Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 03-23-26_MONDAY_7AM

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

John Deaton is running for U.S. Senator from MA...knocking out Ed Markey would be a good thing, talk on Iran and more. Mike Pelfrey from GP shares story of BIG fees being charged at Asante, transparency??

This hour of the Bill Meyer Show podcast is proudly sponsored by Klauser Drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for more than 50 years. Find out more about them at Klauserdrilling.com. Now more with Bill Meyer. How many times have we been talking about things going on in the U.S. Senate that are just kind of all gumbed up, right? Including the Save Act and so much more. I was even talking medical transparency with my last guest last hour. Well, John Dayton is trying to fix that right now.

because there are two Democratic U.S. senators in Massachusetts, and John is saying, Ed Marquis needs to go. And we'll talk with him about this. He's a U.S. Marine Veteran Cancer Survivor, Survivor, father of three daughters, trial attorney, author, built a successful business for underrepresented. Boy, I'm stumbling over myself a little bit here, John. Why don't I just let you tell this story?

Anyway, welcome back to the show. How you're doing it? I don't know why underrepresented up. underrepresented communities. There we go. There we got it out of here, but welcome to the show. It's good to having you on, John. Oh, it's great to be with you. I appreciate you always having me. So you want to take out Ed Markey.

I would love that idea. How can we help you? What's your website, first off? I appreciate it. John Deatonforcennett.com. John Deedprosite.com. And just for everybody out there, just know that Ed Markey's only been in Washington since 1976. He was sworn in before Jimmy Carter. And I got to tell you, Bill, I learned a valuable lesson. I was telling him 25-year-olds. Did you know that Markey was sworn in before Jimmy Carter? And then they started asking who Jimmy Carter was.

And I figured I got to figure out a different way to say it. Oh, boy. All right. Yeah, that's kind of sad. It makes kind of feel old, doesn't it, John, when you hear that Jimmy who? It sure does. Yeah. It sure does.

But, yeah, he's been in Washington for 10 years longer than the average person's been alive in Massachusetts. All right. Now, how well did you, because you got, you got relatively close with trying to take on Elizabeth Warren, because, you know, you're still, you know, working to get in here. And how close did you get in 2024 in that race? Well, you got a number of closest relative to Massachusetts. And so I was the first Republican in many years to get over 40%. I got 1.4 million people voted for me. And I was the first time, no-name candidate, and had a primary, and our primary is September.

very late. The good news this time is the mass GOP endorsed me out the gate so I don't have a primary opponent. And we got a real shot at replacing this guy. And what that means is that you don't have to spend all your money just trying to win a primary battle, right? You're just going to go on to the general election and take on marquee and hopefully replace him then. That's right. And in Massachusetts, it's an incumbent friendly because the primary is September 1st with early melon voting, you get like six weeks. And so now, you know, other states, it's March, and you got all summer. So now everyone knows it's going to be me versus Ed Markey.

He's in a primary with Seth Moulton, but he'll win it. And it'll be me versus Markey in November. All right. John, what are you thinking here about the situation as you see it here? Because let's just say that you're able to replace the incumbent. I'd love to see it. It would be great to see that balance change a little bit, you know, to the point. positive side, another senator helping out there. It appears that, you know, John, John

Thune, of course, Senate leader is doing his best to do this tap dancing over the SAVE Act. What do you think about that? Why is there such resistance even among some Republicans over there in the Senate for theirs, or is it all about defending the filibuster to the death? Do you think about that? Yeah, I think it's crazy. It shows you how broken Congress is I mean, how often, Bill, does more than three out of four voters agree on something in this country? And over 80% agree on voter ID. And we can't get something done in our Congress. And you've got the other side, including Ed Marky, my opponent, you know, he calls voter ID racist, xenophobic and anti-democratic.

And it's insane that they can't get it done. And if you don't like it, then file an amendment because when 80% of the Americans, including over 75% of black voters, you know, let support it. Yet these far-left politicians like Schumer and Markey are claiming it's racist. And it's really a sad statement of state of our politics. Yeah, so it is racist somehow. Somehow it impacts, you know, people of color, I suppose, more to have to prove that they are citizens. Is that the, you know, at least the narrative coming from them? Yeah, that's the argument.

But yet poll after poll shows you that 75% of black Americans say, yeah, of course, we support voter ID. And listen, I pointed this out the other day, like here in Massachusetts, to get a fishing license, you need an ID, you know, and you've got to prove residency. But to vote, apparently, it's racist to do so. And so that is just, they've got to realize the election integrity is the core of our government. And if the government, if the public loses confidence in our electoral process, then do we even have a democracy? And in the honor of voting, it's not that much that requires someone to provide an ID to vote in this country. It's insane. Are you vote by mail in Massachusetts?

Yes, there are vote by mail. And I pointed that out that, you know, France banned. You know, they're a pretty progressive country, France. They banned mail-in voting in 1975 because of the possibilities of fraud. And that's the point. The Democrats will say, oh, you know, you have to prove massive fraud is rampant before engaging voter ID. No, the appearance of impropriety, the thought that fraud is taking place, the public loses confidence in their process. Well, and that's where you get the people that are saying, oh, you know, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter how I vote, right? You hear that kind of talk from people. It doesn't matter. Exactly. That's exactly it. Norway, and here's the thing. Norway has one of the highest voter turnout in the world, and they require strict voter ID. And it just goes to show you, it's a no-brainer in this country, but our Congress can't get it done.

John Deaton is running for Senate to the great state of Massachusetts, and he's going to take out Ed Markey, and I'm going to see if I can send a few bucks to you. We can contribute on your website, right? We can do that. Appreciate it. Absolutely. It's a federal office, so it impacts you even if you're not living in Massachusetts. And that's the way we look at it, too. Hey, what are you thinking about what is happening here with Iran right now?

I know that we're seeing a little light price of oil is dipping down 6, 7, 8% at less. I mean, it's very volatile right now. And the stock market is soaring under the possibility that maybe the, United States Army doesn't go in and blow up all the infrastructure in Iran, I guess is what's going on. It's being delayed here for another five days. Good policy in your opinion here, and was it a good idea to get involved in this? What are you thinking? Well, listen, I mean, the President of the United States has the inherent authority to make strikes.

You know, Obama did it in Libya for seven months. Clinton, Bill Clinton did it in Kosovo. Joe Biden did it in Syria and Yemen. That's one thing. Troops on the ground, you know, that's a different category for me. But President Trump hasn't put troops on the ground. And listen, Iran and the Strait of Harmuz, that's 20 to 30 percent of global oil and natural gas. It would change global markets if Iran was able to take out, you know, the infrastructure of oil infrastructure in Qatar.

in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, you know, it would cause a global recession and change oil for the rest of our lives. I mean, it would take decades to rebuild that infrastructure. So there's no doubt I support President Trump saying, hey, there's talks going on. Let's see if we can reach a path to avoid because the only other option would be, you know, troops on the ground. And that just changes everything. I don't think he's Jones in to do that, do you? I really don't. I don't think so.

I think that he should. One thing I'd like to see is that Lindsay Graham not have any access to him, though, because I don't know if you've seen Lindsey Graham seems to be, you know, encouraging the president to take Card Island. And I'm a Marine, and Bill, I have no doubt that the 2,500 Marines that are there now could take Carg Island, but holding it would be putting them in a fishbow, and it would require a massive military commitment. and so, but I don't think President Trump is inclined to do it at this point at least.

Yeah, well, Senator Lindsey Graham, my comment about Lindsay is that I think he is sexually turned on by war. There just seems to be something about him. Now I know you can. You would have to be, you would have to have to call him if you become a senator, all right, but I can say that. All right? I just think that's just the way. I appreciate you. I appreciate you saying that.

I can say that. Well, just keep it on that. Because, well, you know what John said? No, John didn't say that. I said it, but that's kind of my opinion of Lindsay. And yet, Lindsay himself never seems to go into those wars. But, you know, there's also talk about Cuba, too, and tiptoeing and just having a little splendid, I don't know, operation or so to take care of that regime.

I know they're in crisis right now in Cuba, south of us. And, gosh, the grid has been down or in crisis for us. a number of weeks and oil's been embargoed. The oil can't get there. What is your thought about the potential action in Cuba? Yeah, now, this is fascinating. And I think that President Trump has made an intentional decision in administration to change the policy, one, from containment, which has sort of been the historical policy, to sort of a maximum pressure, eventual, managed transition because of the naval blockade and then instituting terror. And then instituting tariffs on any country that did business. They were paralyzing the energy grid. And then when they

took out Venezuela's Maduro, that's 80% of the oil. Yeah, he was their supplier. He was Cuba's main source of energy. Big deal. Absolutely. Absolutely. And so, I mean, listen, when you think of 90 miles off our coast, the ability to kick out Russian and Chinese spies that are there surveilling us, when you think about the nickel and cobalt reserves, we've done. just learned, you know, I guess, in the last decade, that Cuba has significant, or at least they believe to have significant nickel and cobalt reserves, which are needed for our technology, our battery technology, our weapon system. When you think about farmers being able to have trade with Cuba, it's a great thought, and it's certainly on the mind of the president, because

he's talking about it, you know, but at the same time you've got to be kidding. you've got to have a multifaceted approach because you can't have, you know, the Cuban people starving and a humanitarian crisis because they had a blackout, I think, yesterday, and they're going to be seeing these rolling blackouts. And so as long as there's a multifaceted approach on how to manage that transition, it could be very good. Would you see this becoming, you know, under an ideal situation, a U.S. territory of some sort, kind of like a Guam. kind of thing or some other status. I'm not exactly really experienced about trying to figure that part out. What about you? No, I think, I think a decade from now, two decades from now, that certainly, you know, could be an option. But, I mean, when you think about its proximity to the United States and you think about the resources and the tourism and the trade, it just, it makes sense. And to be honest with you, if I were part of President Trump's, you know, advisory

team, I'd say, listen, there is, there's where your legacy could be. Like, if you can manage, you know, Cuba and help transition that country where freedom would prosper, then you get the impact on the neighboring countries, you know, right now, Nicaragua, or Columbia in that area, and eliminate the communism influence and propaganda, it would be a big one. win to the United States and the Cuban people. I don't think you can consider the Cuban issue and the situation in Iran is an apples-to-apples comparison. You agree?

I mean, there's no comparison between the two. 100%. I mean, and just look at the history, you know, the Cuban missile crisis, Bay of Pigs, all of that, the thought of a flourishing economy in Cuba and freedom. And this is certainly, this is arguably 90 miles offshore. This is within the sphere of influence, really, of the United States of America. That makes sense. I'm not so sure about Iran, though.

And that just strikes me as something that I swear every time we get involved in the Middle East, we tend to cause more problems for ourselves than we think. I hope I'm wrong on this case and I'm not, you know, just, you know, try to be a doomsayer on something like that? How do you see overall our situation in Iran at this point? Or maybe we should talk in two months that we'll know more. Well, listen, I mean, Iran is rolling the dice, and if you could have caused, you know, airstrike and regime change and Iranian people could rise up.

I mean, it's a concept that they experimented with Saddam Hussein in Iraq and all of those areas. So I'm with you, you know, it is apples to oranges with Cuba. All kinds of Cuba is in our hemisphere 90 miles. obviously we get Cuban refugees 90 miles away when there is a humanitarian crisis. It's a different world. I'm with you, quite frankly, that the Middle East, it's a quagmire for it always has been. And I scratch my head sometimes, you know, but I'm not privy to the intelligence, you know. Yeah, you being a U.S. Marine, though, you understand that there's more to it than tiptoeing in

saying, hey, we've taken over, right? That got a... Oh, no, 100%. Like I said, I know those Marines, you know, we could take that Karg Island, but then they're in a fishbow and their subject, you know, the Iranian, Carg Island is 15 miles off Iranian mainland. The artillery could reach it. They could be taking, you know, from 360 degrees drone warfare, missiles, ballistic missiles,

There was regular artillery shells, these kamikaze boats as well. It would be constant, almost like a death zone there. And I wouldn't even be surprised if Iran didn't fight hard to keep Karg Island because then they would sort of have our Marines almost a sitting ducks. And it would require a real commitment. It would require tens of thousands, in my opinion. Boy, if there's one thing I think we've learned out of this conflict, it's that you cannot keep sending three and a half million dollar tomahawks to knock down a $30,000 attack drone. Boy, we've got to do something about that on our side of the military equation, wouldn't you think? 100%. We're losing the economic attrition 200 to 1. So when you send a $4 million patriot missile to knock out a $30,000 Iranian drone, that's a problem. That's something.

that, you know, Iran has an advantage in that. You know, they can't compete with us, you know, as far as winning a military war, but a war of attrition of economy like that, they were built for that. American wasn't, in my opinion. And I think we have to take some valuable lessons, you know, from this, as we move forward with our defense budget. John Deaton is running for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts. I'm going to take out Ed Markey. By the way, you can fight out more. Go to his website and also donate John Deaton for. Senate.com. Really simple. And you know how it goes? Mother's Milk of politics is a good campaign financing. I'm glad you don't have to spend much on the primary, but we'll certainly stay in touch with you because this could be a big deal in tipping some balance on the Senate.

And John, a pleasure talking with you as always. Seriously, okay? Always a pleasure. Thank you for having me, Bill. Yep, you are always welcome back. John Deaton for Senate.com. 730. You're on KMEDE.D. Solar energy companies may come and go, but Max Energy Solar Cleaning is your dependable local solution to maintain your residential or business solar array. Max Energy Solar Cleaning has a reputation of providing fast, professional cleaning, annual safety inspections of panels and wiring, and coordination of warranty repairs with the manufacturer if issues are detected. Protect your investment with an annual cleaning and maintenance plan. Max Energy also offers rooftop moss removal and gutter cleaning services. Visit MaxEnergySc.com.

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Mike Pelfrey in a few minutes when it comes to medical transparency, what his experience has been here in Southern Oregon. We have a good talk about that. Reading over the weekend that the sound of my childhood, CBS Radio News, coming to a close, it's going to end this spring. Westwood once saying they're going to get rid of it due to the new modern economic realities. Just CBS Radio News is going to go away.

Yeah, I tell you, we were happy to get Fox. Fox Radio News seems to be doing just fine, but when I was growing up, it wasn't Fox Radio News. It was CBS. That was it. That was the gold standard, the Tiffany Network even. I remember, of course, I told you I was a kid in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area when I was growing up, and it was always,

remember that top of the hour ID, 10-20, KDKA, Pittsburgh, Group W, a Westinghouse Broadcasting Company. That's the way it was. Every hour, it was just like, boom, there you went. And that is gone. Of course, you may notice that I grabbed even that top of the hour, ding, the pluck, because we still use that today. We used to be CBS Radio News here on KMED a number of years ago.

Yep, there it is, the pluck. We still use it. So my salute. A hundred years, almost a hundred years. CBS Radio News has been there and no longer, but times change for sure. We'll catch up on the rest of the local news and beyond. And then Mike Pelfrey here, medical transparency, his experience coming up. Are you using extension cords outside?

You likely need completed electric plug in Medford. This hour of the Bill Myers show is sponsored by Glacier Heating and Air, making sense of the heating and air business. 740. Last hour I was talking about medical price transparency with an organization. They were concerned about medical transparency when it comes to parents, parents and their kids. You know, it's difficult to budget if you can't know what medical treatment regimen will end up costing for a child. That makes a lot of sense.

But it works for me big people too. And Mike Pelfrey joins me from Grants Pass. He raised an issue with his experience in getting treatment for some maladies he's dealing with. Welcome to the show. Good morning. Good morning, Bill. How are you today? I'm doing fine.

I imagine when you heard that guest last hour, you're thinking, yep, I know. I get it. And tell me what happened with you here recently as you're going through the hospital systems. Well, your previous guest that you had earlier hit a lot of hot buttons. I can tell you that I, of course, two years ago, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. And supposedly it's more of on the lower. risk side of the type of prostate cancer that you could get. That's good.

That's good. I'm glad it's lower risk. I'm glad to hear that because I know for most of we guys here, Mike, as Dr. Price told you, you know, you live long enough and we'll almost all have some form of it, usually slow growing, hopefully. You hope that's the case. Absolutely. Yeah.

And so, of course, you know, in December, November, December, you start getting notified that it's time to renew your insurances. And so, of course, you know, middle-class America is the one that's always getting hit the hardest because if you don't have any money, they give you everything. If you have plenty of money, it doesn't matter. But if you're stuck in the middle, those are the folks that suffer the most. So, of course, I made a decision to make a change with my health insurance. But really, the biggest change I only made was just to lower my deductible and pretty much everything stayed the same. and then I had a, I'll just call it a scheduled checkup in January to go see the doctor.

My previous doctor had left this practice, so of course this was the first time seeing the new doctor. And this was over there at the Spears Cancer, I guess it's the Cancer Ward over there at Asante. And they also have one down in Edwards. Is this Asante Three Rivers where you were? That is correct. Okay. All right. And so, you know, I go in there and I sit in the, of course, they come and call your name. You sit in. The nurse comes and just ask you a few things. It's pretty much a basic routine exam. And then I'm waiting on the doctor that tap the door and he comes in. And we have our discussion. And he tells me that he thinks it would be advisable for me to go have a follow-up MRI, which, you know, I thought that that sounds pretty reasonable. It's been two years. And so, and so I. And so I. And so I. left and that was it and then when I got my statement from my insurance I noticed that you know I paid my co-tayment but I saw a fee called observation room so I'm trying to determine exactly

what that meant and and of course this fee was six hundred and twenty-five dollars as as a fee for observation room so I reached out to the folks at Asante billing and they told me that that was just another name for facility charge. Oh. So what they're doing, yeah, so what they're doing is if you seek any treatment, whether it's in the hospital or if you go to, say, Asante physician partners and you think that you're going in there and your insurance tells you that you're going to just pay your co-pay for a specialist visit of $65 or $70, you're going to get a huge surprise once you receive

your benefit statement from your insurance company. Okay, now let me ask you, I just want to drill into this, Mike. So the $625 observation fee, right? It was not built into the doctor's fee, which would be covered by insurance. Am I correct in assuming that? That is absolutely correct. If I had seen that exact same doctor and he had his own brick-and-mortar office, that I would have only paid the co-payment.

I would not have been charged this ridiculous fee, and really what this fee is, I mean, I've been around for a long time, and I can tell you that it's pretty much we're paying a fee because we're having to make up the difference for all the free benefits that people are receiving. Yeah, whether it's in health plan or whether it's the, you know, the bombs in the housing complexes or, you know, the homelessness complexes in Southern Way.

It's everybody, everybody, right? Exactly. Exactly. Now, see, that is the equivalent in my view, Mike, of when you go to some of these resorts now, the junk fees that get tacked on, you know, to everything. It's like, well, here's a bar fee. Here's another fee for the Internet. Here's another fee for these are all sorts of things that used to be included.

And this is the medical equivalent of a junk fee, is it not? Well, it is. But, you know what's even more ridiculous. So, of course, I follow the doctor's advice. I scheduled to have the MRI done. Now, I knew the MRI wasn't going to be covered because I hadn't met my deductible, so I paid for that out of pocket. But then, of course, what did the doctor want?

He wanted me to come see him after the MRI results came in so that he can let me know whether that MRI pointed in, you know, whatever direction it pointed. So this would mean yet another office visit, which would be covered, but then it would be another $625 junk fee, right? Absolutely it did that. And I was so angry at that because, of course, you know, how easy would it have been for the doctor to just pick up the phone or even if their nurse picked up the phone and said, Mr. Pelfry, oh, by the way, your MRI was clear. We don't need to see you. No, they didn't do that. I went in, sat there. I bet you that appointment wasn't 10 minutes. And I get my benefit statement again. and sure enough, there's this fee. So I have gone back and forth with these folks. And as your earlier caller alluded to, she stated that medical bills, medical debt is some of the highest in the form of bankruptcy filing.

And it's overwhelming. So imagine a person that needs ongoing treatment because, of course, if you've got prostate cancer or anything else that needs to be monitored, you're not going to see them once a year. You're going to be seeing them probably once a quarter or maybe every six months. And the bottom line is that, you know, these expenses add up. And I now can absolutely see why so many people have medical debt as their biggest, overwhelming bearing as far as debt is concerned. Yeah, let's see.

Ten minute visit, and it's $60 copay, $625 junk fee facility charge. that sort of thing. That's about $4,000 an hour, you know, if you were to extrapolate it over an hour. Now, by the way, I understand people have to get paid. I really do, Mike. I'm not, you know, denigrating that aspect of it. But should not that facility fee be built into the fee of any physician? Or do they only charge that facility fee to people with private insurance?

And I'm wondering if what happens is that, let's say you walk in with, Medicare, you know, Medicare is kind of dictated by the federal government and maybe Oregon Health Plan. Maybe those fees don't get charged for that. I don't know. I'm just kind of, you know, speculating with you. Do you have any idea? Well, I personally what I think is I feel that this industry, the medical industry,

every insurance company and every, whatever that agreement is, just because someone changed their insurance to try to make a better decision for their family, doesn't. shouldn't mean that they're going to be hit with surprises and excess fees because that agreement wasn't in place with that particular insurance company versus maybe the one that they had previously. Oh, yeah. And that's what I was talking with her about last hour, right? The special deals that the insurance companies end up cutting. But on the other hand, you're still paying the facility fee from what it sounds like, correct? Yeah, you're going to, like I even paid that fee last year, that the fee last year, and I had Regents Blue Cross Blue Shield at the time, the facility fee was $150

versus $625. Whoa. Man, and I know we've had some inflation, Mike, but we haven't had that much inflation. Well, according to Asante, what the lady told me, and I have to admit, the first person I talked to was, was, I could say that she wasn't, she, her customer service was, um, was, was, lacking. Finally, when you, you know, what I try to tell, even I tell my clients this, just mention the term supervisor. I want to speak to your supervisor. Get past all the baloney because they're just going to tell you what they need to tell you to get you off the phone. It sounds to me like this is a major complaint. I'm actually meeting and hearing people that

tell me the same thing about this particular fee. And according to Asante, they're charging this see so that they can continue to offer their services and the supplies and all the other things that they do. That's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard in my life. Now, it's making up for those that aren't, well, it's making up for those who really aren't paying their way is what it's doing. Well, yeah, I told them, I said, if I come in, I said, the next time I come for an appointment, I'm going to identify as either a homeless person or an illegal immigrant. And she just kind of giggled. Yeah, they know. Don't they? They get it. They do know.

Yeah. Mike, what is the final result of this, or is this a final result, has Asante agreed to? And by the way, I'm not picking on Asante. I imagine there's probably a similar charge with improv. You know, same sort of thing. This is, you know, probably the same with both hospital situations. Can you negotiate that down? Have you asked about it? I'm just curious. What has your experience been like? Well, you know, I've always said that everything's negotiable. So it never hurts to ask. You should not just take what someone tells you and run with it. You should always ask to either speak to a supervisor,

somebody that could actually make an informed decision and ask if it can be negotiable. Now, what they always tell you, and I don't know if you've got medical treatment lately, but you'll notice that when you get medical treatment today, you obviously, automatically get some type of information regarding medical assistance. Yeah, if you can't pay. Yeah. If you can't pay. But remember, this is really for those that fall in between certain income levels and certain asset levels.

And as usual, it's always middle America that ends up getting, facing the brunt of everything. Yeah, you have a half million dollars in the bank or something like that. You don't care, you know, for the facility. charges, things like that. And if you have nothing in the bank, then it's Oregon Health Plan or Medicare, Medicaid, some kind of Medicare-Medicaid deal. Yeah. All right. Yeah, and they always tell you, oh, by the way, you can always make payments if you would like. Uh-huh. Okay. Yeah, I don't want to make payment. Now, were you able to see what these charges were before you had treatment, or was this all after the fact that you found out?

No, it was. I wasn't able. So even last, when I first, I would go back to 2024 when I was first diagnosed and I went over to the Spears Cancer Treatment Center and sought out the advice from the radiologist over there, the radiology oncology department. No one mentioned anything about this facility fee at any process. Even when you checked in, no one, you know. I mean, $625 is not a small amount of money for just a facility fee.

You know, that's a big deal, really is. No. And nor did the insurance company. So, again, according to Asante, the $150 charge for the facility fee, they said that that was offset by their negotiations with Regents Blue Cross. that when I switched to Moda, there was nothing anywhere. And I'm pretty meticulous about researching things. There was nothing that mentioned anything for the fact that this facility charge would be passed on directly to me. There would be no negotiation or there would be no discount just because you're with a different insurance company.

So the transparency aspect of this is what's extremely lacking. Yeah. What is the real cost? I want to know what the real cost of everything is coming in, right? And you can't get that right now from the sounds of it. Absolutely. If I would have known that when I was looking at changing my insurance from Blue Cross to Moda, then I would have been able to make a much better informed choice for my health care.

Mike Pelfrey, once again, from Josephine County just sharing his experience. And by the way, I assure you, we are not picking on Asante. because I would venture a guess that all systems are kind of going through this whole junk fee thing. That, okay, well, it used to be a facility fee. You know, it's an operating room fee. It's like, oh, now we have to charge you for the – well, this is kind of my focus on service here in the world that we are in today. Mike, like when you go into a grocery store and everything's self-served against the point that someday they'll ask you to unload the truck out back before you can go shopping for food. You know, but

Yeah. Yeah, this is kind of all along that line, the crappification of services here and also, especially what you're charged. Let me go to next line. Hi, good morning, KMEDE. Who's this? I mean, good morning, Bill. This is Logan. Yeah, Logan.

You want to the way in on Mike's issue here? Go ahead. Yeah, you know, a couple times you said you don't want to pick on Asante, but, you know, I think as a community, we should start picking on Asante a little bit more. You know, back during COVID, They terminated so many of their great employees for not taking the vaccine. I mean, this has been a long history. And I'm not talking, I'm talking to employees who had their religious exemptions granted, and were they were terminated.

And when they were terminated, it's not like they were filling their positions with nurses that were vaccinated. They literally filled positions with traveling nurses that weren't even vaccinated. I am convinced. I am thoroughly convinced, especially with all the stuff going on since, between the nurses, stealing the fentanyl and da-da-da-da-da-a-da. Asante's leadership is evil. I'm going to go that extreme. They are evil, and they need to be called out for such as they are. They still have done nothing to compensate all these people they wrongfully terminated. They're wrong. Asante, I don't know who they're ran by. Their CEO, their COO, they need to be, they need

to be repent, and they need to be called out for the evil that they are and the evil that they've been doing in this community. So please. Yeah, well, I'm trying to focus on this one particular issue right now. I appreciate your opinion on that, Logan. I can't really speak to that. Okay. All right. Well, this call a state of spade. They're evil. We don't need to be protected. Okay. All right. I appreciate that. What do you think about that with your experience here, given what Logan had said about this? Does that cross your mind here, Mike, or you're just focusing on the nuts and bolts of your particular case? Well, you know, he triggered a couple things in me because, of course, I never bought into the, of course, I referred to it as the scamdemic.

And I think about all of the, you know, during the, during the COVID era, you know, you would see these videos of all of these medical professionals, the nurses, the doctors, you name them. And they all had plenty, you know, we were literally in the middle of what they called the dead pandemic ever. All of the news stations had a death clock. Of course, they only had that during Trump's administration. That death clock went away when the fake Biden showed up. But ultimately, what ended up happening is these people had so, it was such a deadly, deadly and terrible time that, man, they had plenty of time to make dance videos or these goofy videos that they made that showed up all over the internet. So perhaps these facility fees that I am having to pay and many other consumers are

having to pay is to make up for all of the loss because to me, this is just, here's what I want to say. At what point is it enough? How does the average family make ends meet when they are getting beat from every direction possible? Their property taxes go up. And then, of course, if you have any type of medical care, you've got to deal with that. So families right now have a really tough battle that they're going to have to really pay attention to what they're doing. And, you know, it would be a shame that when people realize that they have maybe something going on with their health, that they start thinking about that as a financial issue rather than a medical issue, and they don't seek care. and and then they end up going down that path.

And, you know, that's something that should never happen. Our medical system and our country is extremely flawed, and somebody needs to rectify this, and they need to rectify it as sooner than later. All right. Mike, I appreciate you sharing your experience. Like I said, you sort of struck a chord with me, given that I knew I was going to be talking with another guest about this medical transparency issue and how it's next to impossible to get it.

You don't know what something will cost. I don't know if anybody around here is doing what the Surgery Center of Oklahoma does, as an example. It's right there online. Every fee for every procedure is there. And I want to ask you, when it came time for your MRI, did you go to that GranchPass nonprofit? I forget the name of it, like the GranchPass Imaging Center. Did you use that, or did you use the Asante? or Providence facilities?

Well, of course, the doctor at Asante, he wanted me to use Asante's MRI. He wanted me to do it to Asante because he said that it would be more readily accessible. All they have to do is click a button, and there it is. And I told him, I said, well, as a consumer, I need to make sure that I make the best decision for me and my family. and I went to the, I think it's called rogue imaging. Yeah, that's what I was thinking of. Yeah, mid-rog imaging. Absolutely.

It was about $400 or $500 cheaper, and I told the doctor, I said, listen, all I've got to do or all you have to do is reach out to them and they'll send you the result. I'm not worried about the convenience part of this. I'm worried about the bottom line. Yeah, and then you have the situation where, in order to tell you what they thought of the MRI from mid-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R. rogue imaging, then you have the $625 facility fee, et cetera. And then, okay, yeah, interesting. Yes. All right, Mike, thanks for sharing that, okay?

And we appreciate you at least sounding the alarm. I'll bet you're not the only one experiencing this right now, okay? Take care. I'm sure I'm not. Thank you, Bill. You take care. Mike Pelfrey of the Grants Pass area. It's 8 o'clock.

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