Announcer And now America's Healthcare Advocate, Cary Hall. 00;00;06;19 - 00;00;28;02 Cary Hall Hello, America. Welcome to America's Healthcare Advocate Show broadcasting coast to coast across the USA, 221 affiliates strong. Thanks to all of you in the listening audience. Our latest affiliate, our newest affiliate, KYST-AM in Houston/Galveston, Texas. We're very happy to have them on board. We're on Saturday mornings there from 7 in the morning until 8 in the morning. 00;00;28;09 - 00;00;51;06 Cary Hall We want to thank Velasquez for putting us on the air. There they are now part of the America's Healthcare Advocate family. Welcome, Houston and Galveston. Also, you can follow me if you want to on Twitter (X), on Facebook, at America's Healthcare Advocate. The website is America's Healthcare Advocate dot com. And all of these shows are podcasts on 14 podcast platforms and posted on YouTube. 00;00;51;06 - 00;01;11;22 Cary Hall And yes, they are all videotaped. And my producer Dave Thiessen, is behind the camera doing all that now. And Mr. Darren Wilhite is doing all of the audio here at Audacy Radio. Also, if you are looking for health insurance, especially if you're chronologically challenged and you need Medicare of any kind, you can reach out to good people. RPS Benefits by Design. 00;01;11;22 - 00;01;39;27 Cary Hall Carolee Steele 877 385 2224. She is a certified CMS Medicare expert. 877 385 2224. And if you are looking for employer sponsored health care, the lovely Maria Ahlers can help you with any size group, whatever it may be, from 2 to 200, whatever it is, they're happy to help you again. 877 385 2224. Anywhere in the country for Medicare, ACA or group health insurance? 00;01;39;27 - 00;01;53;08 Cary Hall Employer sponsored health care. The good folks at RPS Benefits by Design can help you. All right. Joining me in studio, this took a while to get done, but we're very happy to have him here is Dr. Vinod Velakaturi. Welcome, doctor. 00;01;53;12 - 00;01;54;10 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Thank you for having me. 00;01;54;11 - 00;02;18;03 Cary Hall We are very happy to have him in studio. We are doing another one of our shows in the series on CenterWell. CenterWell, Primary care. This is a very different model of primary care, solely focused on those of us that are chronologically challenged. So so let's talk about that, doctor, because the thing that intrigued me the most about CenterWell was the fact that you are exclusively for seniors. 00;02;18;09 - 00;02;40;27 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi That is correct. We take only Medicare patients. Predominantly Medicare Advantage. That's our model. But we do have some original Medicare patients and we focus only on this group because we feel we can do a better job if we're not trying to work on different aspects of health care where we're solely focused on seniors. 00;02;41;00 - 00;02;57;01 Cary Hall And that's really different. That's a that's a very different model because I don't know anybody else that's doing this quite like you. There are other primary care models out there for sure, but this one is very different in that it is completely focused on seniors. You don't have to have white hair to go there, though. I'm just going to tell you it helps. 00;02;57;01 - 00;03;12;08 Cary Hall But you don't have to be. And that that, you know, brings up a whole series of other topics about the things that are different for us than they are for people that are 35, 40, 50 years old. We have different health issues. Yes, sure. 00;03;12;11 - 00;03;34;01 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Things we focus on tend to be much more issues that older people face, things like diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol, congestive heart failure. We focus a lot more on prevention in terms of did you get a mammogram? Did you get your colon cancer screening done? Did you get your bone density done? We focused on things like, are you up to date on your vaccinations? 00;03;34;01 - 00;03;54;19 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi We're very focused on preventive health. Try to be proactive rather than reactive. We know that we're catching people at a point in time where a lot of things have happened in their health. So we then try to bridge that gap to say, what can we do to get them in the best health that they're at at this point in time and keep them there going forward so they can live the lives they want to live? 00;03;54;22 - 00;04;26;19 Cary Hall Yeah, you know, and that's really important because, you know, whether you want to admit it or not. As you age, things start to change. Okay. And and and if you don't deal with it, if you don't pay attention to it, and if you're not talking if you're not sitting down with a primary care physician who really understands these things and is able to, you know, talk to you in depth about those issues you face as you become, you know, more aged. 00;04;26;21 - 00;04;28;00 Cary Hall It's a different scenario for us. 00;04;28;01 - 00;04;47;25 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Yes. One of the things we focus on, we don't focus on volume. One of the issues that we frequently hear from patients. I didn't know you were going to spend so much time with me. We are trying to do a very, I guess, for lack of a better word, a thorough, comprehensive evaluation of the patient. And we try to be thorough every time we see the patient. 00;04;47;27 - 00;05;06;17 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi We want to make sure we're not missing anything. Did we address the patient's concerns? Are there things that are missing? Maybe the patient doesn't bring up that we need to follow up upon, whether it's something that the specialist has recommended that we do or something that we need to talk about with the patient. Hey, did you get your mammogram done last time we ordered that? 00;05;06;17 - 00;05;28;29 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi What happened? We have a support staff that helps us perform those duties much better because if I need records from somewhere, I can readily send an email or a message, an action to one of my support staff. They'll get that information for me or they'll find out, Hey, that test hasn't actually been done. So I have a lot of support to help me to get the patient what they need. 00;05;29;01 - 00;05;49;04 Cary Hall Yes, there's two things I wanted to go to you before we wrap this segment up. First one is the time the average time spent with the primary care physician in this country is seven and a half minutes. The way you guys do it, you're in there for 40, 40 to 45 minutes to an hour. To your comment about I didn't expect to have so much time with the doctor, That's unusual. 00;05;49;04 - 00;06;10;20 Cary Hall That's not the norm here. And norm, you know, the patient load on primary care physicians in this country is huge. And the number of patients have to see in a day is significant. You have a completely different model in that respect and talk about that for a minute, because I think it's important for seniors if you know what you want to learn about this model, what they do, this is one of the key components that makes it different. 00;06;10;27 - 00;06;33;04 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi One of the things that patients frequently mention to me is they don't feel rushed here. They feel like they can be heard. I think that's important when you feel like you can't express yourself, you're not going to bring things that are of concern to you to the forefront that may need to be taken care of here. I've had this problem with my knee for two months. 00;06;33;06 - 00;06;58;14 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi You know, I don't think the doctor wants to hear about my knee problems, so I'm just going to skip it. But maybe you've been falling because of that. That's important. That's a big risk to you when somebody falls. So there's a lot of things that we may think are minor and it's not a big deal. I'm not going to mention to the doctor, but when the doctor's hurried or pressed for time, you feel that maybe not directly, but indirectly, their body language speaks to you. 00;06;58;17 - 00;07;21;10 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi And so we try to make that environment such that you're not feeling rushed. You have time to explore what you need. That doesn't mean we're going to be able to answer 50 questions that day. That's not realistic. But the point of the matter is that we want the patient to feel very comfortable, not rushed. And similarly, the physician doesn't feel rushed either. 00;07;21;15 - 00;07;25;02 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi And so it really works well from a both standpoints. 00;07;25;03 - 00;07;45;12 Cary Hall So what you're saying is you're developing a relationship. Exactly. And they get to see the same physician every time they come in. So there is a relationship there. That doctor knows that patient because he has been seeing him or her that patient for a significant amount of time. That you said something else that was interesting and I just ran into this the other day to a clinic. 00;07;45;14 - 00;08;01;00 Cary Hall You know, you have to go on, you have to log on. You have to create a username. You have to get a code and you have to go to your phone and get the code and put it back in. And by the time I got it on, I tried it three times. I couldn't do it. Maybe it's just me at my age, okay, But I find this stuff annoying as hell. 00;08;01;03 - 00;08;18;22 Cary Hall Now, you said if I like this, if I need records or I need this or I need to, I have staff that will do that for me. Doesn’t come back and fall back on me? The patient where I have to go sort this out and try to get it and get it done? That's different. And I'm going to tell you something. 00;08;18;22 - 00;08;35;24 Cary Hall You know, for those of us that are seasoned citizens, that's that's annoying. Okay? We are not technologically. You know, when I grew up, the telephone had a party line, a lot of it there are three different families on one phone line. It was kind of interesting. You could listen to what a lot of the people were doing. But the point is, none of this existed. 00;08;35;24 - 00;08;46;08 Cary Hall So for us, you know, going back and forth and doing all this technical stuff can really be a pain in the neck. It's nice to hear that you're going to say, hey, if you're having problems that we got, somebody is going to help you with that. 00;08;46;12 - 00;09;03;26 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Yeah, it's not unusual. I'll ask the patient, where did you have your surgery? And they're like, Well, I think I had it done five years ago here. Why did you have it? Well, I don't really know. That's not an unusual comment. And so I'll be like, okay, if I at least know where you got it done, I can have somebody check on it. 00;09;04;03 - 00;09;25;19 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Let's get that information. The technology issue is very relevant because a lot of our patients, depending on where they live. Yeah, some are not in the best of situations either. Their their finances are very limited. They may have a cell phone and that's about it, but maybe they don't have Internet, maybe they do, but they're not technologically astute. 00;09;25;22 - 00;09;29;03 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi That's different than a 25 year old that does everything on the phone. 00;09;29;03 - 00;09;40;08 Cary Hall It's my seven year old granddaughter. They can sit on, you know, or my 14 year old grandson. It's like a wizard. That one sentence I just have said, can you fix this for me? No, you're right. Yeah. Okay. 00;09;40;08 - 00;09;57;28 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi So we understand that. And what I do, for example, is I print out the lab results for the patient when they come in. What we've done over the last 6 to 12 months, and I go through it with them one by one and say, okay, this is what this means. This is what this means, this is what we’re shooting for. 00;09;58;00 - 00;10;06;20 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi And I give them a copy of that. Now, what do I need to do that? No, but patients feel like I'm as invested as they are. Then at that point. 00;10;06;20 - 00;10;24;07 Cary Hall And that's important. And that's that's another part of what makes this so different. We come back from the break. We're going to continue this conversation. It's a great conversation. I think you're enjoying this today. Listen to what Dr. Velakaturi has to say and how CenterWell Primary Care works and works very differently. Stay tuned. We'll be right back after the break. 00;10;24;08 - 00;10;35;01 Cary Hall You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate broadcasting here on the HIA Radio Network, Coast to Coast across the USA. Doctors in the house. Stay tuned. 00;10;35;03 - 00;11;08;11 Steve Kuker The Golden Rule, Treat others as you want to be treated. I'm Steve Kuker and this is one of the founding principles of my firm senior care consulting. Since 2002, our value statement has included honor, our mother and father, respect our elders, care for those in need and treat your family as our own. We've been honored to help hundreds of families make one of the most difficult decisions they could ever make, serving them in their greatest time of need. 00;11;08;13 - 00;11;36;16 Steve Kuker If you're looking for someone who can provide you experienced and objective guidance when searching for a senior care community, reach out today and discover the services of Senior Care Consulting at 913 945 2800. Know your options and choose with care at seniorcareconsulting.com. 00;11;36;18 - 00;11;56;01 Cary Hall Welcome back. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate show broadcasting coast to coast across USA here on the HIA Radio Network. You know, if you want to learn about CenterWell Primary Care, you really do need to go up to the website and take a look at this. The website is seniorfocusedkansascity.com, Senior Focused Kansas City dot com. 00;11;56;06 - 00;12;15;17 Cary Hall If you want to call them, maybe you'd like to go have a tour see what it's all about. See what there are clinics around the Kansas City metro. We'll talk about those in a minute. But if you want to call them and schedule a visit, maybe you want to schedule an appointment, you can do that at 816 640 8522 If you want to call, just get a tour or learn about their facilities. 00;12;15;24 - 00;12;39;01 Cary Hall They'd be happy to have you come over and take a look. All right, Doctor, let's get back to this this issue. Let's let's go. Diabetes is one that is that seems to become more and more relevant to health as you age. Okay. I just went through a whole series of labs and came back at a borderline pre-diabetic, which I have never been in my life. 00;12;39;03 - 00;13;00;07 Cary Hall And I was pretty upset about it and know my eating habits. I work out three times a week. I'm like, What is going on? And doctor sat down and said, Look, you're aging it. You're not metabolizing food like you used to. This is what's going on. So you've got to make some adjustments. So this diabetes thing is really serious in in those of us that are seasoned citizens. 00;13;00;14 - 00;13;08;09 Cary Hall Let's talk a little bit about that in this segment of what what are the risks and what do you do to prevent it and how important is it to get that A1c checked? 00;13;08;11 - 00;13;26;02 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi The A1c is important to check because that gives you a measure of what the glucose or the blood sugar has been for the last 90 days. Think of it as a continuous measurement every second, the last 90 days. So that gives me a better idea than a single. Here's what your blood sugar is at this moment in time. 00;13;26;04 - 00;13;53;26 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi So rather than a fasting sugar, this is a more comprehensive. Now as far as what you're talking about, what are the things we can do, whether it's for diabetes or pre-diabetes? I think being active, as you talked about, working out three times a week, also being a little bit more judicious in what we eat. Let me give a patient told me this and I think that's a lot of words of wisdom. 00;13;53;29 - 00;13;57;27 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi You want to eat what's made in nature rather than what's made in a factory. 00;13;57;29 - 00;13;58;20 Cary Hall I like that. 00;13;58;20 - 00;14;24;00 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi So if you think about when you go to the grocery store, if you can scan it, it's likely to be processed. That means it's going to have more of the things that your body's not ready for. Now, I don't want to seem like I'm ready to go off to a commune in Oregon. Right. But the reality is, if you eat more fresh fruits, more fresh vegetables, things that are freshly prepared and less processed food, your chances of having diabetes will be less. 00;14;24;02 - 00;14;46;07 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Your chance of weight gain will be less. And obviously, eating less in general means you gain less weight, you less likely to have diabetes. Without getting into a deep conversation about physiology of diabetes, being more active, generally eating less calories, less processed food... we’re more likely keep you from becoming diabetic or pre-diabetic. 00;14;46;10 - 00;15;03;06 Cary Hall Yeah, and the other part of the problem is that if you have this marker for this and you don't pay attention to it like I was like in full panic mode because when I saw this stuff, like, I've never had this happen before. If you don't pay attention, just know it's there. Next thing you know, you are type two diabetes. 00;15;03;09 - 00;15;29;22 Cary Hall Okay? And then, God forbid if it goes on. Okay. In the years that I was a, you know, health insurance broker and taking care of people, you know, we're in our we're in our client base all over the country. Type one diabetes in a lot of cases, resulted in some horrible things happening to people. Amputation of toes and actual feet, emergency room visits, you know, heart failure. 00;15;29;22 - 00;15;40;25 Cary Hall I mean, the list goes on. Of the comorbidity rates that happen as a result of type two. And then if you don't pay attention to type two, now we're in type one and now you're really in trouble. 00;15;40;25 - 00;16;01;28 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Without getting too deep in the top one or type two. I think the thing to think about is that the vast majority of diabetes in this country is type two. That's people that are older. Their bodies don't make the proper adjustments in terms of how they deal with sugar over time because of either weight gain or how they process the sugar. 00;16;02;00 - 00;16;25;11 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi So what happens is these processes take years, frequently, five, ten years, before you actually become type two diabetic. So it's not unusual for a patients to have borderline sugars or be pre-diabetic for many years or even have sometimes symptoms such as what we called neuropathy, which is nerve damage, that sometimes people will have these symptoms long before they actually become diabetic. 00;16;25;13 - 00;16;46;09 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi So when we see patients, a lot of times they go, Well, I didn't know I had this problem. Well, when was the last time you saw a physician? Well, it's been five years. Ten years. So when they talk about going in for your annual physical, even before long before you're on Medicare, take advantage of that. Those insurance companies almost always pay for routine wellness, 100%. 00;16;46;11 - 00;17;12;09 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Those things are paid for. Yeah, take advantage of it. Look at your, It's no different than getting a a financial checkup. But this is your life. Medical checkup is important. You can get yourself out of a financial hole if you get in a medical hole, it may not be that easy to get yourself out of that. So it's really important to take advantage when you have to say, okay, I need to get my health checked. 00;17;12;09 - 00;17;38;23 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi It's important. I'm a value. I need to value myself and get that checked out because a lot of these things, if you work on it now, then you don't have the serious complications later. Like you talked about the amputations, blindness, kidney failure, the cardiovascular problems such as heart attacks, strokes, all those kinds of issues. A lot of those can be mitigated if you work on taking better care of yourself and finding out really if you have a problem. 00;17;38;23 - 00;18;05;07 Cary Hall And that comes back to being proactive, not reactive, and that comes back to being able to have the time with the primary care physician like you do at CenterWell, where you have the time to talk to the patient. So you know what's going on, What are you doing? You know, and get it. You get an understanding of where they're going and then you can see, hey, if you don't change your behavior, we're going here. 00;18;05;09 - 00;18;06;24 Cary Hall You probably don't want to go there. Yeah. 00;18;06;24 - 00;18;21;07 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi And I think if you phrase it in a simple way, do you want to have more independence over your life and be able to choose what you want to do? Or do you want to be in the hands of more specialists and more doctors saying, you have to do this, you have to do this, you have to do this. 00;18;21;09 - 00;18;22;15 Cary Hall That's an interesting way to put that. 00;18;22;15 - 00;18;38;28 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi And that's how I look at it. This way. I would have more freedom of choice, more freedom to decide what I want to do. But if I invest the time and effort, I can have that or I can say I'm going to let things happen to me and then I'm going to complain about it. I think I look at it that way. 00;18;38;29 - 00;18;39;04 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Yeah. 00;18;39;06 - 00;18;44;04 Cary Hall So you say you want to control your destiny or you don't want to control your. That's what you're basically saying. 00;18;44;06 - 00;18;53;23 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi The more you invest in taking care of yourself, the less you have investment with doctors in terms of them doing things to you that you don't want to have done. 00;18;53;24 - 00;19;15;16 Cary Hall But see that that's interesting because your approach to this is very different than the typical primary care approach, specifically because you're dealing with those of us that are aging and our issues are very different than somebody is 35 or 40 years old. Our risk for diabetes is significantly higher and continues to get higher as as we age along with these other things. 00;19;15;16 - 00;19;29;17 Cary Hall And the importance of the primary care physician getting that annual physical going in and being getting that A1c checked and knowing where you're at and here's where you're headed. And if you don't do something to stop it, you're going to have a bigger problem. 00;19;29;21 - 00;19;45;22 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Yeah, the more you empower somebody to make those changes and work with them and say, listen, one of the things that we have at CenterWell is we have care coaches. So let's say I have somebody who's pre-diabetic and they're like, I don't know what I should eat. Can somebody help me with that? It's no cost to them. 00;19;45;22 - 00;19;47;15 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi My care coaches can work with them. 00;19;47;19 - 00;19;48;17 Cary Hall It's very different. 00;19;48;22 - 00;19;49;18 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Individually. 00;19;49;18 - 00;19;50;12 Cary Hall And that's important. 00;19;50;12 - 00;19;56;09 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi I had a patient, very poorly controlled diabetic. Her A1c was 14, which is horrible. 00;19;56;11 - 00;19;57;07 Cary Hall Yeah. 00;19;57;10 - 00;20;15;06 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi She worked with the care coach. We got it down to 6.2, which is fantastic. Yeah, This is a lady that I know is very overweight of about 350 pounds, but she was able to do it. And I know she couldn't exercise because she gets around with a walker. So if she can do it. 00;20;15;06 - 00;20;16;26 Cary Hall Anybody can do it. 00;20;16;28 - 00;20;19;16 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi There is room there for everybody to make a difference. 00;20;19;17 - 00;20;46;09 Cary Hall That's the message, folks. If you want information, you can call them. If you want to take a tour, make an appointment. 816 640 8522 Anywhere in the Kansas City metro. Also the website senior focused Kansas City dot com, seniorfocusedkansascity.com is the website. We'll be right back after the break. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate broadcasting here on the HIA Radio Network. 00;20;46;11 - 00;20;53;23 Cary Hall Coast to coast across the USA. We'll be right back. 00;20;53;25 - 00;21;20;29 Cary Hall Welcome back. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate broadcasting coast to coast, 221 affiliates across the country. Thanks to all of you. And we are on 14 podcast platforms Spotify, SoundCloud, RSS Podcasts, Overcast, Rumble, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spreaker, Amazon Music, Google, Audacy and YouTube. So we're all across the country. All these shows are uploaded on those podcast platforms and on YouTube. 00;21;20;29 - 00;21;41;08 Cary Hall All the videos, some of the podcast platforms also do video now. So they're up there and we've had about 225,000 views actually more than that now on YouTube. We continue to grow and we had about 63,000 people download the show on the podcast platforms. That's this year. Thanks to all of you. So we thank you and we are glad you're enjoying the show. 00;21;41;15 - 00;22;01;08 Cary Hall In studio with me, Dr. Velakaturi, he is here from CenterWell Senior Care. Once again, we're going to talk a lot about caregivers in this segment. If you've got a grandmother or a mother or a father, grandfather, uncle that you're taking care of, you're you're the you're the person that's responsible for them and you're kind of the caregiver that coordinates what's going on with them. 00;22;01;14 - 00;22;17;01 Cary Hall You know, these folks at the CenterWell can make a big difference? Not only do they provide transportation, but there are other things we're going to talk about here. So if you are the caregiver, you might want to take a look at this and say, you know what, This might be something for mom, this might be something for dad or for a grandmother, grandfather. 00;22;17;08 - 00;22;41;16 Cary Hall And the website is Senior Focused Kansas City dot com. The phone number 816 640 8522. If you just want to go over there and take a tour and see what they're all about, they'd be happy to have you and happy to help you coordinate with that loved one. So let's talk a little bit about that, because this is an issue. 00;22;41;19 - 00;23;01;07 Cary Hall You know, it's called the sandwich generation. They're caught between them. You know, they've got they've got kids at home. And like my daughters, okay, you know, they've got kids at home, they've got jobs. You know, they're busy. And then you got parents that need care. Now, in our case, we're fortunate because Lori and I are still in reasonably decent health and don't have those kind of issues. 00;23;01;14 - 00;23;17;01 Cary Hall But as as time goes on, those become bigger problems and then they have to fit that into everything they're trying to do. One of the things that you all do is you first of all, if someone wants to come in with their mother or their dad or the grandmother, they're welcome to do that, aren't they? 00;23;17;01 - 00;23;43;03 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Of course, of course. That's never been an issue. We invite their caregivers to want to come in because we want them to be a part of the conversation. Assuming the patient's comfortable. Correct. Obviously, it's the patient's choice, but we never have an issue with that because we want everybody to be involved in the care that's involved for that person to know what's going on so that they can help make a difference because they're our eyes and ears when they're outside of the clinic, right? 00;23;43;07 - 00;23;57;08 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi So they have knowledge that we don't always have. And so they can say, Hey, grandma is having issues with this. You know, Grandma's kind of having some problems that maybe she didn't mention. So but we want that to be a part of the conversation when they're in the office. 00;23;57;08 - 00;24;07;26 Cary Hall You know, Grandma stumbled and fell last week, but she didn't tell you that, doctor. But she did those before. Okay. But she fell. Yeah. Or she's starting to feel some dizziness and having some other issues. 00;24;07;29 - 00;24;35;05 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Those are important because when they tell us that, that's an opportunity for me to have a conversation with that person and say, Listen, a fall can be very dangerous to you. It can lead to maybe devastating consequences where you can't end up going back home. Let's have you work on some physical therapy. Let's have you get stronger so you can maintain that balance, that interaction with the caregiver, telling me that is going to make a difference in that person's life. 00;24;35;08 - 00;24;56;23 Cary Hall See? And that and this gets back to that whole conversation about proactive, not reactive. If if if that son or daughter, you know, you know, knows hey or, you know, their grandparents, whatever the case may be, if they know they've got a place to go where they can talk to you, the physician, and say, you know, mom's having this problem, we don't quite know what to do or she did. 00;24;56;23 - 00;25;19;21 Cary Hall She should do this or that, then you've got an opportunity to correct that before it becomes something. It's various things. It's unfollow somebody today and about an issue very similar to this. And he said, I finally told them that if they didn't do this and they broke their hip, it was over for them. This is what this was a child talking about a parent, and he was 100% correct. 00;25;19;23 - 00;25;38;09 Cary Hall So that that interaction has to happen a lot of times because, first of all, seniors can be very stubborn. Yeah, that's a fact. Okay, people, we all know that. Okay. And number two, they don't always tell you everything that's going on. Okay? Until, you know, I had a friend who, you know, set up in his second four bedroom for two weeks without ever leaving. 00;25;38;15 - 00;25;49;11 Cary Hall And he had a little pot plate up and lived up there because he couldn't get down the steps but didn't tell anybody. Those are the kinds of things where if there's interaction where somebody is checking on them, that's part of what you all do. 00;25;49;18 - 00;25;55;22 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Yes, we are very involved. Obviously, we're involved as much as the patient will allow us to be. Right. 00;25;55;22 - 00;25;56;06 Cary Hall Well. 00;25;56;08 - 00;26;27;06 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi If they say, hey, bug off, don't bother me, okay? We don't have a choice in that matter, but we try to let them know that we're here to help them. We can advocate for them if needed, but if they don't let us know, then we're stuck. And so that's where whether it's a caregiver, our reach out to them all those are important because engaging the patient means that you're involving with the patient, meaning you can do a better job for them. 00;26;27;13 - 00;26;39;12 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Again, the patient has to be involved in the sense that they want to give you information that you know what's going on. But most patients, when they realize we're coming from a place of we want to help, then they go, okay. 00;26;39;15 - 00;26;47;06 Cary Hall So so tell that story about I think it is how fair about the patient that came in that didn't know she could get transportation? Yeah. 00;26;47;06 - 00;27;07;26 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi So I saw a patient today. It had been over a year since she'd come into the office and she was like and I asked her, Why didn't you come in? Well, I didn't know I could get transportation. I said, We have that option. But if you're not sure, call us. We may be able to do things for you that other officers can't do it. 00;27;07;28 - 00;27;17;11 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi But if you don't ask us, I can't help you. But you have to communicate with us and we can communicate with you. In a way, it's a medical marriage. Yeah. 00;27;17;14 - 00;27;35;26 Cary Hall And that goes back to the caregiver thing, you know, my wife's got a heart condition. And in Andrea, our daughter lives here. Almost always goes to the appointments with the specialist that we have to see, But she has to take time off and she has to be able to go. And so sometimes she can't do that. We do it virtually or whatever the case may be. 00;27;36;02 - 00;27;48;21 Cary Hall But the point is, it, you know, if if if Lori could not get to the doctor and I wasn't here, I was someplace else. There's transportation available. And those are the kinds of things that caregivers oftentimes don't even know about. 00;27;48;24 - 00;27;49;13 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Exactly. 00;27;49;13 - 00;28;06;10 Cary Hall But if they're coming in with if you're coming in with your parent, with your grandparent, okay. To CenterWell and you're participating, you're going to learn these things and it's going to take some of that burden off and it's going to make life better for that parent or grandparent that you're partially the caregiver for. 00;28;06;13 - 00;28;13;18 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi We also recognize and I think one of the things you and I talked about off camera was that some of the some of our seniors are very lonely. 00;28;13;20 - 00;28;15;04 Cary Hall You called it their TV's, their only. 00;28;15;04 - 00;28;40;01 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Friend, TV's their only friend. And this is an ongoing phenomenon that we are about more and more. We have an activity center in our location where we have events happen a few times a month where seniors can come in and do things, whether it's playing bingo, whether it's doing some arts and crafts or just socializing or doing something that gets them out of their out of the house. 00;28;40;01 - 00;29;02;23 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Exactly. Out of their apartment, wherever it is. We need human interaction. We're not robots, we're not machines. So we need to interact with people. That's what makes us different. And so we understand that we want people involved. I've also done numerous talks at churches and other places, and you'd be surprised how much people, when they find out how our model works, how it can help them to go. 00;29;02;25 - 00;29;11;17 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi I didn't know that. I didn't know that. I didn't know you offer that. So we want to partner with the patient to help them get better. 00;29;11;19 - 00;29;33;26 Cary Hall And that is very funny. We just did a show here a couple of weeks ago and there was a study released. It was in JAMA Journal American Medicine, about loneliness and the mortality rate being significantly higher from people who are suffering from loneliness. Typically, it's a widow or widower who has, you know, been married. In my case, I'm married 39 years. 00;29;34;03 - 00;29;45;15 Cary Hall I mean, you're typically for us, you know, marriage is for long term. And what winds up happening is when that spouse is gone, there's this huge void and everything goes upside down. 00;29;45;20 - 00;30;04;14 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Well, society has changed a lot. You know, you talked about your daughter working. So in the olden days, that might have been different. There may have been a support system, whether it's family, friends in the neighborhood, the village, whatever you want to call it, that has changed. And their kids may be in other cities. 00;30;04;14 - 00;30;05;13 Cary Hall That's another you. 00;30;05;13 - 00;30;28;14 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Know, their kids may be out of the country. Maybe they don't have a relationship with them, whatever it is. So that becomes a major issue for their overall health. I mean, whether it's depression, whether it's heart disease, whatever, there are a lot of things that are going on. And so having that other activity, that social outlet makes a huge difference in how a person does. 00;30;28;16 - 00;30;45;28 Cary Hall Yeah, it does. And it's important to understand, I think that what we're talking about here is a total picture of total care, what you all are doing. This is what I said at the beginning of the broadcast. This is very different. I hope you're getting this okay, because this is the total package. This is and it's focused solely on seniors. 00;30;45;28 - 00;31;10;04 Cary Hall That's the part about this that I think makes it so unique. You're listening to the doctor who just had a patient in the day he was talking about, That's what they do. That is very different. They have the time to listen. They have the time to interact. They have all kinds of resources that can help. You know, if that's your mother, your grandmother, your grandfather, whatever the case may be, or maybe you're just someone listening to this broadcast right now, you can call 816 640 8522. 00;31;10;11 - 00;31;38;06 Cary Hall They'll be happy to talk with you. Schedule a visit. Schedule an appointment if you want to. 816640 8522 or if you want to go to the website senior focused Kansas City dot com senior focus Kansas Telecom stay tuned. We'll be right back after the break. The doctor still in the house. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate broadcasting here on the HBO radio network Coast to Coast Cross the USA. 00;31;38;08 - 00;32;02;25 Cary Hall Welcome back. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate show broadcasting coast to coast across the USA. In studio with me today, Dr. Bela Katori. He is here from Center World to talk about Center World Primary care for seniors. Now there are seven locations in Kansas City, Grandview, Midtown Raytown, Truman Road, State Avenue, Olathe and Independence. So there's there's a facility somewhere near you in the Kansas City metro. 00;32;02;25 - 00;32;40;21 Cary Hall Wherever you may be, you can go up on the website. Senior focused Kansas City dot com senior focused Kansas City account or you can call 816 640 8522. If you're that caregiver we were talking about in the last segment, you might want to take a look at this. It might make things a lot better for that person in your life that you're responsible for, not only just the issue of the transportation of some of the other things, but having somebody that is consistently there to interact with you, with that parent, grandparent, whatever the case may be, this might be an answer that you've been looking for. 00;32;40;21 - 00;33;02;20 Cary Hall Once again, senior focused Kansas City dot com senior focus Kansas City icon. All right this is near and dear to my heart because I am a Vietnam veteran and I know that one of the things that you do at CenterWell in appreciation of veterans you have a thing called a pinning ceremony. Drew Hare who is your market president who's trying to get me to come to the US a couple of times? 00;33;02;20 - 00;33;33;03 Cary Hall I haven't been able to do it, but it shows an appreciate. And for the people that served and all the rest of it. But and that's great. But what I really want to talk about is the fact that now with the Medicare Advantage programs, whether it's the Blue Cross program or whether it's the Humana program or whether it's the UnitedHealthcare program or whether it's a Cigna program or the Aetna, whatever the case may be, they all offer a program for veterans that allows you to keep your veterans benefits because you want those prescription drugs from the VA, you don’t have to pay for them. 00;33;33;04 - 00;34;01;03 Cary Hall And that's great. Okay. But if you want care at a private facility where it's going to be excellent care, somewhat different than what you get at the VA. And I can say that doctor can't, but I can. This is a way for that to happen. And I'll go back to the caregiver thing here and talk about this. But if you if you are that caregiver for that Vietnam veteran or Korean War veteran or whatever the case may be, and they need this kind of care, this is a much better system, in my opinion. 00;34;01;05 - 00;34;13;12 Cary Hall Okay. Than what you see at the VA. First of all, the waiting times are not there when somebody walks in. this I asked Drew this when somebody walks into your waiting room, how long they have to wait for they see the physician typically. 00;34;13;14 - 00;34;14;20 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi You know, five, 10 minutes. 00;34;14;23 - 00;34;30;21 Cary Hall That's exactly what I mean. And I had Dr. Ikeme on here and she said the exact same things. Oftentimes people walk in and they don't they barely get to sit down. They're ready to go. It's the same thing. Okay. Where you're sitting out in the queue waiting for your number to be called before you can go in and see somebody. 00;34;30;27 - 00;34;40;29 Cary Hall So it's just it's a very different level of care. So talk about your interaction with veterans, what you've learned because you've been doing this a long time with veterans, not just at CenterWell before that. But talk a little bit about that. 00;34;40;29 - 00;35;07;06 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi I think the veteran population, first of all, they're the salt of the earth. They are just some of the best patients you'll ever meet, the most grateful people. So we need to honor their service to the country. I think what we have is we have the opportunity to give them as much individualized care as they want. And I think that's important because it's rather than just everybody gets fed in and here's what everybody gets we can gear a treatment to that patient, to their individual needs. 00;35;07;06 - 00;35;28;16 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi And I think that's what's important, is individualizing whatever that person needs. And your point about how long we have to wait and whatever we're not focused on. You've got to see X number of patients each day, and here's the volume you need to bring in. Otherwise, our practice, that's not our model. Our model is based on how well we take care of the patient. 00;35;28;18 - 00;35;32;17 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi That's what's important. And I think that's what the veterans can benefit from. 00;35;32;20 - 00;35;52;14 Cary Hall Yeah, and and you have an understanding of the issues. Okay. And that's very, very different. Okay. And, you know, it goes back to the first part of the show when. We talked about the average amount of time you spent there. And I talked to a doctor came in, doctor, and some patients say, I can't believe we're going to get I've got this much time with you. 00;35;52;19 - 00;36;10;19 Cary Hall I can't believe I can sit here and talk to the doctor. So talk, you before we went on air. You talk about, you know, one of the things you talked about was coming to the see you and not feel intimidated and bring four or five questions with you. Let's close out with that doctor. 00;36;10;23 - 00;36;40;01 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi So I think, first of all, it's important that, first of all, our patients frequently shy away from asking questions because they think it maybe makes them look stupid or that's not a good question. They need to get rid of that thought process. It is your health. If you have that question, there probably many other people that have that same question that are either afraid to ask or unwilling to ask, this is the best way for you to advocate for yourself. 00;36;40;01 - 00;37;02;03 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi The more prepared you come in and be willing to ask rather than pull up in your driveway and go, I forgot to ask that question. Write it down, it's okay. Now, does that mean I want 50 questions? No, make it three or five. The most tangible, important questions to you. We want to work to help you resolve those issues so that you leave going. 00;37;02;03 - 00;37;27;22 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Okay, that doubt was clarified. That concern was resolved. I got an answer. Now, I don't worry about that anymore. Or hey, that is an issue. I need to get that checked out further, whatever that is. We want to help get you a better state. And if you don't ask, we're not brain readers. We can't read your mind. So please ask. 00;37;27;24 - 00;37;33;05 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi That's going to help you do a better job taking care of yourself. We can also help you in that regard. 00;37;33;07 - 00;37;49;14 Cary Hall Yeah. Again, as you said, you know, and again, I'll go back to this caregiver thing. If you are the one that's bringing your mother, your father, your grandmother, put down some of those things, you're concerned, you know, if they're not sleeping well and they're saying, you know, I just can't get to sleep. I'm not getting I'm not getting enough sleep, I'm only sleeping. 00;37;49;21 - 00;38;01;02 Cary Hall Well, the longer that goes on, the more difficult your issues often become because it snowballs and it becomes a bigger and bigger problem. Sure, you're not going know about those things if somebody doesn't say something. 00;38;01;02 - 00;38;21;19 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Yeah, and it could be the caregiver that bringing them at that appointment. It can be the patient themselves. Hey, you know, we talked about the patient that had the knee problem that fell right there. If they don't tell me I can't read their mind. But if the caregiver tells me or the patient themselves volunteers, hey, I fell two weeks ago or what happened, I tripped on the carpet. 00;38;21;19 - 00;38;42;17 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Okay, that's different. Then I simply felt I lost my balance. Whatever it is, I stumbled over a step. Okay, that's different. Well, how frequently does that happen? Well, pretty much happens every couple of days. That's a different thing. That it's not a stumbling issue. Then there's something else going on that we need to look at. So those are all important things that we want to ask. 00;38;42;20 - 00;38;54;11 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Just because you have a question doesn't mean that we're going to sit there and say, gosh, it's this is Jones coming in with 50 questions. That's not what we're about. We know who needs the attention and we'll work toward that. 00;38;54;12 - 00;39;22;06 Cary Hall Yeah, and that's what's very different about this program. And I think if you'll take the time to take a look at this, I think you'll see we're doing a series, these shows, and I did the very first one with Dr. Ikeme and I was totally impressed with what they do and how they do it. So if you're interested 816 640 8522 The website Senior Focus Kansas City dot com Thank you doctor it's been great having you in here. 00;39;22;08 - 00;39;23;00 Dr. Vinod Velakaturi Thank you for inviting. 00;39;23;00 - 00;39;43;04 Cary Hall I'm going to bring you back I think we learned a lot today and now I leave you to start from Dr. Martin Luther King. Americans must learn to live together as brothers and sisters, or we most surely will perish together as fools. Truer words for spoken. Thank you for listening to America's Healthcare Advocate today, broadcasting coast to coast across the U.S.. 00;39;43;06 - 00;39;44;19 Cary Hall Goodbye, America.