C (6:07)

Okay. Fran in Florida says, are airline ticket consolidators worth looking into for international flights? And if so, who do you recommend?

B (6:15)

I don't recommend any consolidators because it's kind of like buying a junk bond. You may get a better deal, but it comes with heightened risk. Consolidators used to be a really, really big part of international travel because international airfares, even way after we deregulated domestic airfares, international airfares were set by a cartel setting organization called iata International Air Transport Association. They're just a lobbying and trade association now, but long ago they would set these fares. And so consolidators were people who had the airline ticket stock and had a under the table deal with an airline. They could write them at cheaper fares. None of that exists anymore. So a consolidator is someone who has some kind of crazy under the table thing where supposedly they can write cheaper tickets. But a lot of times the worst problems people have is when they use one of these organizations. You got to really know who you're dealing with and be comfortable with the risks associated with them. Which brings me to what happens when you're looking at fares like on a kayak search or many times on a Google search. You'll see on an international fare search these prices listed with who knows who those people are. And often they come under that umbrella of consolidators. And I'll tell you the consumer problems people have customer no service problems using those UFOs, to me, they are not worth the savings.

C (7:59)

Yeah, and you like to save money.

B (8:01)

I do like to save.

C (8:02)

No way. Alex in Florida says I usually go to Europe once a year and have been exchanging US dollars to Euros with an app called Revolut. Exchanging at the airport is the worst and local banks tend to take a big cut. I keep an eye on the exchange rates throughout the year and try to exchange when the US dollar is strong to get the most value. I know there are many other apps out there, but I would like to know which is best with the lowest international transfer fees. I do like that I can have my Revolut digital cash card in my Google wallet. Other than that, I don't need any of the other stuff.

B (8:34)

So Revolut, as I've mentioned in the past, and people who have Revolut accounts like I do as well received a very confusing notice about Revolut changing who they work with in the United States. As best I can tell, it's of no significance to those of us with Revolut accounts. You get extremely favorable fantastic exchange rates using Revolut or carrying the Revolut card that works like a stored value card and you can get ATM money with it and stuff like that. And their big competitor for money transfer is Wise Wise money transfer. Any of these work so vastly superior to anybody ever going into any bank in the United States and ever getting any foreign currency. It's like the bankers get up in the morning and say, how can we cheat Americans more? And I don't think they cheat us any more than they do on foreign currency exchange in the United States. So the best thing to do other than Revolut or something like wise when you're traveling overseas, have a credit card that doesn't charge foreign currency junk fees. We have an extensive list@clark.com they're very common today. Or use an ATM card that doesn't charge you junk fees. My favorite for that that's worked so well for years is the Charles Schwab card. Those of you USAA have had great success with their card for getting money from ATMs, so there are ways. You don't necessarily have to get ripped off when you're outside the United States and you need foreign currency or you need to buy things in a foreign country. But there are a lot of people out there trying to rip you off. The beauty of Revolut is their entire architecture from the ground up is about not ripping you off.

C (10:37)

Jacqueline in Texas says, I have a question about buying a car. I am a teacher who transitioned to teaching privately from home as a tutor and have been self employed for about three years now. My current car, a 2013 Hyundai Accent with 130,500 miles.

B (10:52)

Good for you. You got a car that's 12 model years old and way past the century mark on miles. You got to feel great about that.

C (11:02)

Yep. She says it's starting to show signs of wear, problems with starting shaking, inconsistent air conditioning, etc. Clark, should I use my business credit or personal credit to buy this car? I guess let's buy a new car. I have an EIN and an LLC registration.

B (11:17)

Okay. So there's no advantage in particular to you buying it through business credit? Because with any kind of business credit as a small business person, they're piercing the corporate veil. You're liable personally and corporately, so there's no specific advantage unless the credit that's available to you as a business owner is at a lower cost than the credit you would have as an individual the place you may find an advantage is there. A number of automakers have specials available for business purchases of a vehicle that are not available for consumer purchases of a vehicle. So if you qualify, having your ein, having an llc, all that. If you're eligible for a lower purchase price on a vehicle as a business entity, that's where the real savings is, not necessarily on whether you're paying for it using personal credit or business credit. And good job on taking a vehicle that was ultra cheap to start with a 2013 accent, driving it for so many years and so many miles, you've been basically driving for a long time for almost free. It's great. Coming up ahead, Amazon has hit a lot of dead ends over time trying to break into health care. They have a new initiative that may not make them money, but could be useful to you that I want to talk about.

A (12:59)

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B (17:39)

Story first about Amazon. Amazon bought a provider of healthcare called One Medical. And I travel so much around the United States and overseas, but I'm gone all the time. Like where do I live? And so there will be times I get sick, who knows where in the United States. So I've been reading about One Medical a long time and I have Amazon Prime. So through Amazon Prime I was able to pay an annual membership fee that I think was 109 for me and much cheaper for family members. And so we all have these One Medical memberships. And you're assigned to a physician who is your physician record or to a PA or np. And everything is done through an app, the One Medical app. So you make an appointment on the app, you see your lab results on the app, you can ask your provider a question on the app, you can have a. As my son did off at school, he needed, he was not feeling well, he needed an appointment and he was able to get an immediate video call with a doctor through the app on his iPhone and was able to have that. I mean it's not the same as in person having sitting there with a medical provider and them being able to examine you. But there's a lot that a medical provider may be able to do in a video meeting or not as well with some kind of chat kind of thing where they're not seeing you, they're not assessing you. But this is something that has worked amazingly well for one of my daughters, my son. It's worked well for me. My wife is, I don't think ever used it and I think I'm paying 49 or 59 a year for it for her. But what's really been fantastic for me is I've used it when I've been traveling and I've been able to go on the app, tell them where I am or it knows geolocation and make an appointment right there. And I was able to get a same day appointment and go into an office and see a provider who had already looked at my electronic record that they have knew my back story. It was a very useful appointment. So is it the solution for me for long term? I don't know. I don't know. I think I'm kind of out of the age demo that they're really focused on. But I've been very happy with my provider and the experience I've had. And I had an annual physical recently. It was not as involved as I remember with physicals in the past, which is why I think it was geared towards younger people. But I had all the lab work and learn stuff from it that was useful. And it's really, really thinking in the modern way with everything being electronic and the ability to use it all over the place. Well, now Amazon's come up with a thing because I guess they don't have enough the number of enrollments they'd like in one medical. So now they're giving people the chance to take it for a test drive. And what it's for is if you need an urgent visit with a doctor or medical provider again it could be an NP or PA. You are able for 29 bucks to do a chat or $49 do a video meeting with a medical provider. And it's pretty much on demand. If somebody's available, you get it right away. And this again for Amazon people, you're able to do this. And it all ties in with Amazon looking for industries that have max inefficiency. And I was talking with a medical researcher. He and I were at dinner the other night and we were talking about how it just blows my mind that medicine is still using blizzards of paper and you go to a medical provider and they hand you a stupid clipboard like it's 1926 and with a pencil or a pen you're filling out paperwork. And with me it is really stupid because nobody can read my handwriting anyway. So the idea of making things modern and electronic where think about when I went another city and that provider, that doctor was able already to see my medical history and what had been going on with me and all that electronically and was across the country. So Amazon gets that, that they've got to squeeze inefficiencies out of the medical system if they're going to be an effective clinical provider. That'll be time telling us that.

C (23:05)

Okay. Jake in Utah wrote in my 7 year old daughter recently experienced a medical emergency and was transported via ground ambulance to our local ER where the doctors she is where the doctors determined that it would be necessary to fly her via helicopter to a well known children's hospital.

B (23:22)

Wow.

C (23:23)

They were able to save her life. We will be forever grateful for the first responders and medical professionals. I began listening to Clark in the mid-2000s, first on radio and later on the very early days of podcasting. I've always tried to follow his advice and it has greatly blessed my family. I've been funding my Roth 401k and have a 10k plus emergency fund and 20k plus in CDs which was supposed to be a trip fund. I have High deductible health insurance plan through my work, but unfortunately only a meager 1k in an HSA. This was something we were actively working on improving. The claim for the helicopter service alone is over $30,000 and is currently marked as out of network with our portion tbd. What do we do?

B (24:05)

Okay, first of all, the really great news that your child is okay and that quick work and the children's hospital your child was medevac to was able to save your child's life. So this helicopter medevac is covered by the no Surprises act and the reason it's marked is out of network and then TBD for your portion. They can only bill you for that helicopter. What would be in network in your plan? A lot of people don't know that. A lot of people never heard of the no Surprises Act. If you just go to whatever search engine Google or whatever you use and put in no surprises act, medevac or air ambulance or something like that, you'll see all the briefings that explain. Because we've had your question before where people are being billed a full out of network price. In your case the 30 grand, it won't be anywhere near that. It'll be based on what in network would be considered to be in your high deductible health plan. And I hope that that helps you get that bill down to a reasonable amount of money and hopefully your trip.

C (25:24)

Fund can remain your trip fund.

B (25:26)

Right.

C (25:27)

Judy in Kentucky says how do consumers navigate the routine versus diagnostic billing nightmare of the medical industry? I went in for a routine mammogram and bone density test. For the bone density test, since the radiologist determined I have osteopenia, they said that it shifted the coding from routine, which would be 100% covered by insurance as preventative to diagnostic. I have to pay. Is this really the intent of the Affordable Care Act?

B (25:53)

Absolutely not.

C (25:54)

I didn't go to the radiology center to diagnose any problem, only to have my routine annual physical scans done as part of my annual physical. It would seem the bill should reflect the initial reason for the visit, not the outcome of the testing. Can I challenge this? Thanks for all you and your team do.

B (26:10)

Yes. Polite persistence pays in a case like this. And you'll need to work hard with the practice to get them to recode. I don't know if they somehow make more money by the recode or not. It's possible they make a lot more from it and they say, oh well, as a courtesy, we will relieve you of your co pay on this because it's possible that the amount they made from the recoding is so much larger that that's why they did that. But no, you should not suffer when you went in for a routine test just to make sure you were okay to suddenly have it recoded. And the joke's on you with you having to pay out of pocket.

C (26:57)

Michelangelo in Ohio says, recently I was going through my financial transactions and noticed that I paid my doctor over $70 back in May. After doing some research, I found out that it was for my annual primary care visit. But then it occurred to me that that should have been covered by my work insurance. And I don't know why I didn't question the bill at the time. After contacting customer service, it appears that weight, height, blood pressure, et cetera are covered, but that I also asked my doctor about my shoulder making a popping sound and that about some eczema, etc. And that is what I got charged for, even though it was my annual once a year doctor visit. Is this even legal? What about ethical? Again, like, same thing. This is a pattern.

B (27:41)

Yeah, yeah, that sounds really not right at all. I would love to see if you go to the doctor's website, see how they describe what you get in an annual physical or annual checkup and see if they say that it only covers blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah blah, and that anything else will be billed optionally. From the way you describe it, it sounds like it is not ethical, what happened in your case. And I think you could also have somebody call up and say, hey, I was interested. What do you do in an annual physical? And have somebody describe to you. It may be that they say, well, we do this, but we don't do that, whatever.

C (28:31)

And you know, somebody ask questions of a doctor.

B (28:33)

Yeah, it's completely normal that if you're there for an annual physical, the doctor is there to see. He or she is checking you out to see if you're okay. If there's any points of concern, it seems completely normal. You say, yeah, I'm doing pretty well, except this shoulder of mine is really. I'm having trouble raising my arm really well. Oh, this one, I mean, this one too. You know, it's like whatever. That seems normal to me is normal course of business and would not be an extra bill. And I'm sure that we will hear from doctors some feedback on their perspective on that. But it seems to me it would be reasonable that that should have been covered in your annual physical. What do you think?

C (29:23)

I totally agree. I think that's crazy.

B (29:25)

All right, Docs, let's hear your perspective. And thank you so much for joining us today and appreciate you joining us on our first show of December as we are closing in on Christmas. And I want to mention to you that we are in the midst of our 34th annual Clark's Christmas Kids, where we ask for your donations for children in foster care who state what they would like for Christmas and hope that you'll step up and make it possible for them to have those gifts Christmas morning. These are kids who are not with their families this Christmas because for whatever reason, the adults in their lives are not able right now to take care of them and they're either in a foster group home with foster family, foster parent right now. And it's great that these resources are available, but it's really tough. Think about not being with your family this Christmas if you can help us out and bring the wishes for a child true this Christmas morning coming up, please go to clarkschristmaskids.com and it's all self explanatory. There you can pick out an individual child you'd like to buy a gift or gifts for or just give us a donation and we'll take care of buying gifts for a child this Christmas and have a great rest of your day and we'll be with you tomorrow.