Yeah, so it's not gotten any easier.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
It's complicated because it has medical language in there that
the lay person normally doesn't understand. And you know, there's
always a one eight hundred and one, eight eight eight,
you know, one whatever, there's always a phone number you
can call. But the way I look at that is
there's a salesperson on the other side of that phone
call who's trying to sell that policy. And I always
(13:11):
love to just get with a local broker. They're all
over town for I mean, you just drive around in
there everywhere, and they don't mind helping you.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
I think one thing I hear often from patients is
the accessibility to consultants. Right, they're monthly obligation. Financial might
be good, and all these other things might be good.
But let's say we have to send them to a
gash entrologist for colonoscopy, or they need to see a
(13:42):
kidney doctor for chronic kidney disease. That say they have diabetes, Well,
the nephrologist is in Baytown, the gas neurologist is in Galveston,
and just most people don't. I mean, it sounds fine
to us, right, We're still young, we can still get
in the car, and we don't fear the open highway.
(14:03):
To be honest with you, as most of our patients
get older, they don't want to go on a highway.
That is a scary thought, is to get on the
open highway and be around trucks and cars, and no,
they just don't want to do that. And it's a
trend that I see when they're in their forties and fifties,
(14:25):
they're more than happy to drive to Houston and drive
to Katie or the Woodlands. We have patients that go
to the Woodlands for their healthcare. And then as they
get a little bit older, maybe they get a little
bit sicker that that drive takes a lot out of them.
That's a that's a big task to say, okay, because
(14:45):
really it's the whole day that you have to spend, right, Absolutely,
if you have a local physician, maybe a couple of
hours commitment, but if you're driving to Houston, Galveston, Baytown
with all these other areas, great areas, great dogs, great facilities.
And you know, in my position is because of the
(15:08):
computer world and the ability to really research the doctor,
the medical facility, their capabilities, and you have access to
that healthcare, you know, why not try to get that access.
I don't have any problem with that. But certainly trying
to stay local is super convenient, and I think your
(15:28):
primary needs to be local, right, I just think that's
a must. I get it if a consultant is not local,
because you don't really see the consultant that often, maybe
every maybe two three times a year. So yeah, that's
not a big deal that I can I can spend
one day for dialysis. Unfortunately, Well, yeah, that needs to
(15:50):
be local. But your primary certainly needs to be local.
We have some people that are sort of out of
town ish and where their primaries. You know, if they
want to come on office, that's fine with us, but
that one needs to be convenient. But the consultants, I think, yeah,
that can sort of be out of town. But that's
a whole day commitment going to these consultants and getting
(16:12):
all that done. That's the one limitation I see is
that they can find a primary here locally, they can
find an hospital, but the consultant is just way way
out and sometimes it's inaccessible, and I get that a lot,
So a lot of times they'll change for that reason.
Only Now, how in general, yes, all insurance companies are different,
(16:37):
but in general, how fast can I change from one
policy to another? In general? Do you know that answer?
Speaker 3 (16:46):
So there's always an open enrollment. So like ours at
our office is in October, I think the state of
Texas is like September. Most people's are January. That's open enrollment.
And so you can go in and out of a
policy during your open enrollment and then you're locked in
for a year once you.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
So most insurance companies, once you're locked after the deadline
of the open enrollment, that's it. That's it for the
whole year, for the whole year. Yeah, you have to
stay with it unless there's a.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Problem where there was some false representation or something like that.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
And then what you can opt out of it and
get your new policy.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Most people, you know, these are Medicare plans, right, So
these are people that are retired and their Medicare plans.
They go back to traditional Medicare for a year and
then start looking again at other options.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Okay, so the insurance plans that you're talking about are
mainly Medicare type plans, not Blue Cross, Blue Shield, United
Signa all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Well, most most commercial insurances.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Commercial, yes, yes, most commercial versus Medicare.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
You know, Medicare you've paid into your whole entire life,
So why wouldn't you want to do it?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Right?
Speaker 3 (18:02):
You know, you pay Medicare tax every time you get paid,
every time you get paid, you pay sales security, you
pay Medicare, you pay federal tax.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
So why wouldn't you want it?
Speaker 1 (18:11):
And that's another question is you can have both a
commercial policy and a Medicare policy.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
But you got a call.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
It's called coordination of benefits. You have to call Medicare
and tell them which one's primary. Both can't be primary
one's primary.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
One second, it's up to you. No to the patient.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
No.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Sometimes patients retire so they get on Medicare, but they
still work and they have insurance through their work, So
then their work insurance would become secondary instead of primary.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah, because they retired. And I see that a lot.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Well clear that up for me. What does that mean?
How can they retire and work?
Speaker 3 (18:58):
They get a little part time job or they do
whatever they want to do. I mean, they get a job.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Okay, so they were working somewhere and then they retire
from that position and then.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
They go do something else.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
They go to Walmart or I see this too, Walmart
like Lows. They just kind of want a little something
to do, get them out of the house, interact with people.
So they'll then get that job. They retired from a
previous job and didn't get a side job, and so
they still have commercial insurance that they pay for.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
They sometimes the company pays one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
There's a Walmart company will pay for that.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Whatever whatever company may or may not pay for that.
But one of the companies that I do know pay
and pay very well is the Postal Service. So if
you work for the Postal Service your whole entire life,
normally they pay your insurance.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Even after you retire, okay, and then Medicare kicks in.
Also if you're sixty five or so, I was a
postal worker, I got my postal insurance, I got my Medicare.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (20:05):
That's right?
Speaker 1 (20:06):
But that person can still pay something if they go
to the doctor, right copay or something like that, they
still might have to pay.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
It depends on if the primary and I mean, you're
getting real complicated.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
I think, yeah, I can. I know, because I think
the idea is that the average person feels like, well,
I have two insurances, I shouldn't have to pay anything.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
And that's not the case unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
And you know, I hear that one a lot. They
get upset too, I have to pay something. I have
two insurances. What are you? What are you talking about?
I got two, I'm covered, I'm double. I got it.
Made phone lines that open eight nine six kalvy, I
won ndred and three to three zero kVA. I talked
with Missus Levine about health care and insurance companies. I
have any questions, give us a call. We back in
(20:49):
two minutes. All right, welcome back to the dark WAV
(21:11):
and medical our filone lines that open eight nine to
six kV I one one hundred and three to three
zero kov. We have a guest this morning, Missus Levine.
Just talking about open enrollment, where every year, annually we
get to decide what insurance policy we want. Yeah, it's
our choice, America. It's the best right. But sometimes it's
(21:31):
pitfalls with these policies, and you had to be careful
about which one you choose because you could get stuck
with having your primary but you don't have a consultant
to go to. Well, you do, but they're three hours away.
I mean, how fun is that hopping a car and
driving on the open highway. But then you're locked in
for according to missus Leavin, a year. You can always
(21:54):
call that policy. I'll let me back up, taking missus
Levine's advice, know you're out clause before you sign the
dotted line, meaning it's already written what you have to
do to get out of the policy. If whatever reason,
something happens you don't like it, you want to switch.
This is a good question is let's say you had
(22:14):
the money to do this, you have a policy you
don't like it. Can I get a new policy? Just hey,
I need a new policy, and I'm just going to
go buy a new policy. I got the money, I'm
just going to buy a new I don't like this
when I'm in, I'm locked in, but I'm getting a
new and can I do that?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
I have no idea.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
I think if you've had that kind of money, you
probably don't need insurance.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
You just do self pay.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
No, no, no, I did not recommend self paid Bob
from Beaumont, good morning.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
Hey, good morning. I don't want to cut away from
your topic here, but on an A one C reading,
I got a seven point something the other day and
I was really happy, and they said, don't get too excited.
You supposed you'd like to get to be a six
point five? Is six point five? Said, like a seven
point five is. Obviously they need work to be done, obviously,
(23:08):
but that's that's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
I think seven point five is great.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yeah, they've they have they have tried to figure out
what's the sweet spot with the A one C and
I think seven is sort of agreed upon with everyone
that that's the best target to achieve. But the lower
the better. Absolutely. What happens is trying to get it
(23:35):
down below seven using medications can sometimes cause low blood
sugar episodes. We call that hypo glycemia, and that's sort
of a dangerous crises or a dangerous episode to happen
and the medical world and what they teach doctors is
we don't necessarily want a bunch of those episodes. So
(23:58):
that's sort of what we get into a lot of times.
If we try to push the A one seed down
below seven, people can achieve it, no question, but we
sometimes start getting into that issue with these low blood
sugar episodes, and we don't want that. We just we
want you to achieve your goals as easy and as
(24:19):
painless as possible, but we don't want to cause harm.
So a lot of times seven or even seven point
five will be the patient's goal, just because anytime we
try to push it more, be more aggressive with medications,
they start having toxicity issues or issues with low sugar
and we can't really get it down that low. But
(24:41):
seven is, in my opinion, based on my understanding of
that is sort of the target for just about everyone.
Getting it less than that. Yeah, some people, they're a
little bit more anxious about a seven. They wanted six
point five, they wanted six, they wanted five, and they
certainly can work with the healthcare professional to achieve that.
(25:04):
With the new medications we have in the market, the
injectable medications and some of these newer classes, we are
able to achieve some pretty low levels of A one
C as long as the patients are doing their part
with their diet and their beverage choice and their exercise exercise.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Yeah right, how will miss Lavina nice to hear from me.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Good morning, good morning, thank thank you, hey, thank you
for asking a question that wasn't insurance. I need it
out of the hot seat for a second.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
I wasn't sweating.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Yeah, we have a good morning. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
I appreciate it. You were sweating.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
I don't sweat. I don't sweat when I work in
the yard a hundred degree.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Whether I sweat a lot, you do.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
I sweat easy. I mean, as as everyone knows. If
you don't know, I was an athlete here and play
college ball in Houston, and yeah, man, I would sweat terribly.
You do sweat a lot, and yes, and yeah, I
know some people that yeah it's hot and that's not
a drop on their face. It's like crazy, how do
(26:13):
they do that? Anyway? So if I have the money
to Yeah, in terms of self pay, we do have
some self pay patients in the office that come to office.
They pay our copay and we see them, you know,
once or twice a year.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
And because they're healthy, they're not on any meds, they don't.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
I mean the only thing bad about that is if
you are diagnosed with a critical illness, a chronic illness
that's expensive, or you're in a car accident. I mean
it's risky. I'm not going to say that it's not risky.
But can you have two insurances because you choose to
pay for two insurances? I'm sure you can. You probably
(26:54):
at our office, I would have you sign a waiver.
If you didn't want to use the primary, I'd make
you sign a waiver. Hey, I understand, I have this
these two insurances. I choose to have those. I don't
want to use my primary insurance, so that the office
would be protected.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Now you said that you the patient decides which one
is primary. The patient decides that, or the insurance company
decides which one is primary, which one is secondary. How
does that work?
Speaker 3 (27:22):
It depends on their job. It depends on what plan
they've chosen. I mean, there's a lot of factors in that.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Have you met someone with three insurances?
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Yeah, it's called test schary.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Really, Yeah, what's the scenario there? Why would someone need
or why would someone have three policies? Well, normally it
seems excessive and complicated and just sloppy to me, it
seems that way.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
None it's none of that.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
So you should apologize to the public for saying that,
because that was extremely rude, but.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
I said, it seems I don't know. I'm just a
doctor diagnosing high blood pressure diabetes, and uh, I was like,
why would someone need three? You know, And if if
a patient came into the office and I found out
they had three insurance, I would ask them like, why
do you need three insurances? What's going on? How did
that happen?
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Okay, So a lot of times they're married, they they work,
their husband works, they both have insurance from their jobs,
and they're also retired.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
And have no no, no, they're maybe they're sixty five
and above.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Yeah, yeah, and they both worked their whole entire lives,
and so they have their own insurance through their through
their companies because they're still work.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Yeah, So, I mean it's not a it's really not
uncommon to see people.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
The tertiary policy you work.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Now those people pay.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Your spouse is married, I mean, your spouse is.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Well, I hope they're married to each other.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Like you said, it's complicated. Your spouse has a job
as well, which offers insurance to the spouse. You have
your own job that has its own insurance, and vice versa.
And then you're six five and above and so you're
eligible for medicare.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
All right, I mean, look, I love you.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
They should not have to pay it.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
I love you.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
But I came this morning honestly just to let the
public know that open enrollment was on its way in October,
and just to take their time and study these plans
and look at them carefully and make sure that everything
that they're needing for their health is on the policies
that they're choosing.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Well, if they listen to my show, they understand that
the best insurance is what you should be able to
answer this question. I think my number one fan should
be able to answer this question. What is the best
insurance policy?
Speaker 2 (29:45):
The ones that pay no? So the best in.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Diet and lifestyle. Phone lines are open eight nine six
hundred three three zero, Kalvy. I'll be back in two minutes.
(30:11):
All right, welcome back to talk with we meta by
our phone line to open eight and nine six Kovy
I won one hundred and three three zero. Kill guy
up here this morning chatting with Missus Levigne about open
enrollments again the messages, take your time, do your research,
don't make a bad decision just because sometimes you get
locked in that policy for an entire year. But if
(30:33):
you've got the cash flow, you can certainly get another
policy if you want to, Or if you're married to
someone who's working, you could have three policies. Is that right,
you're working, it's I think it's a yes. The mhm okay, yes, okay,
(31:01):
And then anything going at the office that you would
like to highlight. Things are always changing. One thing that
I see, since we're on the topic of insurance companies
and I have this discussion with patients all the time,
is that they've gotten a little bit more involved with
what happens in the office setting, right. I mean before
(31:22):
it was sort of separate, like we saw the patients,
we did our own thing, we build them, they paid us,
and then that was it. Right, But that is slowly
sort of deteriorating or going away. Right. They're now coming
into the office, they're calling you, they're working with you,
they're looking at your records. They're sending nurse practitioners out
(31:45):
to the patients' homes. Yeah, no, they do that really. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Okay, your mic is on. Yeah, I told you it
was off.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
It was getting hot.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
This big huge anaconda in your face.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
I mean, I do not know. It's ONSC.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
You broke it, Frank from Beaumont, what's going on?
Speaker 4 (32:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (32:08):
I got what I think is the best insurance ever.
But I'm I'm on Medicare, but I go through Humana,
and uh uh, I'm getting so many different answers when
(32:29):
I call of what's going on with my my dental work,
my vision things like that, and uh.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Yeah, I've been listening.
Speaker 5 (32:44):
I've been listening to you, and I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
the whole time, I agreeing with you. You know, I'm like,
wan the high five, somebody.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Oh high five? Right, Well, look we'll just virtual high five.
So right now, one two, three five, Yes.
Speaker 5 (33:01):
All right, I can do that.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Yeah, Frank, it's it's you're right, but it's complicated. Insurance
companies are not bad people. Insurance in this country is complicated.
And so the good question that Frank had Charlotte is
you call you call that one eight hundred number, trying
to get some clarity. But then you get more confused
because one person's saying this, another person saying that. Any
(33:26):
advice for Frank on.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
That, well, dental, I don't know much about dental envision
because we do healthcare, we don't do dental envision, but
I know that dental exams are not that expensive and
eye exams are not that expensive, and it's probably just
worth him going and doing his own at a local
abstamastriss or whatever they'remetrst optometrist. Yeah, and a local dentist
(33:50):
because all the dentists are out of network with insurance.
And then he can ask to give them a copy
of his bill that he paid on a HICFO and
then he can send it into his insurance company and
they'll reimburse him as themselves.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
So you know, maybe they will, maybe they won't.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
They normally do, but I don't think vision and dental
is near as serious as getting your healthcare correct.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
But what if? What if you you know, representatives of
the insurance company are giving you different messages, they're telling
you different things. Any advice on that.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
You mean, like when you call the eight hundred number,
you get two people and they tell you two different things.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
That happens all the time.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
What's what's your advice to Frank on then how to
manage that or what's what's the best way to figure
that out?
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Personally?
Speaker 3 (34:38):
I would find a local broker and go through a
broker and not go through an eight hundred number on
the back of a pamphlet because those people sells people.
They want to sell their policy. They don't want to
give you the what's best for you. A broker doesn't
care because they sell most all the policies and they'll
give you what's best for you, which is why I
(34:59):
like brokers.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Yeah, so answer your question, Frank.
Speaker 5 (35:04):
You sure did. That's a good I never thought about
going local.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
And I'll tell you.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
We have our local broker for our office, and he
may kill me on Monday. Is Mike Wolfe, and he's
out on Major and he does a great job, and
he would help anybody that asked him or called his
office and ask him anything, and he'll tell you what
the best plans are for you when you're over sixty
five or you're sixty or you're seventy or he's because
(35:33):
he's talked to me about it.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
You know.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
I'm fifty five fifty six this year. So, like I said,
I don't have birthdays anymore. But I got to start
thinking about those things because Medicare for Us is right
around the corner, and so we do have those conversations.
And I think local brokers they're everywhere. Honestly, there's one
on every street in Beaumont. If you start really paying attention,
there's a farmer's or there's a farm bureau, or there's
(36:00):
somewhere and just stop in and say, look, I need
some help. They'll be happy to help you.
Speaker 5 (36:06):
Really, farmers, that's a insurance, is my car and property.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
I mean, I think everybody that I know wants the
best for everybody in the Golden Triangle. I don't really
see any animosity. And all you have to do is
know your resources and stop and ask, you know, and
most people are happy to help you, especially when there's
(36:37):
it's confusion to us, right, but it's not to them
because that's what they do for a living. It's so
easy for them. And like healthcare, right yeah, it's like
one two.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Three running a medical office business. It seems very confusing,
which it is, and we're glad we have people like
you that can come and make sense of all that
and clear it up and make it work. Just like medicine,
being a doctor, just making sense of all the information
that patients come with and listening to those stories that
(37:08):
they all have about what happened and how it played
out and trying to make sense of that.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
I do agree with him, Humana is great insurance, but
I love my favorite and all time favorite will be
regular old medicare. It's been around forever. You paid into
it your whole entire life. Just stick with that. It
pays eighty percent. I think the deductible is like two
hundred and forty something dollars, and then they pay eighty
(37:34):
percent of everything else that you do, no matter what
you do, no matter where you go, no matter what
you need done.
Speaker 4 (37:40):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
And I don't follow this closely every day, but it
seems like the medicare model, just the old traditional medicare model,
is unsustainable because of the cost of insurance and the
way things happen in this country, inflation and all of
these different factors that impact reimbursement and how insurance policies work.
(38:04):
The traditional model is just unsustainable forever. So that's why
we have, I guess, these other policies coming in trying
to rework it the dynamics so that it doesn't run
out of money, so that it's still there, so that
doctors get paid, insurance is going to get paid, so
so forth and so on.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
Well, let me remind you. As long as Americans are working,
it's not going to run out of money. Because if
you look at your paycheck, which you don't, you pay
you pay so I know you don't look at your paycheck.
I write your paycheck. You don't look at your paycheck.
I even take it to the bank for you.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
So just as long as I'm fed, I can sleep
at night. I guess that's all I need.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
Right So, you know, but every single person that's employed
in the United States pays into Medicare, Social Security, and
Federal withholdings every single paper period. So I can't imagine
how they could go broke if you look at all
the money that's paid being paid into it every day.
(39:09):
I mean, I just don't see how it could go broke.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Kenneth from Vider How can we help you?
Speaker 6 (39:14):
Yes, sir, I've got what they diagnosed as planet of phossiatis,
and I've been going to my doctor and I've had
several shots, and I've bought special socks, magnesium wall. Nothing
seemed to work.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
Well.
Speaker 6 (39:27):
I come across this deal in Houston, the Woodlands kd
up in there. They call it TTE treatment, And do
you know anything about that?
Speaker 1 (39:37):
I don't know what the acronym stands for, do you know?
Speaker 6 (39:42):
Uh, No, it's the places called Texas in calculator or
something like that. But no, I don't know what it
stands for. I guess it's plan or plan or something.
Speaker 4 (39:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (39:57):
But they it's not supposed to be no kind of surgery.
That's what I'm trying to avoid surgery. And there's no
surgery or nothing like that. They run a tube or
something down your foot or something. I just didn't know
if you was you know, I had heard about it
or not.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Sounds like new stuff, and I think that if you're
struggling with what has been given to you so far
and you're still in severe pain, you're not getting better,
that it would be a good option to look into it.
A lot of times you can go there, get a
consultation from these practitioners and they can sort of spell
(40:36):
out what they can do for you can't do for you,
and it's up to you if you feel like it's
something that you want to do. So yes, yeah, I mean,
I think if if it's an option and you're not
getting better with the current plan of care, yeah, go
check it out. See if it can help you.
Speaker 6 (40:56):
That's where I'm headed next week. They will to call me.
I sure will doctors.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Thank you call us back and let us know how
things happen.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
Okay, I have a little bit of advice real quick.
Is it a hospitalization or is it a procedure? I
didn't catch the very beginning of that.
Speaker 6 (41:11):
No, I don't think it's a hospital thing, because I
asked them it's both fate. And I asked them if
I needed to bring somebody, you know, to drive or something,
and they said no. Okay, So it sounds real promising,
you know, listening to them, you.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
Know, yes, sir, I'm gonna sure do it.
Speaker 6 (41:29):
I am so tired. I heard six months, six months
of this.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
I would recommend that you get established with the primary
over there in case, worst case scenario you did have
something go wrong that was bad. I'm not trying to
be a negative Debbie downer, because I'm just not like that.
But I always try to look at worst case scenario,
you have an established doctor over there, because it's kind
of you don't know anyone but them.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
Is that correct?
Speaker 6 (41:56):
Yeah? I mean I've been dealing with my doctor, Aaron Beaumont,
which is a good doctor. I just trying to avoid surgery,
you know, and uh, I hear you everything, but but
I'm gonna try it out. I'm waiting on them to
call me, and if it happens to be something real good,
she'll give you a call.
Speaker 4 (42:16):
Yeah, that's my daughter.
Speaker 6 (42:18):
I talked to my daughter. She suffered with my grain
for years and years. Well here in the last year,
they come up with something. She goes in every three
months and gets a shot, and she says it's a miracle.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:30):
I think we do some of that stuff at our office.
But you know, I would get someone to drive you
just in case. I mean, you know, you don't want
to get over there and then have a little bit
of a tiny complication and then not be able to
drive home. So I would get someone to drive you,
just to be kind of on the safe side.
Speaker 6 (42:49):
Okay, I appreciate it, and I will give you a
call it happens to be something real good.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
Yeah, we can't wait to hear about it.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Okay, thank you. All right, Kenneth, have a good weekend
and drive safely. But yeah, having getting stuck in the woodlands,
I think that'd be a good thing. It's pretty over there,
it's nice and there's a lot of good things to
do over in the Woodland area. So at the end
of the show, any closing thoughts.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
No, I just my heart goes out to Hunt, Texas.
I mean, you know, I wanted to say that we
need to say a special prayer for those people that
are going through man a lot right now. And every
time I think about it, you drive around Beaumont, it's
just very heartbreaking, and yeah, I'm sorry. I hate tragedy
in the world and it happens every day. And you know,
(43:36):
my grandchild is such an awesome human being. Your grandchild,
our grandchild.
Speaker 5 (43:44):
You know.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
When it all first happened, I told her she goes
to camp, and I was like, man, letting them scared
for you to go to camp. And she's like, nnae,
you read the Bible, you believe in Jesus. You got
to live your life. You can't live in fear. You
got to live your life.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
Yeah, kids are so resilient.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
She's pretty awesome though. She'll be on the radio show.
She came home when she was like three or four,
and she's so busy though. Oh yeah, she's so busy
and she sleeps late. She better read that book I'm
gonna be drilling really late.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
She's getting real too though.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
I mean when we were young, you'd sleep till noon
or one o'clock, right, You didn't have anything to do.
You just hang in at the house all day. They're
good old days. But retirement is coming and we get
to look forward to that, right.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Yeah, that's what they say.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
Sleeping in, doing nothing, hanging out bugging you.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
No, please don't.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
That's what a lot a lot of times happens, is,
you know, in particularly like a wife and a husband,
and husband goes to work every day, right, so they're
not in the house, not around the wife all day,
and the wife has sort of their own thing going.
And then the husband retires, right, so now he's there
all day and they're like, who are you? What are
you doing here? You know, to.
Speaker 3 (44:57):
Go find Wyatt person when you're home, you never know
you're there. I mean, yes, you don't make a noise, okay.
All you do is ask for hey, you give me something,
to give me.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Something to eat? Oh please? You don't have any sect.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
Yeah, you tell a lot of my secrets. I don't
know if I could trust you on the microphone anymore.
Speaker 4 (45:20):
So.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Anyway, thanks for listening to another edition of the Doctor
Levine Medical Hour. Remember don't drink and trib water vegetables
eat a cucumber one eat one cucumber day. Just take
care
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