TRANSCRIPT: Hello. Dr. Keith Smith with you – Surgery Center of Oklahoma. Thank you for joining us in this video blog series.

What an incredible response we had to our video blog, “Don’t trust your broker.” I don’t think a lot of people actually watched the video blog or actually read the comments because I did not say ‘all brokers should not be trusted.’ What I did say is that some should not be trusted. And I gave an example of why that was the case.

Here is one of the reasons why I made that video blog. Right now, here in Oklahoma City, there are brokers who are working overtime to make absolutely sure that their clients have no access whatsoever to the affordable care and high quality here at the Surgery Center of Oklahoma. They are working very, very hard to maintain their production levels with the big insurance carriers.

What they are not disclosing to their clients is that there is a magic number – it’s usually about 6% — and if that 6% threshold is met and they actually sell 6% or more less than they sold the last year for that particular insurance carrier, they lose an override; they lose a special commission that I refer to as a purity commission (although it’s referred to commonly as a production commission).

So a better deal comes along and the brokers are not inclined at all to make that available to their clients or to make them aware that a better deal has come along for fear of losing this purity (or production) commission.

This is going on right here in Oklahoma City where businesses that would like to do business with the Surgery Center of Oklahoma find their broker standing between them and us.

Not all brokers are bad. Not all brokers are good. But trust and verify. That is my message.

We had a great response. There were some brokers who responded negatively until I pointed out to them that to make this point is to better distinguish the good guy brokers – those who are primarily fee and not commission-based. It makes it better to make everybody aware so they can distinguish between the good guy and the bad guy brokers.

That is why I made that blog. And I hope you understand that I am not saying all brokers are bad. But there are reasons to bring this to light so that people will know that there are conditions and incentives for the brokers, many of them to act in ways that are not in the interest of the client.

Thank you for joining us. We will see you next time.