Medicare Advantage vs Medicare Supplement/Medigap – long version

Before you proceed, there is another version of this article just extremely concise almost like a robot rewrote it. I’ll give you the option but I warn you, you’ll miss out on some good reading!

When you are about to enroll into Medicare, you mainly have two options: Medicare Advantage (MA) or Original Medicare with a Medicare Supplement (MedSupp) policy. A third option could be a retiree plan that come in several forms too. Many are Medicare Advantage plans designed by the employer and others look a lot like a Medicare Supplement. In this post we will focus on non retiree options, the options that anyone can get when they enroll into Medicare.

I want to clarify though, that you have to be enrolled into both Medicare part A (usually no cost) and Medicare part B (in 2024 most pay $174.70/month) to be able to join one of these two options. You cannot enroll into both an MA and MedSupp, it has to be one or the other. Can you switch from one to the other? Technically yes but there are some caveats we have to cover but later on that.

My goal is not to sway anyone towards choosing one over the other, but to understand the main differences and clarify some misunderstandings. I’ll go over pros and cons of both plans based on my personal opinions as well as feedback I generally hear from my clients. I personally like both types of plans and see the value that each offer in the market.

There is a lot to cover but why don’t we just do this: first we’ll talk about MA plans, then we’ll talk about MedSupp and lastly we’ll circle back to both side by side. Hopefully by the end you’ll retain enough information to help you have a good general idea. Maybe you’ll need to read it again or a third time. Okay let me be frank I wouldn’t be in business if it was that easy but this will help, trust me.

Medicare Advantage – Overview

Things I want to cover:

• What is a Medicare Advantage Plan?
• Where does the money come from?
• Do these plans have any oversight or does the insurance company do what they want?
• How are they structured, what do people pay?
• How often do they change?
• What sort of benefits do they have? Is there a document each plan has a that tells me their benefits?
• What are medical authorizations?
• What are referrals?
• Do these plans have networks? What are networks?
• Can you switch back to Original Medicare?
• Are there special times when you can enroll?

A Medicare Advantage Plan is basically a Medicare replacement plan or a privatized Medicare Plan. An insurance company gets permission to offer these plans by Medicare, which means that Medicare has oversight on what these plans are allowed to cover, charge and Medicare rates them annually on a 5 star rating system. At minimum these plans must cover what Medicare covers. Most of these plans offer prescription drug plans. Some are designed for people that have both Medicaid and Medicare and others are tailored to a range of customer needs. For example, there are plans that are designed for those that qualify and have Extra Help (which helps with costs of medications), others are designed to refund some of the money they pay for Medicare part B and others are rich in extra benefits like dental, vision and hearing. There are A LOT of plans! The plans that don’t have drug coverage included are usually designed for those that already get drug coverage from another program like the Veterans Administration.

The MA plans all have the same basic design, there is a Maximum out of pocket (MOOP) component. Which is what? Is exactly as it sounds, the maximum you could pay for medical services in one year. For example the maximum out of pocket could range between $2,900 to over $8,000 and could be affected if the plan has an out of network component to it. These plans run on a calendar year basis. The benefits could change. Therefore, the plans are required to send notifications of the changes to their members every year. This document is called the Annual Notice of Change or ANOC.

MA plans could have a monthly premium or they could have zero premium, and this may have you pondering: “How can they offer a plan for $0 cost?” It’s simple. Medicare pays the insurance plans a monthly amount for every person that enrolls in their plan. Why would Medicare pay the insurance company? Because by paying they are giving the responsibility of paying all the medical claims and administering healthcare to that insurance company, Medicare will not be involved in paying any claims (except for Hospice). Remember that if someone has Original Medicare A & B, the government would be liable to pay at least 80% of all the approved medical claims. So by allowing a private insurance company to manage the healthcare of Medicare beneficiaries they could save money.

Original Medicare doesn’t cover certain types of healthcare most are accustomed to have, for example: routine dental, vision (optometrist, glasses/contacts), hearing aids, ok maybe this last one is not common. Anyway, that’s where many MA plans shine because they are allowed by Medicare to cover these and more. Some plans will include monthly or quarterly amounts for their members to purchase over the counter items, most plans will have fitness membership at no cost, others will give allowances to pay for utilities, groceries, pet care and more. A lot of plans will have routine transportation to approved locations like doctor appointments. Those plans that have all those benefits must have a premium, right? No, not the case. But careful some plans that offer SUBSTANCIAL amount of these benefits could be plans designed for those that have both Medicare & Medicaid. But you can’t get tricked (wait wait…you CAN be tricked but you shouldn’t) or be enroll into something that you are not eligible for because each plan has a Summary of Benefits. In the first few pages of this document the plan must inform you if there are certain requirements needed to be able to join the plan. This document also has all the necessary information about the benefits for you to make a decision, well almost.

In general most plans don’t have a Medical deductible, a deductible is an amount that has to be met before the plan helps you pay for those services. It’s usually a set amount and it may only apply to certain services (e.g. hospital services). Most services will have a co-pay or a coinsurance that you must pay. A co-pay is a set amount and it’s the same every time, for example every time you go to a specialist office you must pay $30. An example of coinsurance is: if you get any chemo therapy you’ll be responsible for 20% of the cost. In the summary of benefits all these benefits are identified clearly so you know exactly how much you have to pay, there shouldn’t be any mystery. So you can expect the summary of benefits to have a similar structure. You’ll usually see the monthly premium first, then the MOOP, the deductible (if any), the inpatient hospital co-pays, the out patient co-pays, Emergency and urgent care, preventive, Primary doctor and specialist co-pay, Dental, vision, hearing so on and so on. If the plan has prescription coverage the details will be included for that along with any other extra benefits.

The most expensive items in Medicare Advantage are usually hospital services, no surprise there. In-patient stays usually have a daily co-pay, for example you have to pay $250 per day for days 1-5 and then no co-pays there after on a consecutive hospital stay. The amount per day and the amount of days you could be charge vary by plan. The second highest expense are out patient hospital co-pays like when you have an out patient hospital surgery, for example that could be a $300 copay. Again these range based by plan. Third highest expense likely would be a high imaging diagnostic, example like an MRI, CT, PET scans etc. They could range similar to a surgery co-pay. But all these co-pays, deductibles (if any) and coinsurances all add up to the MOOP. Why is that important or why do you bring that up again? Because the maximum out of pocket is there to protect you from very excessive out of pocket costs. Similarly the co-pays are there to protect you as well. How so?

Ok we need another paragraph for this. Let me explain it by answering a common question: “what happens if I have a very expensive hospital stay, does that mean I have to pay the MOOP?” The answer is usually no. Why? Because the MOOP is not what you pay when you have a very expensive hospital stay, it is the maximum you COULD pay in the entire year. Ok then, how much COULD I pay if I were hospitalized for a WHOLE month? That’s easy. Let’s assume we have the benefits from the example we used above, in-patient hospital co-pay of $250 per day, for days 1-5 and then no co-pays afterwards. Using that example, a person that stayed in-patient for 30 days consecutively, will pay a whopping $1,250. HUH? Yes, that is the responsibility of the member. It doesn’t matter if the insurance was billed a million dollars, the member only pays the applicable co-pay.

BUT WHAT ABOUT ALL THOSE DOCTORS THAT SAW ME WHILE HOSPITALIZED, SURELY THEY WILL BILL TOO AND I’LL NEED TO PAY MORE, RIGHT? The simple answer is no. It’s like an all inclusive co-pay, nothing more. Ok ok ok, there’s gotta be a catch somewhere, right? No catch, that’s it. So then how do you get to the maximum out of pocket? Well let’s assume that this plan has a MOOP of $6,000 and all these services were performed in an in-network hospital. You would have to have another 4 in-patient hospital stays of 5 days each in order to accumulate enough co-pays to reach your $6,000 maximum out of pocket. At $1,250 each 5 days times 5 it would be $6,250 but since your MOOP is $6,000 the last $250 is on the house. Any other medical treatment you have is $0 cost to you for the rest of the year. Of course having that many hospital stays is unlikely (but possible, I had one client during COVID that went through that, bless her heart.) I would say most of my clients never reach their maximum out of pocket. Obviously one can reach the MOOP in one year, there are a lot of variables to consider but it’s likely not going to happen with one hospital stay.

Ok, let’s move on to Managed care, otherwise you’ll stop reading, you are still reading right? MA plans are being MANAGED by an insurance company, just like any other health insurance plan you’ve had (e.g. employer health insurance). This means they are involved in deciding whether a medical treatment is necessary or not. Why is this important? Since we are comparing between MedSupp and MA we need to highlight the differences, this is one of them. Remember, I will do a side by side comparison down below but for now let me explain this part.

Since an insurance company is involved in managing your health, this means that certain procedures would need to be authorized by the plan before a provider can perform such service. For example, say your doctor wants you to have an MRI scan. This diagnostic test will require that the physician (in a non emergency situation) request approval from the MA plan so you can get this test done. Without the authorization in place the plan could deny the claim. This process is mostly behind the scenes but there are times it comes out in the open, usually when your doctor tells you that the insurance company has denied their request for an MRI.

So why would an insurance company deny my doctors request for an MRI? Several reasons. 1) Your doctor’s office didn’t submit the necessary information to the health plan. 2) The criteria set by the health plan wasn’t met, meaning they didn’t believe it was necessary to have an MRI to treat or diagnose your condition. Likely another less expensive test wasn’t performed that could have given the needed diagnosis. 3) Other course of treatment wasn’t first attempted, for example someone with some knee pain could be required to have an xray, have physical therapy sessions to address their pain. None of those were performed and doctor skipped ahead to requesting an MRI. Aside from these three reasons there could be others but these are the most “famous”. And many times you don’t know the reason, some doctor offices are great about explaining the denial reason while others just tell you “they denied it”. The insurance plan should be able to give you some details but again, details seem to always be scarce.

This doesn’t mean that those on MA plans are always contending with denied authorizations, no but it could happen. And thus the reason why I made sure to include this detail on the MA side of our VS article that almost seems to be turning into a small novel. Ok, what about these “referrals”, what are those? Some HMO plans, which if I give you the definition of what is stands for will still leave you with a confused look. Basically HMO means that the plan has a set of network doctors or hospitals you must use, outside of emergency or urgent care you USUALLY cannot get care elsewhere, the plan will not pay. I know I said usually but, let’s keep this as a small novel, I mean article.

Referrals, yes let’s explain that. A referral is basically your primary care doctor referring you to a specialist, meaning the health plan may REQUIRE that before you go see a specialist (even if they are in the network) you first have your primary doctor “give you permission” to go. Most plans don’t have this requirement but there are still plans like that in certain markets. Again only applicable to HMO plans. MA plans several types of networks. Usually HMO, POS and PPO. Some networks are local, meaning in your area like your state, others are regional or even national networks. This is important if you want freedom of choice while traveling for long periods of time. Say someone that stays several months out of the year in another state, if they have an MA plan they’ll likely want to have in-network providers in their home state and their secondary home. But note that all plans must have emergency coverage and urgent coverage nationwide, in-network. So even if you have an HMO, you’ll have emergency and urgent care services covered nationwide. POS is like an HMO but have some services that the plan allows you to seek out of network providers, but limited, the plans summary will give more details. A PPO network plan has contracted doctors that usually will cost you less to see and also will allow you to see out of network providers (if the provider accepts your plans out of network rates) usually for a higher cost, but not always. The summary of benefits has two columns, one for in-network and the other for out of network costs even if they don’t differ.

If you join an MA plan, can you later on disenroll and join Original Medicare and even a MedSupp? Yes you can disenroll. Usually you can disenroll during the Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) Oct 15th-Dec 7th, the cancellation would be effective Jan 1st. There is also the Open Enrollment Period which is from Jan-March, during this time the cancellation will be effective the following month. Why is there another enrollment period? Just take it as a win. Let’s keep this rolling. There may be other special circumstances that can affect when you can disenroll and go back into Original Medicare but they are not common. You moved to a new area where you plan is not available, this will even allow you to enroll into a MedSupp plan without any medical questions. Medical questions??? Give me a second, deep breath…

Ok let’s hold off that last question until we get to the MedSupp side. We are almost there.

When can you join an MA plan? As long as you have Medicare parts A & B and you live in the county the plan is available you can join always during the AEP Oct 15th-Dec 7th to be effective January 1st. If you turned 65 and right away you got A & B you’ll be able to join an MA plan during a 7 month window. Three months prior to your birthday month, your birthday month and then up to three months after your birthday month. The effective date will not be until the 1st of your birthday month (if you applied prior) and if you applied during the month of or after it’ll start the following month. No retroactive enrollments or mid month effective dates. You’ll also have those who enroll after they turn 65, say they were working and only got Medicare part A (since it was free) and they kept their employer coverage till they retire say at at 68. When they decide to retire they can apply for Medicare part B and enroll into an MA effective the same month their part B starts. They can also enroll within 60 days after their employer insurance ends but usually no longer than that. They are some exceptions but we gotta keep this going. You can always ask me on your own personal situation, as you can see I’m pretty chatty.

Ok that covers MA plans, mostly…I think.

MedSupp – Overview

• What is a MedSupp Plan?
• Where does the money come from?
• Do these plans have any oversight or does the insurance company do what they want?
• How are they structured, what do people pay?
• How often do they change? – Never. That was easy.
• What sort of benefits do they have? Is there a document each plan has a that tells me their benefits?
• What are medical authorizations? Ha!
• Do I need referrals? Nope.
• Do these plans have networks?
• Are there special times when you can enroll?
• What about prescriptions?

Ok we’ve gotta start with the basics. A MedSupp is a plan you could purchase to help you pay the costs that Original Medicare part A & B have. Medicare has costs? Yes it does. I’m not going to list them all but in general Medicare part A (which is the inpatient hospital component of Original Medicare) has an inpatient hospital deductible of $1632 (in 2024) for each in-patient hospital benefit period, it’s a 60 day period. If you are there consecutively over 60 days it turns into a per day co-pay of $408, then it goes up and up. Ok I’m not gonna bore you with all the details but it’s a lot. Here is a link if you want all the details even if it’s no longer 2024. https://www.medicare.gov/basics/costs Medicare part B (which is the out patient or doctor coverage has an annual deductible of $240 (in 2024) then you are responsible for 20% of whatever else is remaining and approved by Medicare.

Well that doesn’t sound too bad, if I get a hospital stay I only pay $1632 and then if I go to the doctor I only pay him the first $240 and then only 20% of what ever else he bills and gets approved. Wrong. Hmm, come again? Let’s break it down a bit more. Let’s give an example. The same example we used earlier in the first chapter of this…you know what it is. A hospital stay of 30 days. Okay, there is the Hospital deductible, $1632. Got it. What else? The $240 for part B deductible too. Huh but why? Well because the doctors that saw you will bill too. If you saw a surgeon, anesthesiologist, radiologist and all the other “gists” that will pop there heads into that hospital room and give you the hand pistols and wink as they whisper “I’m gonna bill you under their breath”. Yes, those providers will bill Medicare. And after the $240 is met, you’ll be responsible for 20% of whatever Medicare approves for their gunslinging services. (Not trying to bad mouth the doctors, we love them we need them!) Okay but when do I stop paying, is there a cap or something, a MOOP? Sadly, no. So what happens if I get hospitalized again? If it’s been 60 days since you left the hospital you owe another $1632 and yes, you’ll need to pay 20% of whatever doctors bill and Medicare approves. NO end. Well there is if you don’t go back again for more care.

So needless to say, most people that have Original Medicare don’t just stay with that only. If someone doesn’t qualify for state assistance (Medicaid) chances are they also purchased a Medicare Supplement plan or MedSupp or MediGap, same thing. Okay, again what is that? These are standardized plans that help you pay for those Medicare costs we discussed above. Ah and how many plans are there? Several. The most common ones are plan F (only available for those that turn 65 prior to 2020), plan G, plan N, K, F High deductible and G high deductible. I’ll overly simplify these plans benefits but here is a link for a good resource https://www.medicare.gov/health-drug-plans/medigap/basics/compare-plan-benefits, also search Medicare.gov for “Choosing a Medigap guide”, Medicare updates it every year. But back to the plans: basically plan F covers all medical out of pocket for services that Medicare approves. Plan G covers all that plan F covers except the Medicare part B deductible. Plan N goes down further and also asks you to pay $20 for every doctor visit, $50 for emergency room and you’ll have to pay the excess fees which is 15% at most (only for those providers that don’t accept medicare assignment). Plan K, I haven’t even sold one of those but it pays less. Obviously plan F is the most expensive…then G, then N then the others.

So, obviously the money comes from you. You are paying the premium for these plans. But how does it work really? You get treatment from a Medicare provider, the provider bills Medicare. Medicare process the claim, they issue out a Medicare Summary Notice (MSN). You, the provider that billed and the MedSupp company will also get a copy of it. They see it, calculate, add divide and basically pay what they are suppose to pay. What else do they do? Nothing. That’s their whole job, pay and only pay. Are they involved in approving anything? Nope. What about doctor networks, does the provider need to accept the MedSupp? Nope. The deciding factor is Medicare, if they approved the service the supplement pays, that’s it. Well that’s simple, yes, yes it is.

Does Medicare authorize things? Are there any hoops to jump through? Most of the time, nothing. Remember Medicare is the government and they are not an insurance company. As much as they hope they could be they are just not. Therefore, they don’t MANAGE healthcare. They are really just a BIG payor. Is that good? Yes and no. Yes when you want to get something done and you rather not have any authorization to deal with, no when you get unnecessary tests and procedure done. Not getting into any sort of conspiracy theories, but in general if your doctor wants to perform a test or treatment we are going to assume we need it, generally…right? So when we are comparing with an MA plan, this will be the pro on MedSupp, I think. Yes, yes it’s gotta be a pro.

Ok but let’s talk about these monthly premiums, how much are we talking? Usually when you turn 65 they are pretty manageable, low hundred maybe even less for N and the other ones but it will depend on location. Big cities in NY and CA may call for more $$$. So that means the premiums go up? Yes they do. Nearly every year the premiums will increase. How much? Good plans will usually have a single digit percentage increase but could be more. So that’s important when choosing a MedSupp plan, make sure that the company has a good track record of increases and has been in the market for some time to even have a record.

Is there any difference between the plans between companies, say a plan G with insurance Blue vs plan G with insurance Gray? No, standard plans. So why the difference in prices? Generally it has to do with the claims of the collective group of members they have, inflation and other factors. Any increases do have to be approved so the insurance company can’t just make up a number.

Technically there is a network. All the providers that accept Medicare. Which is a lot but not all. All the mayor hospital systems will take Medicare and their employed physicians, it’s just too many beneficiaries for them not to accept it. But what about those providers that may see me at the hospital while I’m unconscious that I can’t ask if they accept Medicare or not? Not to worry, any provider that doesn’t accept Medicare assignment can bill an additional 15% over the Medicare approved amount, but that’s about it. Plan G covers the 15% excess charge.

Ok so when can I enroll? As long as you have Medicare part A & B you can enroll any time of the year. No exception or issues? Not so fast. When you first enroll into Medicare part B, you have a 6 month window where you can enroll into a MedSupp plan (whichever one you like F, G, N etc) without any if’s or but’s. The plan has to approve you even if you are about to have a neck down body replacement, in other words even if everything is medically wrong with you. So they can’t turn you down? Nope. So what happens when it’s after 6 months of being on Medicare part B. That’s when the medical questions come? Yes, the plan will underwrite their applicants to determine if they are “worthy” of their coverage. Meaning they will see if they are at risk of spending too much money on you. Things like hight and weight, how many medications you take and if there are any pending tests you haven’t gotten that may result in a costly diagnosis. Forget it if you had a stroke three months ago and now you want to apply for a MedSupp plan past the 6 month mark. Now it doesn’t mean that everyone can’t pass medical underwriting it just means that some won’t be able to.

Are there any exception to this Medical questions rule after 6 months? Yes, there are. Not common situations but there are a few, they are called Guaranteed Issue Rights. 1) You have an MA plan and after some time of being in the plan you are notified that they won’t continue that particular plan in your county. You will have a guaranteed enrollment option into a MedSupp plan (not all plans though). 2) You have Original Medicare and an employer group health plan (or retiree plan or COBRA) that pays after Medicare pays and that plan is ending. 3) When you turned 65 you enrolled into a MA plan and within the first 12 months of being in the plan you decide it’s not for you and you return to Original Medicare. 4) You were originally on a MediGap plan but then you decided to try an MA plan but within the first 12 months you decide it’s not for you, you can return to the plan you had if it’s available but if it’s not available you can buy from another company. There are other exceptions but they are uncommon. The Choosing a Medigap Policy guide has all the exceptions listed.

Okay, we are understanding this whole thing, right? But wait what if I want to go into a MA plan after being in a MedSupp for years, can I do that? Yes, as long as you do it within the right enrollment period you can. But will I be able to return back into the MedSupp if I don’t like the MA? Yes if 1) you can pass medical underwriting or 2) you meet the guaranteed issue rights exceptions listed above. What if I don’t meet any of those two conditions? Then no.

Wait, what about prescriptions? Ah prescriptions, you need those? Yes of course. Medicare supplement plans don’t cover prescriptions medications. For that you’ll have to also enroll (and pay) into a stand alone prescription drug plan. Well how much will I have to pay? Depends really, there are usually a good number of options in every market. Some can be very inexpensive while others could go up into the hundred or so a month but this really will depend on your prescription needs. Say for example you only take a cholesterol and high blood pressure medications that are not too expensive, you can do well with a low cost plan. Even if you take insulin you’ll be ok as insulin is capped at $35 per month per prescriptions. If you have a lot of high cost medications, it’s important to compare and see what’s the best price combination, both the monthly premium and actual cost of the medications. Medicare.gov is a great source for comparison and most adequate agents can compare options for you pretty quickly.

What about the extras, like dental, vision, transportation to doctors, the over the counter allowances, the grocery benefits, hearing aids and you know that stuff? How much do the MedSupp help with those things? Zero. Nada. Okay, some plans may give you a fitness benefit, but that’s about it. So how do you get covered for those other things? You can purchased stand alone dental and vision plans. Another premium? Unfortunately yes. So a lot has to be considered when making the decision for one over the other? You got it.

Ok so now that we’ve got the two main products let’s do a quick pros and cons to recap.

MA vs MedSupp – Ding Ding Ding!

MedSupp

Pros:

• Lowest out of pocket costs in a catastrophic medical event; hospitalization, cancer treatment etc. With plan G you would just pay the part B deductible which is going to be $240 (in year 2024) plus your monthly plan premium.
• Network: everyone that takes Medicare, nationwide.
• Less Medical Management; less likely to get denied for a test like an MRI, surgery etc. Medicare usually approves most procedures doctors want to perform.
• Less billing paperwork.
• Can always switch to MA without Medical questions.

Cons:

• Premium; you’ll pay $100+ monthly and it’ll increase every year, that’s on top of the Medicare part B premium.
• Plan doesn’t include drug coverage;  you’ll have to purchase a separate drug plan.
• No extras, no dental, no allowance for Vision, no over the counter benefits, no transportation benefits, most plans don’t have fitness benefit, No hearing aid benefit. If you want dental & vision coverage you’ll need to purchase a separate plan.
• Must answer medical questions to switch plans; say in case your premium is getting expensive.

Medicare Advantage

Pros: 

• Most plans offer $0 premium plans
• Most plans include drug coverage
• Extras like Dental, Vision, OTC, Hearing, Transportation, Grocery allowance, Fitness included at no extra cost.
• Flat co-pays for most services.
• Maximum out of pocket caps – meaning there is a limit in co-pays you would pay in a year. Between $2900-$8000 for in-network services depending on plan. Usually takes several hospitalizations a year to reach maximum; most routine services are low cost.
• Must cover what Medicare covers.

Cons:

• Catastrophic medical situations can lead to paying up to the Maximum out of pocket, although not common but it’s possible. Note there are hospital indemnity plans that can be added to this to cover such high expenses for relative low premium. For example, $50/month.
• More Medical Management – meaning the health plans may require doctors to provide proof of why they want to do a surgery, perform an MRI or CT scan etc. Certain procedures require authorization, similar to your group insurance.
• Network – if using an HMO plan, network will be limited to doctors in-network (except for emergency). With PPO plans you will have access to national networks but going outside of network usually is more expensive. Before signing up to any plan we would first verify that doctors are in-network.
• More billing – you’ll pay co-pays for services therefore you’ll get on average more bill notifications than with MedSupp. Doesn’t mean you’ll pay more in comparison just likely more paperwork.
• Plans change annually; benefits are 12-month contracts and changes have to be reviewed every year. Many keep their plans for many years as long as benefits are competitive, plans auto renew (I do annual plan reviews for my clients)

Conclusion

Understanding the differences between Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplement plans is crucial in making an informed decision. This guide should provide a solid foundation to help you decide which option best meets your healthcare needs. For personalized advice, consulting with a Medicare expert or insurance advisor is recommended. ::Clears throat:: That would be me.