Medicare Made Simple: Demystifying Plans, Parts, and Enrollment

Listen to this episode as our host Darleen, invites Joel Lourie, founder of Lourie Life and Health, to break down one of the most complicated and important topics for seniors: Medicare.  Joel unpacks the essential differences between Medicare Part A, Part B, supplemental plans like Plan G, and Medicare Advantage options, addressing why so many people find Medicare overwhelming and how to avoid common pitfalls.

Joel  shares straightforward explanations about the enrollment process, how Social Security and Medicare interact, and why starting the process early makes all the difference. He and Darleen Mahoney discuss real-life stories and questions that clients often face, such as what happens if you keep working past 65, how premiums are calculated, and the significance of choosing plans that fit both health needs and budgets. Special attention is given to Medicare Advantage “bundle” plans, the realities of moving between counties, and the critical importance of timing and power of attorney documentation for seniors and their families.

To connect with Joel Lourie and learn more, visit: LourieLifeAndHealth.com

SeniorLivingGuide.com Podcast sponsored by Tom Marks, Best Selling Retirement Author & Terrabella Senior Living

 The background music is written, performed, and produced exclusively by purple-planet.com. https://www.purple-planet.com/ 

*SeniorLivingGuide.com Webinars and Podcast represents the opinions and expertise of our guests. The content here is for informational and educational purposes. It does not necessarily represent the views, recommendations, opinions or advice of Fairfax Publishing/SeniorLivingGuide.com or its employees

Transcript

Darleen Mahoney [00:00:01]:

Hey everyone, today we are joined by Joel Laurie. He comes from a background of public service where he served 18 years in the South Carolina House of Representatives and State Senate. Joel has a 35-year history as a business owner, and he founded Laurie Life and Health in 2011. Since that time, Laurie Life and Health has grown to be a regional leader in the health insurance and Medicare industry, and he is located— those offices are located in Columbia and Greenville and Myrtle Beach South Carolina, beautiful South Carolina. Thank you so much for joining us today, Joel.

Joel Laurie [00:00:39]:

Thanks for having me on, Darlene. I'm a fan of the podcast and certainly a big fan and partner of Senior Living Guide. You guys do a great job. We have so many clients that find out about us through your publication, so it's fun to spend a few minutes with you today.

Darleen Mahoney [00:00:56]:

Oh my gosh, I super appreciate that. Absolutely. We enjoy partnering with or doing our podcast with our partners. I think it's such a great way to where we can really work together. So I'm glad that you joined me today. And I am super excited to talk about one of the most complicated things on earth, in my opinion, and that is Medicare.

Joel Laurie [00:01:20]:

Well, you know, it is complicated. And, you know, that's kind of why I love what we do, Darlene. I mean, my whole career in public service was built around trying to help people make informed decisions and about healthcare, have access to healthcare. And for us, LORI Life and Health is just an extension of that, of that, um, of goal in public service. It can be complicated. We get questions all the time about people that are turning 65. Some people confuse Medicare with Social Security. What happens if I want to work beyond age 65? So hopefully we can open up the hood and get in a couple of those issues today and help make it a little bit simpler for your, for your listening audience.

Darleen Mahoney [00:02:03]:

I appreciate that. And some people get Medicare and Medicaid confused.

Joel Laurie [00:02:07]:

They do all the time. Absolutely. You're absolutely right. And, you know, for me, it's very— it's not that complicated, but I work in it, have been working in it for a long time. But I mean, just helping my wife get enrolled in Medicare was not the easiest process. So it can, it can boggle down quickly.

Darleen Mahoney [00:02:24]:

I always say Medicare is like stereo instructions. It's just a little bit A little bit, a lot. So, and my first experience with Medicare was when I was taking care of my dad, right? And I had made certain assumptions on Medicare, and I found out I was completely wrong on the supplemental side. So, um, that was a, that was a big learning curve for me one afternoon. And I thought, oh my gosh, if I'm having problems with this, how did he even manage it? Because he had dementia.

Joel Laurie [00:02:55]:

Sure.

Darleen Mahoney [00:02:55]:

So I'm thinking, oh, he has— I don't— I'm trying to figure it out. I'm sure he has no clue. So So in a nutshell, we just talked about that Medicare can kind of get confused with Medicaid. It can get confused with Social Security. So what is Medicare? Medicare, nuts and bolts.

Joel Laurie [00:03:11]:

In a nutshell, Medicare is a federal program for people 65 and older to provide health insurance. You can get it if you're under 65, but only if you have been on disability for 24 months or have end-stage renal disease. So by and large, Darlene, the vast 95% of the Medicare population is going to be people that are 65 or older that are going into retirement or that don't have, you know, don't have individual— that they do have individual health care that has to transition to Medicare. And there are really two basic parts of Medicare, okay? There's Part A, which is going to cover hospital inpatient and things like that. And most people won't pay for Part A as long as they or their spouse have worked for at least 10 years or 40 quarters. So they've paid into the system for at least 10 years. So, you know, many cases if one spouse stays at home and the other one is working, they don't both have to have worked. One spouse will be— can go on the other one's, you know, reap the other one's work history But Part A covers the hospital and things like that, inpatient care, skilled nursing facilities. Part A alone is not full coverage, and anytime somebody's on full Medicare, they're going to want to also enroll in Part B. Part B covers the medical part, doctors' offices, labs, tests like that, procedures outside of a hospital. And Part B is not free, and Part B you pay a premium. And that premium will be based on your income, and that's where it gets very confusing. A lot of people will call and say, well, I've got Part A, do I need anything? Well, absolutely you need something. So there's Part A and there's Part B. That just gives you your red, white, and blue card. Okay, now I want to pause for a second and talk about how to get enrolled in Medicare because that's one of the first things that our agents and agency One of the first things we do when educating somebody about how to get enrolled in Medicare. So Jane Doe is turning 65, she walks into our office and she says, look, I'm on an individual health plan, I need to join Medicare. And we like to talk to these people at least 90 days before their 65th birthday. Right. A couple of things that are going to be very important to ask them. Number 1, if they're on an individual plan, they will need to join Medicare. Group is, is not an option at that point. But the first thing we want to know is, are they on Social Security or not? And the reason that's important, Darlene, is if they're drawing Social Security, they will automatically be enrolled in Medicare. They don't have to do anything. Okay, so for all of our listeners out there, if you're approaching your 65th birthday and you took Social Security at an earlier age, you don't have to enroll— worry about enrolling in Medicare. You're automatically going to get your card in the mail about 45 days before the first of the month that you turn 65. So somebody were to turn 65 on June 15th, they'd get their card around May the 1st. They get their card around 1st of May, middle of April. Okay.

Darleen Mahoney [00:06:32]:

I love that. That's an easy button. Once you take your Social Security, you get that easy button for Medicare. Perfect.

Joel Laurie [00:06:39]:

But what we're finding is in many cases a lot of people delay their Social Security, and I am by no means an expert in that field because that's not our field, but you can research on the Social Security website, and if you delay it, your payment will be higher.

Darleen Mahoney [00:06:55]:

Right.

Joel Laurie [00:06:55]:

So if you're not taking Social Security but you're going to enroll in Medicare, then you have to take action. It doesn't happen automatically, and that action can be taken by going into the Social Security website creating an account. Most people have an account, they might not even know it, but creating that account and then applying for Medicare. And you would apply online for Parts A and B, and usually that's all you have to do. Okay, you apply for A and B, and again, you want to do this 90 days out. You can enroll in Medicare 90 days before your 65th birthday, and we strongly encourage people not to wait until the last minute. When we have people walking in our office today, middle of February, saying I need to enroll my Medicare March 1st, it's going to be very hard for Social Security to process all that paperwork in 2 weeks and get you a Medicare card March 1st.

Darleen Mahoney [00:07:57]:

It's the government, nothing moves that fast.

Joel Laurie [00:07:59]:

Nothing moves that fast. Who knows what kind of shutdown they could be facing. Exactly. And that's not to in any way knock our good friends that work in the Social Security office. They are overwhelmed with people that call and have questions. So the early bird gets the worm. Again, you can apply for Medicare 90 days before your 65th birthday, and I strongly recommend you do it on day 90 or day 89 or day 88 and get that process moving.

Darleen Mahoney [00:08:30]:

Mark it on your calendar.

Joel Laurie [00:08:32]:

Absolutely mark it on your calendar. And in many cases, we help people with that, okay? We'll help them make sure they know how to set up their account, because I mean, let's face it, you know, somebody who is a physician or an attorney or who works for a business, they're good at what they do, but logging into the Social Security account and doing all this is a little bit foreign for them. So if they need any help, they It's always good to have somebody look over their shoulder. Yeah. All right, now let's assume, Darlene, that you get your Medicare card in the mail, and remember, your Medicare is going to start on the first of the month you turn 65. So if you turn 65 on the 10th of June, your Medicare is going to start June the 1st. You turn 65 on the 1st of June, it will start May the 1st. If your birthday is on the first day of the month, It'll start the preceding month. But getting that Medicare card in the mail is just the first part, because Medicare essentially, Darlene, is only going to cover, um, on the B— on Part B side, it's only going to cover 80%, and you have to pay 20%. Right. On the Part A side, there's a deductible, and it can get expensive if you go into the hospital and you have surgery. And you pay your Part A deductible, and then you pay 20% of the bill, it can sometimes be 20% of a very large number. Okay? Right. Here's where a decision has to be made. There are two basic options to cover your additional Medicare coverage, to get you additional Medicare coverage to pick up that 20%. There's not a right or wrong answer. And that's really important for all of our listeners to understand. There's not this one's better than this one, or this one is right and this one's wrong. It really is based on each person's personal situation and what their financial budget is. And let me give you an example. Option 1 might be what we call a Medicare supplement plan. Okay, so when you enroll in Medicare, and you're turning 65, you have a guaranteed issue into a Medicare supplement. And that means there are no health questions. God forbid, you could be very sick, you could be very healthy. There are no questions. The insurance company has to accept you. You pay the insurance company a monthly premium and it will pick up that 20% that Medicare doesn't pay. Okay. And that can be a great comfort level and blanket of support for people. Because, you know, if you go in to have a surgery or have something expensive happen and you walk out with a $10,000 or $15,000 bill, which is just your 20%, you're going to regret it. So that's called a Medicare Supplement, or people refer to it as a Medigap plan because it's paying that 20%. Medicare's paying 80, the Medigap or the Medicare supplement's paying 20. That premium is going to be based in most cases on age, zip code, and gender. If you smoke, there's a surcharge, and you can rest assured that that premium will go up every single year. Okay. As you get older, that premium goes up. I'm just going to use South Carolina as an example. In South Carolina, I know we have listeners all over their state. And, you know, from what I understand, all over the country and in some other countries. But let's just use little old Columbia, South Carolina, as an example. If I'm turning 65 and I want to enroll in a Medicare supplement plan, that I'm going to enroll what's called a Plan G, and I won't get too caught up in all the different plans, but Plan G is the most popular plan. That plan may cost me about $125 a month. Okay, I have to pick up, pay my first deductible in the beginning of the year for my Part B. It's a couple hundred dollars. Then every time I go to the doctor, every time if I get a test done, if I go into the hospital, my plan pays 100%. Okay, it's a great form of coverage, and I'm paying that $125 a month to the insurance company.

Darleen Mahoney [00:12:55]:

I have never heard of Part G.

Joel Laurie [00:12:58]:

All right, it's called a Plan G.

Darleen Mahoney [00:13:00]:

Oh, Plan G, I apologize.

Joel Laurie [00:13:01]:

Medicare Supplement Plan G, right?

Darleen Mahoney [00:13:03]:

This is all new.

Joel Laurie [00:13:04]:

Yeah, well, that's good. That's good. You're not old enough to be on Medicare yet, so we can talk about that in 20 years when you're old enough.

Darleen Mahoney [00:13:11]:

All right, exactly.

Joel Laurie [00:13:12]:

So, um, so that's a Plan G. Now here's the kicker: a Medicare Supplement does not have any drug coverage. So if you get a Medicare supplement, you want to pair that with a Medicare Part D plan or a drug plan. Okay. Every county in America— well, I can't say America. Every county in South Carolina has about a dozen drug plans to choose from. And what most agents will do and what our agents will do is we will take your prescription drugs, log into Medicare.gov, which is an independent website run by the government. And find the Part D plan or the drug plan that fits your prescription drugs, because you may take certain drugs that are covered by Plan A but not covered by Plan B. Okay. All right. I'm going to put a, put a pin in it right there. You got a Medicare supplement and a drug plan. Option 1, the drug plan, by the way, I said the supplement can cost you $125. The drug plan might cost you an extra $50. Varies. These are just, you know, these things vary by state, by county. The other option that has become increasingly popular, Darlene, is what's called a Medicare Advantage plan.

Darleen Mahoney [00:14:31]:

Yes, I have. I've definitely heard of that.

Joel Laurie [00:14:34]:

Okay.

Darleen Mahoney [00:14:34]:

Every commercial, every other commercial on the 6 AM news has a Medicare.

Joel Laurie [00:14:40]:

Absolutely.

Darleen Mahoney [00:14:40]:

Along with personal injury attorney, they just rotate.

Joel Laurie [00:14:43]:

Yeah, that's right. I think in my market you see more of the attorneys than you do the Medicare commercials, but—

Darleen Mahoney [00:14:49]:

Yeah, you're probably right on that one.

Joel Laurie [00:14:51]:

Right, it's amazing to me, and, and, um, and they all have their own fun little slogans and stuff like that. Okay, a Medicare Advantage plan, here's how it works. It's an all-in-one Medicare plan. So you've seen Joe Namath, all-in-one Medicare plan. So what this is, is this is the insurance company administering your Medicare benefits, your Part A, your Part B. Most of them will include drug, drug coverage already, and many of them will include extra things that are not covered by Medicare, like a dental benefit, a vision benefit, a gym membership. It's an all-in-one Medicare plan. And in that case, Darlene, as opposed to paying a higher monthly premium to an insurance company, You're paying a, paying a very low premium, in most cases zero, to join a Medicare Advantage plan. But, and here's the but, you're paying copays as you use services. So you might go to your primary care doc, pay $25. You might go to a specialist, hypothetically, and pay $50. If you go into the hospital, where's your Medicare supplement covering the whole thing? Your Medicare Advantage plan is going to charge you a a daily rate, say, for $350 a day for 4 days. Okay. A Medicare Advantage plan also has a cap, so you just don't keep spending copays till you can't spend anymore. Once you reach that cap, and that cap is called a maximum out-of-pocket, and it can be— it varies by plan, but let's say it's $7,500. Okay. Once you reach that amount on the medical side, the plan pays 100% after that. Okay, so, so both options are very, very popular. Medicare Advantage has become increasingly popular because as people shift into retirement and they have limited income, many of them, particularly in my state, cannot afford— once they pay their Part B premium— cannot afford that additional Medicare supplement premium.

Darleen Mahoney [00:16:55]:

So I just want to understand this correctly. So The Medicare Advantage, it sounds to me how you worded it, maybe I misunderstood or maybe I'm right, I don't know, um, that the Medicare Advantage was kind of like a bundle. So it's kind of a one-stop shop for, for the different services.

Joel Laurie [00:17:13]:

I think you got it exactly right.

Darleen Mahoney [00:17:15]:

Like, oh, I did? Okay.

Joel Laurie [00:17:16]:

Yeah.

Darleen Mahoney [00:17:16]:

Okay. I, I was just shooting from the hip on that one. Okay, so if you're doing a bundle with your, with your Medicare, With that, would you not need the separate, like the, the Part G or Plan G that you spoke about? You can eliminate those. So you're just not, you don't have all this stuff going on.

Joel Laurie [00:17:41]:

And in fact, really, it's illegal to be enrolled in both. An agent cannot enroll you in both. So, okay, I'm going to separate. These are all, Darlene, these are questions you're asking, great questions. These are the questions that our clients ask our agents every day. There is no bad question when it comes to Medicare. The only, the only bad question is, is I don't want to ask you a question. And is it okay if I just not ask any questions? We want questions.

Darleen Mahoney [00:18:07]:

Yeah.

Joel Laurie [00:18:08]:

You know, so again, MedSupp, Plan G, remember, you're paying that premium to the insurance company. It's on average at 65, it could be about $125 plus or minus. You have a small deductible to pay at the beginning of the year, and then your supplement is paying everything for any service that's covered by Medicare. Okay, but on top of that, you're also paying about another $50 for your drug plan because the supplement doesn't have drugs. Okay, so let's say my outlay right there is $175. Okay, MedAdvantage, many of them are zero premium. So you're just enrolling in the plan. The health insurance company is now administering your Medicare benefits. And as opposed to paying that $175 a month for your G and your Part D, you're paying copays as you use services. So if you don't go to the doctor at all during the year and you take no prescription drugs, you don't pay a dime. You know, most people will, will go to the doctor at least once a year.

Darleen Mahoney [00:19:16]:

At least once a year. And then prescription, I think everyone as you age, you're on something.

Joel Laurie [00:19:21]:

There's no question about that. And then, and remember, with a Medicare Advantage plan, you do get these extra things like a gym membership, a dental benefit, a vision benefit. Many of them come with a physical that you can get at no cost, okay? Because Medicare does not cover a full physical. Medicare covers a full physical when you first join Medicare, and then after that you get an annual wellness visit, which is what we down south call a how's your mama and them visit. They come in, they take your blood pressure, they look around, and they say, how's your mama and them. Okay, so, so that's really the big difference. I want to add one more point here. In either case, you have to be enrolled in Medicare Part B. Excuse me, with a Medicare Advantage, you have to— with a Medicare Supplement, you have to be in B. In Medicare Advantage, you have to be in A and B. In either case, you have to be enrolled really in Medicare. Let's just say Medicare Parts A and B. And there's a cost to that. So I want to go back to the, to the Medicare supplement example. And we talked about $125 for the MedSupp. We talked about $50 for the Part D. That doesn't include the base premium for Medicare, which in 2026 I think rose to about $190 a month. So you can quickly see, you know, you can quickly be at $190, $100, close to $400 a month for your coverage. So that's why you want to be careful and make sure that, that, that you're budgeting and enrolling in the right plan that fits your needs and budget, because you may want a Medicare supplement because it's— you might consider to be more comprehensive coverage, But on the same token, if you can't afford it, a Medicare Advantage is a very nice alternative to that, and it still gives you great protection. I think the biggest mistake, in my opinion, that you could make, um, is not enrolling in any. Yeah, the new premium for Part B— I was just looking it up— is $202. Okay, so for 2026, if I were to enroll in Medicare today, my Part A would be at zero cost because I've worked for at least 10 years. My Part B would be $202, but that's based on my income. Part B is based on income. I left that out earlier. So what the Medicare does is that with Social Security, they look at your tax return from 2 years ago. So they'd be looking at my tax return from 2024, and their brackets— $202 is the lowest amount. It will go up based on income. You know, I'd say, I don't know, but probably 75% or more of the people are in the minimum bracket because it's a pretty liberal bracket.

Darleen Mahoney [00:22:15]:

Okay.

Joel Laurie [00:22:16]:

But if you are still working beyond age 65 and you are a high earner, then your Medicare Part B is going to be higher than the $202 base.

Darleen Mahoney [00:22:28]:

Now, does that adjust if you, if you come on board and you are working and, or you have the last 2 years you did make some good money but now you're retired? What Do you have to wait for the following year and have that reevaluated and reassessed?

Joel Laurie [00:22:42]:

Man, you're good. You should be— you should have your own podcast, Darlene. Wait, you do have your own podcast.

Darleen Mahoney [00:22:49]:

Oh my gosh. I'm just very nosy. All right. I just want to be informed. I've always explained to, like, my children that knowledge is power.

Joel Laurie [00:22:59]:

Sure.

Darleen Mahoney [00:23:00]:

Yeah, it truly is.

Joel Laurie [00:23:01]:

Well, they got a smart mom. So the answer is yes. It does adjust, and in many cases what we encourage our clients to do is there is a Part B appeal form, okay, where let's assume Darlene's working and she retires and she goes from earned income to investment income, which is maybe 30% less than her earned income or 50% less. So if your income is dropping significantly What you can do is you can have your accountant, your tax preparer, fill out this form, send it in, and Social Security will consider adjusting that because we see this happen. Here's another example. Somebody is retired, they're paying the base amount, but they sold some family property during a year and all of a sudden their income from that year went from X to 3 times X. And they have to explain to the IRS, that's really not my monthly income. I sold a piece of property. Right. I want to touch on one thing here. We talked about what happens if you turn 65. What we're seeing more and more of today than we saw when I first got into the business is people working beyond age 65, okay? And, and how do they enroll in Medicare, or do they need to enroll with Medicare? So this is A very important point I want to make to our folks out in podcast land today. If you're working in a business and you have group insurance and your group is 20 or less, then you have to enroll in Medicare. Medicare becomes your primary coverage. Okay. If it's more than 20, then you can stay on your— that's considered a larger group for this purpose. Then Medicare can be secondary, or you may choose not to enroll at all. But, you know, we see this all the time with clients that are working for small medical practices or small law firms or small businesses, and if that group is under 20, absolutely they have to enroll in Medicare, okay? Absolutely. And what— and the mistake that sometimes people make, Darlene, is if they don't, and they get a big claim filed, the insurance company may adjudicate the claim as if that person was enrolled in Medicare and somebody is getting stuck with the big bill. Okay. So very important. We tell people all the time, check with your HR manager, but less than 20, you have to go on Medicare. More than 20, you can stay on Medicare if you want. And those are decisions that become very important. For example, Let's assume that I work for a large group and I turn 65, but my wife is younger than me, and then I have to decide, do I want to go on Medicare? Because if I go on Medicare, very rarely does a group plan have spousal coverage if the member's not being covered themselves, right? If the employee's not being covered, the spouse can't just jump on. So there are lots of decisions to be made when that happens, and that's really why And this is kind of one of the last points I want to make, and I'll open it back up for questions. That's really why whatever community you live in, I'm a big advocate for local. I'm a big advocate for working with somebody local that can help answer those questions. We see a lot of clients that come in and they got some advice that really didn't fit their need because they saw some television commercial They talk to some 1-800 call center in another state, maybe in another country, I don't know. But it doesn't fit their need living in a small town like St. Matthew, South Carolina, or St. George, South Carolina, or Greenville. And so work with somebody local that's very proficient in this space, and this is their primary business that can help you navigate that. And that's really important because a bad decision can sometimes be very difficult to unwind.

Darleen Mahoney [00:27:18]:

Right. And definitely sounds like once you've signed up and you've made certain decisions with Medicare and what you've chosen, you're kind of locked in probably for a year at least, right? Until open enrollment.

Joel Laurie [00:27:29]:

Is that— In most cases you are. Yeah, that's a great point. With a Medicare Advantage, you definitely are. So, and let's talk about those enrollment periods real quick here.

Darleen Mahoney [00:27:38]:

I would love that.

Joel Laurie [00:27:38]:

Perfect. So, every year from October 15th to December 7th. So let's assume Jane Doe is now 67, and she enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan. Okay, she is pretty much locked in that plan for the whole year, October 15th to December 7th. She can make a change to that Medicare Advantage plan and that change will become effective January 1st. Okay, so she's in it for the calendar year. The change comes into effect January 1st. Okay. There is an additional enrollment period that became active several years ago called the Medicare open enrollment period, which means from January 1st to March 31st, you can make one more change. Okay, so let's assume Jane's in a plan, she likes the plan, but she didn't do her research, and all of a sudden January 15th she realizes her doctor's not in that network anymore with that plan, because Medicare Advantage plans are bound by networks. We didn't get a chance to touch on that. Medicare Supplement, no network, any doctor that accepts Medicare accepts your supplement plan. Medicare Advantage has a network. Okay. She goes to the doctor and the doctor says, I'm sorry, Jane, but we don't accept this carrier anymore. Well, she has one chance to make a change in the first quarter of the year. Okay. All right. So that's the Medicare piece. You can always also change Part D plans from October 15th to December 7th. Same situation. Somebody is in a supplement, a drug plan, these formularies, and that means list of covered drugs They change every year, and so we always encourage our clients to either research or let us assist them, make sure that their drug plan covers their particular utilization, and you can change it. With the Medicare Supplement, you really aren't bound to an enrollment period. There's really not a reason to change, but let's assume Jane's husband John chose a Medicare supplement and he's in it 3 years, all of a sudden the rate went up. Okay, he could call our office anytime during the year and say, hey, my rate went up on my Medicare supplement, can you guys save me some money? And what we would do, we would have to ask him some health questions, health-related questions, but if he passes, he has to pass medical underwriting, we could get him in a less expensive plan. So you have just gotten the ABCs, Ds, and Plan Gs of Medicare, Darlene.

Darleen Mahoney [00:30:20]:

I know it, I know it. So one thing I did want to mention and kind of ask you about is something I ran into when I was working with my dad's, um, supplement— his, um, Advantage plan, I apologize. And one of the things that I did not realize, and clearly he didn't just because he just wasn't cognitively cognitively aware, but I moved him about an hour and a half away from where, you know, his home was to kind of be closer to me. And what ended up happening is stuff started all of a sudden not getting paid. And when I called the Advantage Supplement insurance company, it was explained to me that he had purchased something that was in a specific geo area where it would only cover that area. So I had to change it pretty quick. But they did honor that outside that scope of making that change.

Joel Laurie [00:31:16]:

Sure, sure. So a couple of things there. Medicare Advantage plans are based by county. So did you move your dad out of one, from one county to another?

Darleen Mahoney [00:31:25]:

Oh, yeah. We're an hour and a half down the road.

Joel Laurie [00:31:27]:

Yeah. Okay. So that's exactly what happened. They, they will, a lot of times they'll give you a limited time to make that change. But when that happens, and I'm glad you mentioned that, if you're moving from one county to the other, it's very important to let Social Security know, and you get what's called a special election period, which means you can enroll outside of the regular Medicare annual enrollment period. You can enroll in a new plan because you've moved to a new county and the old plan might not be available in the new county. So that's another very important component to check.

Darleen Mahoney [00:32:04]:

Yeah, I mean, we ended up having to cover what wasn't covered, but thank goodness I realized it pretty quickly. And I think I called them like the beginning of October. They changed it. I mean, he was now available in our area or what have you, November 1st. So, yeah, it made a big difference.

Joel Laurie [00:32:19]:

I want to mention something real quick, time permitting, Darlene.

Darleen Mahoney [00:32:22]:

Sure.

Joel Laurie [00:32:23]:

We get questions all the time. We do these fun little Medicare Mondays on Facebook and whatever, and they're really fun. And it's always got me doing something goofy in it and some members of our team making fun of me. But people want to know all the time, hey, can I enroll my dad in this plan, or can I enroll my spouse? Short answer is really no, okay? Unless you're the medical power of attorney, legally you cannot do that. That— the member has to be present for the enrollment, you know, regardless of what their cognitive ability is. Hopefully they've got a loved one with them that's helping them. But we also do advise for people our age who have parents who are getting older that it's not a bad idea to become their medical power of attorney in the event that something like this has to happen. You want to make sure that any changes to their coverage is done compliantly.

Darleen Mahoney [00:33:17]:

Yeah, I'm going to 100% tell you power of attorneys are a godsend.

Joel Laurie [00:33:22]:

Sure.

Darleen Mahoney [00:33:23]:

And they're so super important. And there's all the different levels. I mean, we're not going to clearly get into power of attorneys, but what you can provide as far as authorization to that person that you want to give that power of attorney. And that is one of them. And it made it super easy for me because I had that set up way before he was diagnosed with dementia or anything like that. So that was definitely a game changer for me. It made my life so much easier in a time when it was very difficult. So yeah. I do want to make sure that people, I mean, if they're in the South Carolina area, that they're able to connect with you. So just give me the lowdown on Lorie Life and Health. If you want to share a little bit about your company and then also the URL, how to get, you know, how to find you online.

Joel Laurie [00:34:23]:

Thank you very much. So Lurie Life and Health, we actually licensed in about 40 states, but the bulk of our clients live in South Carolina, North Carolina, or Georgia. Okay. And we specialize in all things Medicare, health insurance, and life insurance. You know, we're very proud. I've got a great team of 27 people that really work hard every day supporting our clients and supporting our agents. We live by one simple motto. We try to use one call resolution so that if you have a problem, we want you to call and we want you to feel like you're the most important person in the world that day. Because that whatever's— whatever caused you to pick up the phone and call, we want to help you get that resolved. You can find us at LurieLifeAndHealth.com. It's my last name, L-O-U-R-I-E Life and health.com. And I'm really proud of our team, Darlene. I get to be the coach and pay the bills, and, but, but we've got a great team. We've been recognized several years in a row as best insurance agency here in Columbia. Um, and again, we've got coverage all over the state and really the Southeast. So it's delightful to talk to you, and thanks for what you're doing with this podcast. I think it's very educational and informational for all of your listeners.

Darleen Mahoney [00:35:40]:

Well, I learned a lot today, so I appreciate you.

Joel Laurie [00:35:43]:

All right.

Darleen Mahoney [00:35:44]:

Yeah. And I will tell you, to our listeners, I'm going to go ahead and put that website link in the description of the podcast. So you should be able to look at the description once you listen and you'll be able to click on it if that's easier for you than plugging it into Google. So there you go. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. It was such a pleasure and a delight to have you on the podcast.

Joel Laurie [00:36:05]:

Pleasure's mine. You've been a wonderful host, and I wish you all the success in the world.

Darleen Mahoney [00:36:09]:

Absolutely. Thank you.

Joel Laurie [00:36:10]:

Thank you.

Darleen Mahoney [00:36:11]:

Absolutely. And if you enjoyed this podcast, please tune in. We have over 100, I think 120 podcasts. I start losing track after a certain period of time. And we can be found on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, GoodPods, all kinds of different apps. Um, and thanks for listening.