Four people, one office, since 2011
We are small deliberately. The person who helps you choose is the person who picks up when something goes wrong in March.
Why we started
Vera Nakashima spent nine years in hospital billing before this. She spent those years watching people be discharged into bills they had no way of understanding, and often into bills they should never have received at all.
The problem was almost never at the billing desk. It was two years earlier, at a kitchen table, when somebody picked a plan without knowing what they were picking. So in 2011 she moved upstream.
Why everything here is written like this
The official Medicare vocabulary is not deliberately hostile, but it was written by people who already understand Medicare. “Coinsurance”, “benefit period”, “creditable coverage” and “guaranteed issue” are all doing real work, and none of them tell you what to do.
So we have a house rule for every page and every phone call: explain the word the first time you use it, and never define a term using another term. Our glossary is written to that rule, and if we break it, tell us and we will rewrite the entry.
Who you will be speaking to
Vera Nakashima
Vera spent nine years in hospital billing before she started this. She had watched too many people discharged into a bill they did not understand, and decided the fix was upstream: get the coverage right before anyone gets sick.
Dale Brubaker
Dale handles most of our Medigap conversations. He is the person who will tell you, plainly, when the cheaper plan is the wrong plan for you, and when it is not.
Yolanda Reece-Padgett
Yolanda is who you reach when a claim looks wrong or a pharmacy charges you something strange. She will call the plan for you and stay on hold so you do not have to.
Emmanuel Osei-Bonsu
Emmanuel runs our drug-plan reviews every fall. He reads formularies for a living and has strong opinions about tiering.
How we are paid, in full
We are a licensed independent insurance agency. When you enroll in a plan through us, the insurance company pays us a commission. Two things about that are worth stating plainly:
- It costs you nothing. Your premium is set by the plan and filed with regulators. It is identical whether you enroll through us, through another agency, or directly with the company.
- The amount is capped and standardized. For Medicare Advantage and Part D, CMS sets maximum commissions, and they are the same across companies. That is deliberate: it removes the incentive to steer you toward whoever pays most.
Medigap commissions are not capped in the same way and do vary a little between companies. We will tell you if the plan we are recommending happens to be one of those, and you should feel free to ask.
The commission is paid annually for as long as you keep the plan, which is why our incentive is to place you somewhere you will still be happy in five years, not to place you at all costs today.
What we will not do
- Cold-call you. If we have not spoken, we are not phoning you.
- Sell, rent or share your details. There is no data broker at the end of this.
- Run a newsletter you did not ask for.
- Pretend a decision expires today. Nothing in Medicare expires at the end of a phone call.
Read the privacy page for the full detail.
Where we are licensed
Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. We are appointed with most of the carriers selling in those states, but not every carrier, and there are plans in your area we do not offer. When that is the case we will say so and point you to Medicare.gov or 1-800-MEDICARE so you can see everything.
Come and see us, or just call.
The office is on Adams Street in Toledo and there is parking behind the building. Most people never need to visit, and that is fine too.