One of the most interesting parts of my job is snooping on my fellow Medicare advisers. With websites, blogs and podcasts, some insurance pros share their knowledge with interested parties who wish to learn necessary facts about this complicated subject.

However, rather than simplify the matter for their consumers, they often bloviate in an attempt to portray themselves as providing critically essential information.

For instance, Medicare has an odd way of paying the cost of blood transfusions. It is unnecessary for any Medicare participant to know or care about this oddity because those who have purchased supplementary coverage will have all blood paid for at 100%.

However, many of my fellow advisers will insist that their listeners completely understand this weird transaction. They imply that mastery of such knowledge is essential for protection against making a poor purchasing decision.

Why? Why do they add to the burden of those who are often struggling to make sense of Medicare? I can only think of one reason:  1) These people are running out of things to discuss, OR 2) They want their audiences to remain loyal with the expectation that even more critically important Information is coming soon.

In contrast, my approach is to ignore the esoteric minutia and concentrate on the Big Picture.

You will never catch me discussing the compensation methods for blood transfusions under Medicare, except as an example of Medicare advisers proffering bad advice.

If you need blood as part of your medical treatment, it will be provided for you, you will not be asked to pay for it and your path to recovery will stretch out in the direction of a happy conclusion.

In the meantime, your brain will have extra storage space available for things that are REALLY important!