Interview with Ronnie Ragan

Well, hello everyone, this is Dr. Mike Chua of Physical Therapies. Hey, today we’ve got a special guest. His name is Mr. Ronnie Ragan from Senior Insurance Advisors.

We’ll be back in a few seconds, okay? All right, we are back here in Jerry Hat Physical Therapy. I’m here right now in our North Highland location and, you know, I reached out to Ronnie Ragan and he’s the owner of Senior Insurance Advisors here in West Tennessee. She is the husband to Brandy for 30 years.

Imagine that, beat that, ladies and gentlemen. You know, we’ve got to ask him the secret, right? And of course, father of five grown amazing kids. He obviously loves Jesus like me and he loves serving seniors like me here in Jerry Hat.

So without further ado, let’s go ahead and bring in Mr. Ronnie. Mr. Ronnie, I know I introduced you very quickly there, but could you please tell us again who you are, what you do, and what Senior Insurance Advisors is all about, sir? Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me on this morning, Mike.

Man, so yeah, I’ve been with my wife, Brandy, actually 36 years, married for 30 years. We’re high school sweethearts. We both went to Southside High School out here in Jackson.

Southside. Yeah, Southside Hawks. So and we do have five amazing kids.

They’re all grown. Three of them are married. Otis is actually getting married this October and then my youngest just turned 20 Sunday.

So we’re looking forward to the next season of life with grandbabies. So if anybody has any grandbabies for rent, I’m willing to test out my paw pawisms. You know what I mean? So anyway, who is Senior Insurance Advisors? Man, we are a full-service Medicare brokerage where we help seniors select all plans.

Meaning if you just need a drug plan, we can help you walk through that process. We pride ourselves on making sure we give the best service for Medicare Supplement. If that’s the avenue you choose to go to, if you choose to go Medicare Part C, which is the Medicare Advantage, we’re happy to help you there as well.

If you have chronic illnesses and you need to go on a chronic special needs plan, we can help there. If you are a dual enrollment person where you have Medicare and Medicaid and you would like to look at the enrollment plans, we’re glad to help there as well. We can help with the 10 care process as well as far as instructing how to enroll in 10 care and different things like that.

So we’re just a full-service Medicare brokerage. Been in business now for almost 12 years, and we just love helping the senior market to make sure they make real good, solid, sound choices in the Medicare space. Thank you for pointing out that you’re not just pushing Medicare Advantage plans.

There’s a time and place to use those Medicare Advantage plans and there’s also a time and place for you to use your Medicare and Medicaid. There’s also a time and place for you to get your Part C and, of course, your supplemental. There’s no one size fits all.

So depending on your age, depending on your financial level, depending on what you do in life. So thank you for sharing that, Ronnie. So I want to harp on the supplements, supplemental.

So what are the different supplements? How does that work? Tell me again about what Medicare is, what Medicare Part A is, what Medicare Part B is, and you said Medicare Part C, which is the Advantage plan, and I personally call them a Disadvantage plan for us providers. You know how it is. So can you please tell us the difference between all three of them or four because they’ve got these, right? Absolutely.

Yeah. Be glad to. So original Medicare is what everybody is on when they first turned 65.

So when an individual on their 65th birthday, probably about three months. Always looking at me when you say 65, man. What’s that again? I said while you’re looking at me when you said 65. So when an individual turns 65, about three months prior to turning 65, if you’re already drawing your Social Security benefits or you’ve told the Social Security Administration that you’re ready to turn your retirement money on, you’re automatically going to be enrolled in Medicare A and B, and let’s break down what they mean by the original Medicare, which is A and B. A is your hospital coverage, and for most Americans it’s going to be zero dollars, and your B is your health insurance, which in the year we’re in, 2026, your health insurance on Part B is going to cost you $202.90 per month out of your Social Security check.

They’re going to automatically deduct that straight out of your Social Security. So that’s original Medicare in A and B, and so I don’t ever recommend an individual stay just straight Medicare because there are too many gaps. You’ve got the 20% you’ve got to worry about.

You’ve got the large deductible on Part A, which is a per-period deductible. A lot of people don’t realize that. It’s not just a one-time yearly deductible on Part A. It can hit you several times in a year, and then you have the 283 Part B deductible.

So that’s original Medicare just in a 30,000-foot flyover. Then you have the choices that you have to choose, or you don’t have to choose, but I recommend highly that you choose either a Supplemental or a Part C. The Supplemental world, the most popular Supplemental in America today is probably the Plan G right now, although there has been a substantial price increase, premium-wise, on Plan Gs as of June 1st yesterday and I’ve done a little bit of digging just so your viewers will understand why the premiums have risen so sharply. On average they’re about 25 to 35 percent premiums on Supplementals starting June 1st of this year and the reason that most of the carriers are telling me is because over the last couple of years we’ve had a fair amount of plan exits across the United States on the Medicare Part C or the Medicare Advantage plans that just went out of business or some of the plans just pulled back.

Some of the carriers pulled back some of the plans, which created a guaranteed issue policy for those seniors. Those seniors were older and sicker, which created more utilization on the Medicare Supplement side. So all the carriers were telling me that due to the utilization factor and the rise of health care, they had to increase premiums.

Prior to June 1st, I could probably get a senior on a Plan G for about $150 a month somewhere right around there for a Plan G. Now you’re looking at about $180, $185, $190 depending on the carrier. So they took a substantial price increase due to the utilization and the rise of health care. There are some options.

You could fall to a Plan N very similar to a Plan G. However, you have co-pays associated with it for your doctors and hospitals, and you have some Part B excess charges that may not be covered under the Plan N depending on who the doctor is. Only about two percent of the doctors in America have that effect. So it’s not a huge factor, but it’s there.

So the supplemental world is absolutely a fantastic choice to go with. However it is a very costly expensive avenue to go as well because at that point you’re going to pick up a Part D prescription drug plan on for Medicare that most seniors are going to need to pick up some for a Medicare Part D. In West Tennessee we only have about five or six carriers that are in Medicare Part D. Depending on your medicine, depending on your pharmacy, depending on your comfortability of the co-pay structure, all that. So we can help walk through that process as well.

And then you come to Medicare Part C, which is called Medicare Advantage. And there are some really good policies that you can select, and unfortunately, zero premiums. So if financially you’re looking for some financial help there, plus say 40 or 50 dollars a month for your drug plan, plus the deductibles and all that are included.

Then many times you can look at a Medicare Advantage plan that would have a zero premium. But you have a co-pay associated with most everything you do. You do have some skilled nursing responsibility after day 20.

Things like that. And I heard you call it the disadvantage plan long ago. There are some disadvantages to it as well.

There’s some approval processes you have to go through. Different things like that. So is Medicare perfect? By no means.

Medicare is not perfect in any form or fashion. Are you there? Hello? Ronnie, I lost you there for a second. Are you still there? Yeah, yeah.

There you are. There you are. So you were talking about Part C. That’s where I lost you for a second.

I think we’ve got some internet issues going on. But you were talking about Part C. Can you share that again? Yeah. So Part C, there are several different carriers that are available throughout the country.

There are local plans and then there are regional plans. And then there are national plans as well. So Medicare Part C definitely has its advantages and it definitely has disadvantages.

One advantage is that many times you can find a zero-premium plan that includes your drug plan involved in it. And many times it will include dental, vision, and hearing. The disadvantages are it’s a network.

It’s a managed plan network of doctors. Many times there are approval processes, different things like that that you have to go through. However, it is a zero premium many times.

Which if a person’s living on a fixed income, trying to afford the $202 for Medicare, trying to afford the Plan G of say $180, trying to afford the Part D of say $40 or $50, trying to afford dental and vision insurance of say $40 or $50. By the time you add all that up, you’re at $500 a month for your Medicare per person. And if you’re on a fixed income, sometimes that’s tough to do.

And sometimes a person will need to look at a Part C. And it’s not all financial. Some people just like, hey, I just want the least amount of possible out of my pocket per month and I want to be able to do what I want to do. So let me look at Part C. So we’re here to help you walk through whatever process you want to look through.

It’s so true. It’s so true. Like with any other thing, you know, it just really depends.

It’s just like getting a car, you know: do you really, you need it, but do you really want this fancy new G-Wagon that Ronnie is driving, you know, or do you want to get a little Honda Civic like mine from point A to point B? But of course, in any other thing, you also get what you pay for, you know, if you’re paying for, you know, just like food, you know, it’s okay. I mean, I eat fast food every now and then. Every now and then it’s every day, right? And it’s fine.

But if you do it every day, it’s going to be unhealthy. And same thing with getting your insurance plan, whatever is really ideal for you, go ahead and get it. If you’re really tight on your budget, you’re living, you know, some people, you know, let’s face it, not all people are prepared to save money towards their retirement.

Some people are still even working during their senior years and they have a limited source of income and they have no choice but to get those plan C. I don’t even want to call it a Medicare Advantage plan because it’s really a Medicare replacement plan. It replaces your Medicare benefits from part A to part, from part A, B to C. So, but if you can afford it, if you’re watching right now, comment live, watching the replay, comment replay. If you’re watching right now and if you can afford for your supplemental, it is all worth it because you’re going to therapy.

It’s like in our case, we do therapy two, three times a week and that therapy visit costs you around, let’s just say Medicare will pay $150 to $200 or sometimes, you know, depending on the codes or the visit to $200 to $300 a visit, that’s even worth it already if you’ve been going through a therapy for a month or even for a doctor’s appointment, you know, one specialist will cost you $300, $400 a visit. So, different, you know, different levels of income have different levels of situation, of course, and you talk to Ronnie. Hey, Ronnie, what is my best? This is my situation.

This is, you know, my current income and Ronnie can teach you, okay, I think this is what’s best for you. Not just because he’s selling something, you know, he’s got this big thing. He can, you know, teach you and guide you on, what you’re supposed to get.

Ronnie, where can they find you? Where can they see you? You know, you got a website, your telephone number and everything there, sir. Yep. Yep.

So, you can, you can check us out and we have Medicare seminars every two weeks. As a matter of fact, we have one coming up tomorrow here in our office at 367A North Parkway and we’re in Building A, Unit 5. We’re right behind the Red Hook Seafood Restaurant at the corner of Bypass in a long line of condos called Parkway Place. And every other Wednesday, we have a free Medicare 101 seminar where we just educate.

We don’t, we don’t ask for any enrollments. We don’t do anything to try to put any pressure on you. We just educate.

These are your choices and we usually have about an hour and a half class. We usually have about 20 people come and they just ask questions. We present for about 45 minutes and then we ask questions and answer questions for about 45 minutes.

And we just try to cover the whole topic and educate people on what their choices are going to be. You can go on our website at seniorinsadvisors.com and you can register for one of those classes. They’re every other Wednesday at 1 p.m. Tomorrow, we have one for June 3rd at 1 p.m. We have room for you.

If you’d like to come, come on. Our number is 731-410-7700. You can certainly call us anytime.

We have agents that work all across West Tennessee. I’m stationed here in Jackson and we have a couple other agents stationed here in Jackson as well. We’re glad to help you walk through the process.

I don’t know how seniors do it without somebody locally that they can sit down with, look at the plans, understand the plans, understand what’s going on, how this going to react later in life, different things like that. And we’re here. We’re the folks that are going to be looking at you at church.

We’re the folks that are going to see you at the grocery stores, at the gas stations, at the movie theaters. We’re the folks that are going to be looking at you throughout this process of senior Medicare, and we want to help you and we want to walk through the process with you. All right.

Well, thank you very much, Ronnie. Any last parting wisdom for all those people who are still wanting to get it? Absolutely. Do not answer the calls online

Those folks, I’m serious. I’ve been in the business so long and I can’t say a whole lot, but I can say this. They’re usually selling one product and they are usually selling.

We’re not selling. We’re advising. There’s a big difference.

We want to be your advisor for life and we don’t want to just sell your product and forget about you tomorrow. We want to be your advisor for life to help you walk through this process all the way till the time comes. Well, thank you for pointing that out because I have a lot of patients who are like that and they just get the word yes and they immediately convert and we are in the middle of a treatment episode.

We’ve been seeing the patient for a month or two and out of nowhere I got this letter from Medicare, hey, we’re not paying this because your patient switched to this plan, whatever plan and then the patient doesn’t even know. It happened to one of our clients. Thank you for pointing it out.

It happened to one of my patients. Good thing the son of the patient is a lawyer and the son was all the way down out of state and he’s the POA and everything. The patient is living here in Jackson in assisted living.

We were seeing the patient in the home or in the assisted living and then we didn’t get reimbursed and they have to fight to the nail because if not they will have to wait for the open enrollment again. So, well, thank you for pointing it out, Ronnie. And again, hopefully someday I can drop by in your office, you know, also talk to your audience and then maybe someday we could also create a little event here in our clinic and then, you know, talk to them about the insurance too so we can create a small event in our clinic.

So, again, thank you very much, Ronnie. Appreciate you. But before I let you go, ladies and gentlemen, always remember the words fast.

F-A-S-T, letter F. Find people that will bring out the best in you because you are the average of the five people you hang out with today. I hang out with Ronnie. I feel like I want to advise people to, you know, of course, keep your Medicare Part B and then get a supplement, right, if you’re really needing therapy.

And the next letter is letter A, take action. All this stuff that I’m doing is not going to do me any good. It’s not even going to do Ronnie good if you don’t take action.

Take action. Go to their website, seniorinsuranceadvisor.com. Take action by calling this number, 731-410-7700 or email him. Just talk to him or attend their classes.

I think they have one tomorrow if I’m not mistaken. So, go, take action because it’s, you know, you know what they say: the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is right now.

You know, talk to him, you know, plan as early as now. You know, you may be 50 like me, but if you’re planning as early as now, you’re going to realize that you’re educating yourself. Next letter is letter S, share and subscribe.

The more shares, the better. Share their website, share the information that you got and learned from here. And maybe it could be, it may not be applicable to you, but it could be applicable to someone else, even a loved one or anything.

And last but not least is letter T is teach it. Why? Because when you hear it, you forget. When you see it, you remember, but when you’re actually teaching it, you’re actually understanding it more.

And that’s what Ronnie’s going to do and is doing. He’s teaching us how to understand all this Medicare compliance and advising on what to get. Again, thank you very much.

Be awesome. Be great. Be excellent.

And we’ll see you in the next episode of our Jerry Hab Show. HelloNote is a truly therapist-friendly practice management solution with integrated EMR that will enhance workflow.