We have two guests in studio today.
Debbie Klintworth and John Kuhlmann.
Why Debbie Klintworth is using the GigCare program.
And why associations are adopting it.
And John Kuhlmann
is going to talk about that and all the associations he works with.
If you're a small business,
if you're an association member, maybe you're a director.
You want to listen to this show.
Stay tuned, listen and learn.
And now America's Healthcare Advocate, Cary Hall.
Hello, America.
Welcome to America's
Healthcare Advocate show, broadcasting Coast to coast across USA.
Here on the HIA Radio Network.
You can find out
more about us by going to the website AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com.
You have a question or comment? Send it to me.
I get a lot of emails. I answer each and every one of them.
You can also find these shows on our 16 podcast platforms
like iHeart, Spotify and Rumble.
That's just three of the 16 and our YouTube channel,
which is America's Healthcare Advocate, where
we've got about 608,000 views right now between that and the podcast platform.
And that's because of all of you out there in the listening audience.
So we're very happy about that.
Want to thank all you for that.
All right.
In studio today we are going to do something a little different.
We have guests in here today, and we’re going to be talking
about the United Appliance Servicers Association.
And you may be asking what is that got to do with health care?
Well, we’re
going to be talking about GigCare and how GigCare works for 1099 employees.
And in studio with me today, I have Debbie Klintworth, and she is the CEO of Sloan
Appliance in Carolina, or D3S Appliance Services in Texas.
The two companies welcome. Very happy to have you here today.
Thank you so much for having me.
And we've got an old veteran in here with us today.
John Kuhlmann's back for another show.
So welcome back John.
Thanks for joining the group. We're happy to have you on board.
And by the way, speaking of radio affiliates,
we have a brand new affiliate in Manchester, New Hampshire.
WFEA am one of our brand new affiliates in Manchester, New Hampshire.
We're on there from seven in the morning to eight in the morning.
We want to welcome them to the family and we're very happy to have them on board.
So thank you all so much.
So, you know, let me just start out with appliance repair.
This is really kind of interesting.
So I live in a house is three years old.
We just built it.
I bet you I've had an appliance repairman out to that house
no less than 10 or 11 times.
So we had the wine refrigerator go.
We had the ovens where the temperature wasn't right.
We had the hood section that wasn't working.
We had the heat lamp outside that kept going off that we couldn't get on.
And luckily for us, every one of these people from these different companies
that we called have sent out quality people.
They did a great job.
They're very polite and, and and they fixed it.
So, you know, like I always tell my wife, you know, I can fix anything.
All I need to do is get on the phone, okay?
So having so having a group in here like these folks today, United Appliance
Servicers Association and Debbie in here, who owns two companies
that belong to this association.
First of all, just talk about the association for a few minutes. And
this is the last thing I would have ever thought of.
There was actually an association
of appliance repair people, but it makes perfect sense.
So talk a little bit about that and why you are in that.
And a lot of other people with companies like yours.
Absolutely.
We have been around for about 36 or 37 years as an organization.
Wow. It started to actually level up the playing field
for all of the companies so that we could become more professional.
A lot of the people that do appliance repair
know how to fix appliances, but they don't know how to run a business.
And so it was to bridge that gap so that you won't see that,
that you see a professional image from the outside looking in.
And so this organization was started to bring each company up
to teach them what they don't know.
Because you don't know what you don't know until it's really bad.
And so we we bring it all together.
We talk, we network and we work with the manufacturers
GE, Electrolux, you know,
Bosch, LG, all of them come to the conference.
They give training. Really. Yes okay.
So we partner with them. So quick story.
We had a mixer valve
that our builder put in our shower and it happened to be a Delta valve.
But it's made in Germany the most.
I'm like okay for real. Yeah.
Well when when the repair
people came to change it out, they wouldn't send it to them
because it had to come to us because we were the clients.
So they gave us the information.
I called Delta, they're very nice.
They sent the thing out and we got it.
But I was like, for real?
And they're only certain people in that company is one guy that understands
how to put that thing. Yeah.
And so yeah.
So I so the training piece to me sounds like that's a pretty big deal
because these things are constantly changing in today's world.
You know what what a television did ten years ago
five years ago is not what the televisions I have in my house do now.
It's just so so you're constantly updating them.
And so the, the companies are actually working in conjunction with you.
So they know the best technology and the best way to fix these things.
Absolutely.
They come in, they bring refrigerators,
they bring ranges to the hotel where we have the conferences,
and we actually break them down, learn how to fix them, go over,
you know, issues that every one of them is having and teaching.
It's a wonderful time for them to connect with the engineers,
the the trainers and the executives to show up.
Yes. Yeah, that really is amazing.
So that's interesting here.
So they actually physically get to go through and do these things.
And you have 600 people at this thing.
We do. Yeah.
And that's a small conference a lot of people don't know.
There are I think from the numbers that I have
heard, 40,000 appliance repair companies across the nation,
and we haven't even touched the surface of all of them coming.
And I'll tell you a funny story.
My husband and I run the
business together, and I didn't want to go to the conference
the first time because I said, no one's going to teach me how to run my business.
I'm doing just fine.
And I love the confidence.
John.
Debbie's very calm, I can tell.
Yeah, and very successful.
Yeah.
I did not need someone telling me how to run my company, but I learned so much.
We all have the same problems.
We're all running a business,
and we all network together and give each other ideas.
And one idea can change the future of my company tomorrow.
And so we all need to get together.
We support it, you know, it's a support network as well.
And now I have friends that I call when I see a problem.
Are you seeing the same problem across the nation.
And and so we, we use each other,
for support for education and
to grow our businesses.
So do the manufacturers.
And I ask this question for a reason.
Do the manufacturers, when somebody calls, like, for instance,
we have an outdoor fireplace.
And the thing was giving me fits on our deck,
and I'm trying to find appliance repair people to fix it.
And and I'm not getting anywhere.
So I called the company itself
and they said, well, we have certain people, we train.
Right.
So that's the kind of thing you're in.
So the guy.
That’s absolutely what we do, the thing works like a charm.
I could not be happier with that.
And then he went and fixed
the one in the living room to make it work better than it had worked.
But they you know, you could call all kinds of fireplace people,
and they didn't know beans from apple butter about this particular fireplace.
But the manufacturers sends this one group out,
and the guy did the whole thing and it did a beautiful job.
So that's basically an illustration of what you're talking about, right?
Thermador comes up with a brand new oven
and a brand new range top, and it's got all these different opportunities.
And how do you fix it? Okay.
If you if you if you're the independent guy out there that doesn't belong
to this association or doesn't do that kind of education, you don't know that.
That's correct.
So we become
an authorized service provider for all of the major manufacturers,
and we actually get introduced at some of these conferences.
So we work directly with them.
So that's interesting.
They have a designation that makes you
an authorized service provider for these particular appliances.
We can.
That's where when I became a Bosch authorized service provider, I met them
the the regional service manager at the United Appliance Servicers Association.
That's where that interaction happened.
And then we started the training.
Before that time, I was getting the training at,
I was getting the training at this association.
The people that I brought with me were getting the training
through United Appliance Servicers Association.
Because Bosch was there training.
They’ll train everyone, even the people that are not authorized.
So that you can be better.
You know, Bosch wants the best people working on their product.
That's their name on that appliance. Right?
So probably helps to have so he knows what they all they're doing.
Absolutely.
If you want to reach out to Debbie either of her company's the one that Oklahoma
and Texas is D3Sservice.com.
In the southeastern United States that be in the Carolinas, etc.
you can reach out to her at SloanAppliance.com.
That's SloanAppliance.com.
Like I said,
if you're an independent repairman out there
and you're looking for a home, this might be a good place to look.
And if you're looking for repairs, I think these folks know what they're doing.
Go to our website and check it out.
Stay right there. We'll be right back after the break.
You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate Broadcasting
here on the HIA Radio Network coast to coast across USA.
Don't go anywhere.
Welcome back.
You're listening to America's Healthcare
Advocate show broadcasting coast to coast across USA.
Here on the HIA Radio Network.
In fact, we have another new affiliate we want to announce today.
This is WRHI AM and FM, 100.1FM in Charlotte, Gastonia, South Carolina.
We're pretty happy to have those folks on board,
and we really want to say thank you because we're on for two hours
every Saturday.
So, 1 to 3, our new affiliate WRHI.
It looks like Dave is going to have a little extra work to do.
So we're very happy to have them on board.
We want to thank them in studio with me today is Debbie Klintworth
and John Kuhlmann.
We're here talking about United Appliance Servicers Association, Debbie's company,
Sloan Appliance Services. We've talked about the past, by the way.
And while we're on break, I just ask her question.
I said, what is an average salary for these folks make?
So they're making between 70 and $100,000 a year.
You might want to think about that if you're looking for an opportunity.
Her websites, by the way, are D3Sservice.com
that happens to be in Texas and in in the South Carolina.
It's SloanAppliance.com.
So if you want to reach out to her and ask her
a little bit about what their company does, it might be helpful.
So let's talk to more now about your company okay.
And then you know how long you've been doing this.
And you know, you mentioned Bosch, how many different appliance groups
to use service, all the rest of it.
And then then we'll talk about why and why John's here,
obviously talk about GigCare and how this fits in for you.
As you know, as a company owner.
So let's just start with
the history of what you do and how you got where you are today.
Well, my husband had a company,
and he did the appliance repair.
He was the hardest working one man show until I joined him.
Then once I did, we've expanded.
We started with just him, and we grew to two, three, four.
Next thing you know, we're at 30 techs, and we grew all over the state of Texas.
And and.
You were in the Houston area. And we were in the Houston area.
Our actual office is in Magnolia,
which is the outskirts of The Woodlands there in Houston.
And we've grown all over Texas, and then we've grown into Oklahoma.
So we're in Oklahoma City as well.
We have several guys throughout that, that area.
And then we decided to buy Sloan Appliance,
about three years ago or coming up on three years ago.
And that's in Carolina.
And that's where the home base is in Columbia, South Carolina.
Okay.
And but we cover all the major cities, Charleston,
we're in Augusta, we're in Rock Hill, as well as Greenville.
So you started out and now you've got two companies working in these areas.
What are the plans going forward.
We plan on expanding
more and more.
We we do all major manufacturing brands, all of them.
So you mentioned LG, Bosch, General Electric.
What's that high end version of GE, I can’t remember what it what it's called.
Well with monogram. Monogram that's the.
One. And Cafe. We work on that.
We work on Sub-Zero.
We work on some of the smaller brands.
Les Baer we work on, you name it.
So Thermador or you know, all of those Gaggenau.
Okay.
All of those, Mila, we we cover that, we get training from all the major
manufacturers for this to say “We're an authorized service provider”.
So this is.
A question people should be asking. Yes.
They call up Joe Blow's appliance.
Are you an authorized?
Because if they're not,
that means maybe they know what they're doing
and maybe they don't know what they're doing.
Well, correct.
And if you have any appliances that possibly have a part
that is going to be under warranty, I'm an authorized service provider.
So I will make sure that they cover that part, not you.
That's funny because that our house is going
on the fourth year that we built this brand new house, and that that, wine
refrigerator that we were talking about that was out of warranty.
But those guys got it got involved with the with the manufacturer,
and they got them to replace that part without charging us for it.
And it was a whole new board of some kind, looked like a computer board
that they put in there. And now the thing works like a charm.
So it was, you know, but they're the ones that were able to do that.
I would not have been able to do that. Right.
Yeah. It's pretty interesting.
So a little bit about why you thought, you know, with John and Kulhmann Group
that the GigCare 1099 program works for your folks.
In terms of offering them coverage across the country, because we're the
are the beauty of us of what we do it at, you know, with PSM Nebraska and with our
with our GigCare program developed through Detego, is our rates are universal.
So it's the rates in in South Carolina that you just got hit
with by ACA or 40% higher.
Or in Texas they're 28% higher.
Our rates are flat across the country.
Our rates raised 6% this year. Right John?
The right.
Yeah.
So so talk a little bit about why were you attracted to that.
What I've found is people are afraid of insurance
because they don't understand it. It's 100% correct.
They jump into it.
I'm a 30 year recovering broker and I can promise you that's an accurate statement.
Yeah. And it's very scary.
And at the end of the year, at the end of the year,
you have spent all of this money on insurance.
And what did you truly get from that?
If you were healthy, you didn't use it at all,
but you feel like you've wasted a lot of money.
And so,
I was looking for an affordable
health care option for some of the guys that are in the association.
You know, maybe they would have an opportunity
if they don't have insurance.
You know, once you get off of your parents insurance at 26,
everyone thinks they're invincible and they don't need health insurance.
Do they ever. Yeah. Until you need it.
Yeah, absolutely. I tell you, you're in a car wreck
or you're playing softball and break your arm.
Okay. Yeah.
Then that. Oh, Lord, I got a problem. Right.
So we need something that's affordable
that people understand, so they will use it.
And not just have it handed to them and they don't know what they're buying,
and then they have buyer's remorse at the end of the year
because they didn't use it.
So I had talked to John about what can we do, what are the options
and what can we bring into the association.
So everyone can have good health care and they understand
what they're actually truly buying, because not everybody can afford
as a small business to provide, you know, very expensive group health care.
Oh, it's for for small companies like yourself, medium to small companies.
The pricing is ridiculous because they're tied up in all the ACA regulations.
And, John, we're not. Right.
We don't have all the extra fees and taxes, too, that Obamacare
built into everybody's health insurance premiums.
So I've I've mentioned this before in other, other shows, but
Obamacare, when it went into
effect, added about 21 new fees and taxes.
So all the different insurance programs across the board, be it
from small group to large group, so they basically have the carriers and TPAs
collect those taxes and turn around and give it to the government.
They bill them as premiums.
People think they’re premiums, but they're actually taxes
inside their health insurance premiums.
So it drives up the cost. And we don't have that in GigCare.
That's one of the big differences between us and the ACA plans.
You know, that plus the fact that we're not making you buy something
you don't need, like maternity coverage if you're a 25 year old guy.
Probably not going to use that.
You know, there's a big difference in the way that works.
We have plans that have those things,
but we have plans that don't have those things.
And that gives, you know,
I like to say a size 44 overcoat doesn't fit everybody.
Well, ACA is a 44 overcoat, right? Yeah.
They're trying to make everybody fit. That's part of the problem.
The other part is, and I'm guessing before we come up,
we're actually coming up on the break.
I'll hold this thought till I get back.
We come back from the break.
I want to talk about what's the age span typically of the people
to go into her business, young versus old, etc.
and then we'll talk about why this is a good fit for her association
and why it's a good fit for associations across the country
that might be thinking about what can we do to help our members.
Stay tuned.
We'll be right back after the break.
You're listening to America's
Healthcare Advocate broadcasting coast to coast across the USA.
We'll be right back. Stay right there.
Welcome back.
You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate Show, broadcasting
coast to coast across USA here on the HIA Radio Network.
If you have something going on, you need help out there.
Get on the go to the website AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com.
Send me an email.
We are happy to help you in any way we can.
We had a gentleman the other day who had a son who was paraplegic, could not get
a wheelchair from United Health Care because it didn't meet their criteria.
Well, we took care of that problem.
So if we can help you with something like that, we're happy to do it.
The website is AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com.
My emails up there.
I answer each and every one of them.
In studio with me today is Debbie Klintworth, and John Kuhlmann.
Debbie is from Sloan Appliance Services.
She has two different companies, one located in Texas
and one located in the Carolinas.
And services that whole area.
If you want to know more about her,
the website for those particular companies are D3Sservice.com.
That's in Texas, by the way.
They're down there in Tyler, Texas.
For all you folks in Tyler that I come down
and see a couple times a year when I go see Cowboy George.
So, also Sloan Appliance Service at sloanappliance.com.
That particular service, is in the Carolinas, so she's happy to help you.
And you want to reach out to John Kuhlmann, if you're an association
out there and you're looking for a solution for health care,
this is the man that can help you.
He can also help you with 401 K and a whole lot of other things.
And his website is kuhlmannfin.com.
kuhlmannfin.com. I'll spell it for you.
kuhlmannfin.com.
All right John, let's talk about why this is working.
I mean what do we got like eight associations now you and I are working on.
It's close to a million lives.
Yeah.
So talk about why this is working is this is like a.
This is rolling.
Okay. Talk about why.
The biggest thing I think is the as everybody's heard about on the news,
the ACA subsidies have been reduced by 40%.
And then, you know, we've talked about how it's the perfect storm.
Unfortunately, the carriers are raising their rates
dramatically, and they also are some have pulled out of the market.
Aetna lost $2 billion last year.
And because of that, they decided to pull out of the ACA market and dropped 1.1
million people off their individual plans that they used to cover it.
It's really because when the government took took over with the ACA,
they basically wanted to take over health care,
but they didn't do anything to make health care better.
And, the the program's just not working.
It's not about that the subsidies are going away so much, as much as it is
the program didn't do anything to fix the problems with health care.
GigCare does that.
So GigCare does things on the PBM side.
I'll let you talk about that more extensively about it, Cary, but,
they do great things on that, that all the ACA, most of the ACA carriers don't do.
And, it's really much better for the members.
They can get specialty meds a lot of times the low cost or no cost.
Whereas if you're on an ACA plan, you literally have to pay most
or all of your out of pocket to cover your ACA med, and things like that.
So, Debbie, what do you think this does
for the association as far as their ability to attract
new members and also their ability to retain the people that are there
because they're offering a health benefits plan that nobody else is offering.
It is helping people have a
peace of mind and offering something not only to their themselves,
but also their employees or their 1099 employees, that they can't afford.
And it is so worthwhile.
I know that I have a personal,
issue way back when, before Obamacare,
where my son was so sick and they kept saying I had a preexisting condition
and I couldn't get him insurance, and he ended up having a hole in his heart
that wasn't diagnosed till he was eight, because they wouldn't run the tests.
So that's another reason why I have gotten involved in this,
because people think they can just skate by
and the government will take on their health benefits.
But I can show. Yes.
Oh, yeah.
They really do.
Oh, they're going to treat me, but they only have treat emergencies,
you know.
And my son, to me, it was an emergency.
It was.
And but because I didn't have insurance, he didn't get the treatment
that he deserved,
no matter how much I they wouldn't do it because I had some money.
But they the hospitals knew I didn't have enough money to cover it just in case.
And so everyone needs to be covered.
You cannot rely on the emergency situation
where the, you know, the emergency room is going to treat you.
Yeah. And you're going to be okay.
Yeah. It's not like that. And this is real.
You just need to understand what it does for you and how it's going to help you.
And as far as the money goes, it's affordable.
It is affordable.
We're a lot more affordable than ACA is. Okay.
Question to you.
How many people between the ages of, say, 21 and let's say 40 in your company?
What what what percentage of that is the repair people in your company?
Most of the people.
Well, most of the people that work for me are
under 60 and above 26.
Okay.
So that's that's the demographic.
And in those demographics, John, you know, for instance,
if you get up into the 50, 50, 45, 50, we're less than half what ACA is.
The other thing is, and I ask you this on break, you have guys that live
in rural communities who come in to work in the cities to do appliance repair.
Maybe they live out in the country.
They got ten acres or something, and they don't want to live in the city,
but they're there. Guys that are hands on guys are good.
They're good repairmen that the problem with with the ACA and Obamacare
plans is most of the major carriers, all of them use narrow networks.
And by narrow networks, I mean they can find
the number of providers you're going to get.
And those providers are usually centered around large cities or communities
like Columbia, South Carolina, like Tyler, Texas.
But if you live in Jackson, Texas, you're not going to have coverage,
which means you're going to drive 45 miles to get over to Tyler.
Right? Okay. To go see your doctor.
Okay.
Or if you've got an urgent care, you get to drive 45 miles to the close
to surgery care versus
the way we do it, where you have the Aetna PPO network, right?
You have the Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO network in Nebraska.
Okay. And you have that.
You also have the Aetna EPO network, which is lower cost.
But it keeps you you're confined to the network,
which the networks second largest in the country behind United.
But the point is they've got access wherever they are.
They don't have to drive 50 miles if they're in Jackson, Texas,
because it has got a provider in that community.
That's the way that it works.
How important is that to you when you're looking to recruit or get people to come?
Because the number two thing they ask, tell me if I'm wrong after
what am I getting paid is what are the benefits?
Absolutely. Okay.
Well, and we want to provide a benefit where they're not going to be
in a such a small network that they're going to have to wait
eight months to see a doctor to.
Yeah, that is a big problem. It's huge.
Yeah.
So John, talk a little bit about, you know, how you see the associations.
You know, now we're seeing all this interest from the associations.
Right.
And why did why did why does this then why did they want to do this.
Well I think the big thing is like with the UASA,
a lot of their members are small companies and they
they can't afford to provide group group benefits to their employees.
Also, a lot of them have 1099 workers.
They're not W-2.
So the GigCare fills that fills that gap in need.
And then they can tell them, yeah, we have a program,
they share it with them.
Then the member can call in to an enrollment center
and talk to them about signing up,
getting back to what you talked about, we had a member sign up in Florida.
It was a husband and wife.
They're there and they're like 62.
Their rate was going to be $2,700 a month on the ACA.
That's what it was going up to.
That's a house payment, right?
Yeah. And, GigCare was $1,390.
And they were they they obtained better coverage too with the Aetna network.
So really a a great program and a big win for them.
So that's that's really it.
The big thing is the association members companies
a lot of them just can't afford to offer it.
And this this gives them the need.
In addition to that, when they call in to the enrollment center,
they will also be offered dental
and vision and life, if they would like and other and other ancillary coverages.
Yeah.
So they're getting they're getting the full. Complete benefits package.
Yeah, yeah.
And the experience your members have has been a good experience.
So to this point.
Yes, we are working through that.
It's education to try to teach them what the insurance is providing.
There's a lot of people are just scared.
It's different.
Oh you don't know the acronyms that everyone's using.
And it's just about education.
And once we get through that I think it's going to be,
taking off and more and more people are going to be buying in you.
So you're listening out there.
You're you belong to an association.
Maybe you're an a director, an association.
You're thinking maybe this is a fit for us.
Well, you know, you're not going to know
if you don't reach out and talk to somebody.
The guy needs to talk to you sitting right here.
You need to talk to John Kuhlmann.
You can reach out to him at kuhlmannfin.com.
I'm going to spell it out.
kuhlmannfin.com.
You'll be happy to talk to you.
He's he's worked with a lot of associations.
He's got a lot of success behind what he does.
And it's a very professional group.
We'll be right back after the break.
You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate
Broadcasting here on the HIA Radio Network.
Coast to Coast Cross, USA.
Stay right there. We'll be right back right after the break.
Welcome back.
You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate show, broadcasting coast
to coast across the USA here on the HIA Radio Network.
Now, look,
you know, you're listening to this, and maybe you work for an appliance repair
service, and you're like,
we really need to get involved with this association, okay.
But you can do that. All right.
But you need to go listen, tell your your boss, your partner, whoever it is.
Go listen to the podcast or go off and look at the YouTube broadcast.
America's Healthcare Advocate. Okay.
And then they'll understand everything we're talking about here today
and why this might be a benefit.
Why what Debbie is explaining might be really important to you.
So again, you know, go up on any of the 16 podcast platforms
or on our YouTube platform.
And it's all up there.
John, let's talk about a little bit about what separates GigCare.
You know, Population Science Management, owns the program.
It was developed as GigCare, right.
Under the company Detego, which is our, our our primary, company.
But when we did this intentionally, when we wrote this,
we wrote this to be very, very different than ACA.
We're not governed by the Department of Insurance in these states.
We're governed by ERISA.
We're governed by the Department of Labor.
There are federal guidelines that we qualify for with this plan.
So we don't have to comply with a lot of I'll just call it nonsense
that ACA makes you comply with.
So let's talk a little bit about what
some of those things you see that make us different.
The first thing I wanted to say too is a lot of people are,
you know, they're used to what they're used to.
So they just kind of want to continue on with the same thing with the ACA.
But the ACA is crumbling off and it's falling apart. And,
GigCare is definitely a great solution, an alternative to look at, to do.
One of the things we do is on the PBM side, I believe it's the pharmacy side.
Yeah. To keep it in plain English ScriptAid. Yeah.
We basically go out
and find those drugs at a very low cost or no cost for the members.
If you're on an ACA plan,
those are most of the the large insurance carriers are all publicly traded.
They're doing all they can, basically to get as many rebates as much as they can
on the drugs, not to lower the cost of the drug and the medication.
So GigCare does the opposite.
They get the drug at the lowest price that they can possibly get it, get it at
and try to transfer that over to the member.
They've also added Mark Cuban's Cost Plus drug program.
It's a wonderful program.
There's a I'm forgetting the name of the drug.
It's I believe it's like $14,500 a month.
And Mark provides the drug for $400 a month.
Yeah.
So it's a wonderful, wonderful program.
So we we have a drug importation program.
And so what that drug importation
program does, if you take a medication, it's it ridiculously expensive.
And we go back to the when when the weight loss drugs first came out.
And if you wanted to buy it and you weren't a type two diabetic,
it was $1,100.
Well, we brought it in from Canada for $89.
So this is the kind of thing we could do.
The ACA plans are precluded.
They cannot do that. We can. Okay.
We also have a foundational assistance program, which is a little bit of what
John was talking about, by the way, all the work to apply
for that medication and get it from out of, out of, out of Canada, we do it.
Our nurses do it at Detego, at GigCare.
That's their job, okay.
And for foundational assistance, you have a kid
let's say that needs growth hormones.
You come on the plan a year later, doctor says your child needs a growth hormone
that's 100 grand a year. Okay.
You know,
we can get you foundational assistance where we do all the paperwork, we file it.
We get the med, and we get it sent to you at no cost or at a very low cost.
If you qualify.
And almost 90% of the people qualify because not everybody can write a check
for 100 grand. Exactly.
So those are, those are some of the differences.
And that rebate thing is just a quick.
What you're telling them there is that the carriers are getting rebates
from the drug companies. Right.
That they're never seeing.
Right. A we're a transparent PBM.
We do not take rebates.
Rebates go right back into the cost of the med,
which is what you're talking about.
Exactly. So you take the drug Humira.
Everybody sees it advertised on TV.
It's typically around 7 or 8 grand a month.
There's different versions of it.
But, a lot of the large insurance carriers that are publicly traded, they'll,
they say they get the drug for around $4500 to $5000 a month.
GigCare typically can get that drug for about $2500 bucks a month.
That's right.
Because they don't take the rebate.
So what that tells you is,
as the large insurance carriers are all keeping that rebate.
Well, if it's a $2,500 difference per month, that's 30 grand
a year that they're pocketing off of every person that takes that drug.
That's just one medication.
GigCare doesn't do that, and that's
why they're able to drive the value they do and bring the cost down.
I think another good thing to talk about would be the green imaging program if you.
Yeah, you mentioned and that's really unique.
There's all the ACA plans out there. Debbie.
If you need an MRI, Cat scan or,
you know, which is a major expense, you're looking 3 to 5 to $6,000,
you get it done in a hospital, it's going to be six grand.
You you pay the
deductible, you pay the coinsurance, and you pay a co-pay.
So you're walking out the door.
Let's say you've got a 3000 deductible out of pocket next to the five.
Basically, you're paying for the whole damn thing.
All right.
They give you a network discount.
You're still paying for the whole thing under our program.
John's referring to the Green Imaging program.
We give you a voucher.
And there are independent centers all over the country
that these folks are contracted with.
You go in and you pay nothing.
There's no co-pay, there's no deductible, and there's no co-insurance.
Well, the ACA plans don't.
Now they could do that.
They're not precluded from doing that.
But they're making money off that.
Right okay. So they're not you know they're
making money off that.
There's a reason that they're doing it. Okay.
So those are some of the things I think that do make us very different.
Yeah. In terms of what we do in the way we do it.
And, and, and you know, if you've got a provider, this is interesting
when you brought that up about your son, you know, if we had that situation
and and we go to that and Aetna
says, well no this doesn't meet the criteria to cover it.
We're going to appeal that. You're not going to appeal it.
We are okay.
And we're going to appeal up the process until we get it approved or
we do a direct contract with that hospital that says, okay, here's the deal.
We're going to pay you 130% above Medicare to do this procedure.
Boom. We want we want the the procedure done.
Period. Okay.
And 90% of the hospitals will agree to that.
There are some that don't, but the majority of them will.
But it all comes down to advocacy, John. Right.
You know, we've got a whole team of people that that's what they do.
Right. So
it you know
Tracy Krausse, he in our organization, she does a fabulous job.
Brandi Bornstein does exactly the same thing.
If the broker's got a problem, if the members got a problem,
we're there to fix that problem.
I think another thing to add to is that where with GigCare.
There's over 100,000.
Well over 100,000 members on the plan.
147,000.
So when GigCare’s representing you to get these things done.
It's not you.
One little person going to going to Aetna, it's GigCare.
We’re the advocate. Things get done. Yeah.
And usually there's not problems anyway.
But when things are needed, they get done.
You know, things happen.
People have claims issues.
I think, you know, I, I had a claim kickback for $1,000
the other day, and I get a letter from some anonymous physician service first.
I think it's a scam. It's not.
And for some reason it got kicked out.
Well, I have a Med Sup plan.
I don't have any co-pays, so I don't have any deductible.
And they didn't know that I knew that.
Well, I made it very clear that I didn't.
I said I'm appealing this now, so don't make an issue out of this.
And I gave it to my broker,
Carolee Steel, who I talk about every week on this show.
And she went in and knocked it down.
And I'm not going to pay a dime of that.
But you've got to have. An advocate, right? Right.
That's the way it works. Well, thank you both for doing this. Okay.
Thank you. Thank you for having us. Thank you for that. It was just great.
It was it was wonderful to have you come out and tell your story.
It's wonderful to hear somebody
start a small business, be successful and obviously you're very successful.
What you do.
So congratulations. She's only getting started. So. Yeah.
Yeah, you're probably right.
If I had to guess. Debbie’s a ball of fire!
Once again.
You know, I do these shows that this is about education.
It's about teaching you opportunities that are out there for health benefits.
In this particular case, if you're an association, this is a way
to find a solution for your members that might make a big difference for you.
Get ahold of John Kuhlmann.
You can get Ahold of him at kuhlmannfin.com.
I'm going to spell it kuhlmannfin.com.
He’ll be happy to help you.
And now I leave you with this thought from Albert Einstein,
the one who follows the crowd, they usually get no further than the crowd.
The one who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been.
Remember, friends, it's the funny thing about life.
If you refuse to accept anything but the very best, you most often get it.
Thank you for listening to America's Healthcare Advocate Show,
broadcasting coast to coast across the USA.
Here on the HIA Radio Network.
Goodbye America.