An Overview of Medicare, with We Speak Medicare

*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

The following podcast is provided by we speak Medicare and answers for elders radio, and welcome everyone back to answers for elders radio and we are here with some brand new guests that are going to be with us for a little while and I’m so excited because it’s such an important part of later life, and that is dealing with the subject of Medicare. We just had daphnite in our earlier segment and we were talking about all the things that are changing and we’re here with some special guests, Dan Reddler, the CEO and president, and Dan Leary, the CEO of we speak Medicare dot org. Everyone, so check out we speak Medicare dot org. But Dan and Dan, welcome to answers for elders radio. Well, thank you for having us. Thank you. You know where I’m excited because we just had a conversation in a previous segment. You guys weren’t here, obviously, but we talked about, you know, how to people be proactive in their aging years and I think one of the things that happens every year is the enrollment period which is going on right now. It just started, and you know you have this situation where people tend to get complacence say I already took care of that last year, and that’s not a good mindset, is it, guys? So, so, you guys, tell us a little bit about you know what. Why is it necessary to review your health plans? Well, the reason you should change or look at your health plans on a yearly basis is because the plans themselves change yearly. They sure do, and so do the rules of Medicare. So in order not to impact your finances, you should always have a consultation and it needs analysis done yearly to make sure that you have the best plan that suits your personal needs as because your needs change every year too, and there’s no cookie cutter ways, because every single person’s different. You know, you have different financial needs, different physical needs, different you know, you live different places, you have different types of doctors. There’s all different types of aspects that go into considerations. So obviously these are things. Medications are huge, isn’t that correct? That’s correct. The medications you take can have a huge impact on what your out of pocket expenses are. In every plan treats those medic medications slightly differently. So a review when there’s been changes is really important and you know, we all should think about what were we doing a year ago and what’s changed, you know, just in our own physical bodies, in our own, you know, lifestyle interests, things that we do, and certainly to have an annual review of your health. There’s so many things of people saying, you know, you should put your health number one from everything because if you don’t have of your health, but do you have? And so obviously we encourage having, you know, a resource like we speak, medicare to be there as a consultation. Now you guys work with families all over greater puget sound. Tell us a little bit about what you do. One case that comes to mind of I help the gentleman and he said, you know, Dan, you know things about medicure that I don’t even want to know exactly. It’s not. It’s not a topic we all often talk about, is it? And another fellow said, you know, I did some research and I came to some conclusions and having you confirm my research and when I decided mental whole lot to me. So we serve in different functions with different people, depending on their how much they know about me. Here trying to find the right plan for the right premium for the for that person. Yeah, and I think the other thing that’s really key about that is is that you’re talking about somebody. You guys specialize in Medicare and with the laws, they’re changing all of the time and I think it’s one of the things that’s really important for us is that we need to rely on people like you guys for sure, to kind of guide us in the right area. So, you know, how do you guys go about the process and understanding? You know the people that you work with. What kind of things do you well, one of the things that we do is called the needs analysis. Okay, we’ll sit down with with the individual and find out what type of prescriptions they have, how what kind of lifestyle they’re living, what their particular needs are for health or for finances, because some people make choices of their healthcare based on their income and there are plans out there that have no premium that can help those types of folk. Right. So when we sit down with someone, we’re not just looking at, you know, are you healthy today and what’s going to happen tomorrow? We’re trying to help them create a picture for longevity and to not spend the finances that are limited to them. Right, and so what? A lot of our plans have maximum amount of pockets that can go over a certain dollar amount. And so by utilizing our services and understanding the true needs analysis of a prospect becomes very beneficial to them because we can then ask questions that they may not they may not even think about. Right. Right. So is damn was saying earlier. People are like, Hey, we’ve done research and then all of a sudden will say, well, did you consider the on your part d your drugs that if you had this plan, you’re this drugs teer one and this would be over? Yeah, it’s and tiered for which makes it much more costly. So I needs analysis is very important for all of our consumers, even if they’ve been our client for years, you know, and it’s good that you’re redoing that every year with your clients. I think that one of the things that we don’t want to think about, even when a year flies by so quickly that you think about, wow, I guess I need to take a look at those things again, and it’s not something that we look forward to. Obviously, is people you know, we won’t we don’t want to talk about it, but it’s a necessary thing and I think everyone, everyone situation is unique. Like you said. I think our parents, people in the older generation, they tended to be a little bit more responsible physical fiscally then people in the, you know, early s mid S, they tend to live paycheck to paycheck. Those are very different conversations. As your is, you’re entering, entering your you know, sixty five. You’re sixty five, starting to retire. What does that look like? Yeah, I think I don’t know the exact statistic, but many, many seniors have not taking care of themselves for a retirement and if you qualify, if you’re low income, you make qualify for benefits you don’t even know exist. Right. We love to talk to you about that because you need to be treated with dignity when it comes to your healthcare and not having money is really hard right this. These plans will cover you with great coverage. You know that’s so important. Dan, and I want to Reintroduce Youtube gentlemen to our listeners. We are talking to Dan Redd Ler, he’s the CEO and president, and Dan Leary, the COO of we speak Medicare Dot Org and I love that your website. It’s really easy and you guys really can help us. Now, what areas throughout the puget sound region do you served? We serve the entire state of Washington. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So if I live, no matter where you live, if you pick up the phone and we’ll give that contact information at the end of this segment. And also soon you guys are going to have your own specialist site on answers for elderscom and so you guys will be able to educate our listeners. We also are going to feature you in the sage advice newsletter. So there’s be a lot of information that you’ll be able to certainly our listeners can certainly get from you. So getting back to you, know, I’m just curious with this whole thing. Is Obviously Medicare is this huge issue and I’ve got friends chase. I’ve sixty three, going to be sixty four next year, so I’m not quite eligible yet, but I have friends that are now in rolling that are a couple years older than me and it’s interesting what they’re saying as well. I just signed up for Medicare. It’s a big thing in my generation obviously that we’re learning to look like at these things, but obviously there’s a lot of people in my generation to that aren’t signing up. Is that correct? I mean you have to sign up. Correct no, are you don’t. You can choose not to enroll in Medicare part B, which is foundation. Okay, if you don’t enroll in there’s penalties and if you don’t, if you don’t enroll the pennant ones, the penalties assessed. You have that for the rest of your life, that penalty. That is really interesting. Two Thousand and sixty five, something should be done. You have to make a conscious decision. And and do people when they turn sixty five, okay, and they enroll. Right. How did they do that? Where do they do they give that through you, guys? Do they do it through the government? What do they do? Well, there’s a myriad of ways they can do that. So there are some things they can do online, okay, but I caution when you do things online to buy or beware. So by working with a consultant and an agent who would provide a no cost consultation, like is guys right us, is one of the best ways to do that, because you’re going to get firsthand knowledge of what you’re seeking and then that agent can enroll you on the spot. That’s it perfect. And the fact that if you sit down, you know, for those of you that are just that are turning sixty five, that are you know, become qualified for benefits, this is something that’s really important that you take pay attention to those things when you hit that age. And of course, medicare is a huge thing that I think most of us don’t even know anything about. I have had so many people say, what’s part d what’s part be? I don’t understand the difference and unfortunately our government has not done a very good job of educating us. And even though we start to know it, the laws change the next year anyway. So obviously to have a specialist like that it’s so my question is, obviously, when you work with we speak Medicare, you always got that person like you on the phone to help you? Absolutely, and that’s important. So just a little bit before we close, I want to talk a little bit about annual enrollment. Right now, the enrollment period is going on, goes. It’s just started this week, didn’t it? Yesterday? I started fifteen. Okay, so that was started Tuesday. On Tuesday, today’s Saturday. So I want to make sure that we’re on there. So it started Tuesday, October fifteen, and we want it’s going on now till early December, seventh of December. So what do people need to do during this time? First off, they should pick up the phone and call us to get a consultation. Uh Huh, because you need to review your plan every year. Absolutely, and so right now what folks should be doing is looking what they have currently, HMM, seeing if the plan for next year that they’re on still meets their needs. If not, then it’s time to go shopping. Right. So the Nice thing about let’s just say somebody’s with another like a health care company. You guys are broker, so you guys represent multiple companies who you have the ability to, you know, enroll people in the company that works best for them. It’s that correct. Absolutely. Yeah, a lot of people don’t like change, but change we can make this actually very simple for you. It’s not a big process. It’s set up to be reviewed every year. So please don’t short circuit yourself and make sure you reach out for some help. Perfect. So I want to make sure that people know how to reach you and please pick up the call. So, Dan, how do we reach? We speak Medicare. So call us at eight hundred five five three, eight hundred and eighty five seven. That’s eight hundred five five three, eight hundred and eighty five seven. We speak Medicare and guess what everyone, they’re going to be here every month from the next few months. So we’re excited to have you guys on board. Thanks again for being a part of our specialist team. Thank you so much. The preceding podcast was provided by. We speak Medicare and answers for elders. Radio to contact. We speak Medicare. Go to. We speak Medicare DOT RG. Well, call one hundred and eighty seven seven, three, four, six to zero, six, zero,