7/16/25 Fed Fights, Loan Struggles, and the Real Price of Medical Care

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Wednesday, July 16th BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Guys" podcast call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www. MoneywiseGuys.com facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Management LinkedIn: Moneywise_Wealth_Management Guest: Vipul Dev, M. D. website: http://plasticsurgery.vipmd.com/doctors/dr-vip-dev/

• 0:00Speaker 00

  From the Garo Ellis padded radio room off Stockdale Highway, here is Money Wise.

• 0:06Speaker 01

  Call or text into the show 24/7 at 396-1000.

• 0:39Speaker 00

  Here is Money Wise.

• 0:40Speaker 01

  Money, money, money, money.

• 0:44Speaker 00

  Welcome to the Money Wise Show. We are live from the Garo Ellis padded radio room of Stockdale Highway on ESPN Bakersfield, 1230 a.m., 101.1 FM, and always streaming at MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can call or text into the show 24 hours a day at 661-396-1000. Again, 661-396-1000. Today, we are your hosts, Sami Abiyawie and

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  Justin Leland.

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  Justin Leland.

• 1:09Speaker 02

  How are you?

• 1:09Speaker 00

  I'm really good. I'm excited for the show. We have a very good guest, but also we've got a bunch of things you and I talked off line on that we want to discuss live.

• 1:20Speaker 02

  Yes, a lot of things going on today. Earnings reports coming out, potentially firing very important people in our

• 1:28Speaker 00

  Finance, finance.

• 1:29Speaker 02

  Financial people, like, you know, all sorts of things.

• 1:32Speaker 00

  There was some drama today that affected the markets a little bit, which I know you're going to talk about briefly.

• 1:36Speaker 02

  We'll talk about that. But how about that All-Star game?

• 1:39Speaker 00

  I didn't watch it.

• 1:41Speaker 01

  It was awesome.

• 1:42Speaker 02

  You were napping.

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  Is that, is that, is that that

• 1:44Speaker 02

  The midsummer classic?

• 1:46Speaker 00

  That sport that where people swing with the bat? Is that?

• 1:49Speaker 02

  That's cricket.

• 1:50Speaker 00

  Oh, I'm sorry. I grew up playing soccer, so I don't know what you guys mean.

• 1:56Speaker 00

  True story, I was at a meeting at my former employer, and we had, we had an analogy of how to start a deal and close a deal, and we used the baseball diamond. I'm just kidding. I know what baseball is. I love the Dodgers, and I like going and watching the Dodgers.

• 2:13Speaker 01

  I'm sorry.

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  And I called, I called, I called

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  Gross.

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  Home base, I called

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  Home base.

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  Fourth base.

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  Fourth base.

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  And until today, A.J. Antoni still remembers it and makes fun of me for it.

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  I was actually pretty surprised. I mean, it was a great game. Normally, normally the All-Star game is pretty one-sided, one way or the other. And the American League for the past, what, 15 years has been?

• 2:42Speaker 01

  I think they are like 12 and 3 in the last 15.

• 2:44Speaker 02

  Right, something like that. It's like the American League always wins. But yesterday, National League came out swinging and American League came back tied at 6-6. And then, first time ever, I was actually, I was, I remember the game where they ended the game in a tie. And it was totally like just anticlimactic. They ran out of pitchers and they went into extra innings and then they just said, look, we're just gonna call it and end the game in a tie. I think all of baseball, every baseball fan was like, wait, you can't do that. You just can't.

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  Those are not the rules.

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  Those are not the rules. You can't end the game.

• 3:22Speaker 01

  Even me, I know that.

• 3:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, and it's just, that's, but you can't injure players, right? It's, it's, it's an exhibition. It's not supposed to be a, a real game, right? And you can end a, you know, spring, spring training game, you can end in a tie or whatever, but not the All-Star game. And so they devised a thing where it's like, okay, we're gonna do a swing off. So they took three players, three swings, whoever hit the most home runs, American League or National League, you win the game. Kyle Schwaber got up. Did you see that, Steven?

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  Oh yeah, 3 for 3.

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  Dude, that guy can mash. 3 for 3, 3 swings, 3 home runs.

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  So not only did we get the All-Star game, we got an extra home run derby.

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  It was, it was sweet.

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  But it was really cool, which you'd probably like, Sammy, is they've, they willed out the, the robots for the, the strikes and the balls. So they did it earlier in the training camp, but this was the first time I think that I've got to see it. And it was pretty cool. Like, they, they get to challenge it and they show, I mean, it's quick, boom, boom. The robots come out and they show you on the replay, you know, the strike zone and it was pretty cool to see. I usually skip the All-Star game because it's, like you said, it's usually just an exhibition game, but it was, it was entertaining.

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  But now for, for Steven, baseball season starts. He now actually pays attention for the rest of the season.

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  Go Mariners.

• 4:45Speaker 02

  Nah, go, go Angels.

• 4:47Speaker 00

  Wow. Neither one of us will be happy.

• 4:50Speaker 02

  Neither one of us will be happy.

• 4:52Speaker 00

  Mariners. Angels. Yeah, yeah, and you guys both live in Bakersfield.

• 4:57Speaker 02

  Yes.

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  All right.

• 5:01Speaker 00

  Justin, how did we do today in the market?

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  You know what? Markets were up today. It was a kind of a seesaw day. Early in the day, there was a report in the New York Times that Donald Trump was throwing out a letter that he was gonna fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell. And now, he's been throwing this around now for months. You know, it's no secret that Donald Trump, who, let's face it, Donald Trump actually appointed Jerome Powell in his first term.

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  So he is a Donald Trump appointee, but now Donald Trump doesn't like Jerome Powell because he's not lowering interest rates at the speed or how he wants it to be done.

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  Trump has actually basically demanded that the interest rates be dropped by three percentage points, like right now.

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  He calls it jet fuel.

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  Right. There's about 1,001 reasons why that's a bad idea.

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  Not the least of which would be inflation taking off and us having like 70s style stagflation for the next decade. But that's a separate argument. But, so he's settled.

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  He put the memo out today?

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  He put the letter out that he was gonna fire Jerome Powell. Now, here's the problem. He can't legally. He can't fire Jerome Powell. It's an independent board. He cannot fire him except for cause. Okay? So what he's trying to find is, and in the letter, trying to find is cause. Now, there's been some, the New York Fed has gone around, has done some remodeling of the Federal Reserve Building and there potentially could be some cost overruns and everything like that. So he's trying to find cause in that direction to then be able to fire Jerome Powell. So.

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  The market doesn't like that. The market likes Jerome Powell. The market feels that he's done a good job. I think many people feel that Jerome Powell and the Fed have done a fantastic job.

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  Maneuvering through.

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  Maneuvering through COVID and, you know,

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  Tariffs.

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  Tariffs.

• 7:26Speaker 00

  Yeah.

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  A huge number of like massive number of curveballs been thrown their way and they've done a fantastic job.

• 7:32Speaker 00

  Well, would you, would you say this is true that the market also likes the separation between the executive branch and this?

• 7:39Speaker 02

  Exactly. Because, simply because of that, you want to have a, a, a brick wall between, you know, the political leanings of the executive, regardless of political stripe, and the finances. That's the, that's why the economy was set up this way was that you did not want political influence. Because if we're in an election year, I want you to lower interest rates because I want housing, I want housing to become whatever.

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  Affordability to be able to.

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  Whatever, so I can, I can. I can maneuver.

• 8:12Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 8:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, I can maneuver the voters in my direction. And so that's, that's not the way the economy should be run. And so that was early in the day and the markets were down by about six tenths of a percent. And I think the NASDAQ was actually down almost one percent for the day, early in the day, about noon. Then Trump came out and said to whoever was listening.

• 8:39Speaker 00

  Denied.

• 8:40Speaker 02

  Denied it.

• 8:40Speaker 00

  Yeah.

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  Denied the report. No, I'm not, I'm not planning on firing him and it's highly unlikely that I'm going to fire him. Now, believe what you believe, but the letter's out there and, you know, but the, the, the note is out there, but him denying it and saying, no, I have no. No notice or anything like that that I'm gonna fire.

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  So that that that brought the market back?

• 9:06Speaker 02

  That brought the market back and so the indices, the Dow was up about half a half a percent. S and P up three tenths of a percent, NASDAQ at closed at a record again, the ninth record on the year. Up about a quarter of a percent. And, you know, we also had some earnings, it's it is earnings season, so we had Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Johnson and Johnson, Alcoa and United Airlines, all of which beat their forecasts. So earnings reports are coming in and you'll see probably a little volatility over the next week and a half as these reports come in. But if we're if if the reports are coming in as we're seeing them right now,

• 9:51Speaker 02

  that they're all beating their estimates or, you know, getting close to their estimates and beating them. It's gonna be a pretty decent earnings season.

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  So you you mentioned banks and I and I read about banks just because I'm I'm an ex-bank and I'm always interested. So the large banks all showed

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  Beat their record.

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  Reported a record profits.

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  Yeah.

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  A lot of it has to do with, you know, the interest rates that we have today.

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  Correct.

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  And the high interest rates at that, they're maintaining a healthy margin, interest rate margin.

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  If you see a bank not making profit in the environment we're in today.

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  That's a bad bank.

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  It's not the it's not the economy.

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  Yeah.

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  It's management.

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  Bad management.

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  It is just bad management.

• 10:32Speaker 02

  So Bank of America beat its forecasts. Eighty nine cents earnings per share versus a beat the estimate of eighty seven cents. Strong loan growth, strong deposit and loan growth and a seven percent increased net interest income. Goldman Sachs.

• 10:51Speaker 02

  Net income jumped 20% with revenue rising 14 to 15% during Q2. That's a huge jump.

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  I just happened to actually meet with two bankers today from our local economy.

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  Yeah.

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  Mike Congdon from Mission Bank and Amir Zabroni from Bank of the Sierra.

• 11:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

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  On two different occasions this morning and they both shared with me that they had healthy loan and deposit growth. Both banks have been and the one thing they both said is is just the talent. Talent is they want to grow more from a talent acquisition standpoint.

• 11:24Speaker 02

  Right.

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  It's not readily available.

• 11:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, and it's and you know, uh, with and again, going back to the interest rates piece. With interest rates where they are right now, like you said, if if if you're a bank and you're not making money right now. That's bad management.

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  Oh, it is. It is. It there's no if or buts about that. If with this interest rates or the environment we're in, deposits are crucial. A lot of banks are having healthy loan growth.

• 11:52Speaker 02

  Yeah.

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  Healthy. There's and we and that's one of the reasons why the Federal Reserve Chairman is not.

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  Super important.

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  It's it's not. He's not changing rate as of now because the economy is still healthy in his eyes.

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  Right.

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  Where we have record loan growth.

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  Right.

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  At every bank, you can you can you can see smaller banks, 50 million dollar banks to um our big five that we have. It the deposit is also deposit growth is also there, not to the same level as the loan. A lot of the banks are competing for the same deposits that are available within the market. So there's not a lot of liquidity. Why? Why? Because a lot of people are not putting money in the banks, but instead they are buying bonds and treasuries because of the high interest rates we have.

• 12:40Speaker 02

  Right, because if you can get, you know, four or 5% on your treasuries.

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  Yep.

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  Or your CDs or whatever.

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  You don't want to go to a bank. Correct.

• 12:48Speaker 02

  Save money.

• 12:48Speaker 00

  And there's some, you know, tax benefits and things like that. Invest in bonds, I'm going to assume, right, Justin?

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  Uh, yeah.

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  Yeah.

• 12:55Speaker 02

  Yeah. I mean, so I mean it.

• 12:59Speaker 02

  If, if Donald Trump is, is successful in firing Jerome Powell, that could have a detrimental effect on, on interest rates, you know, going forward. Because, you know, let's say he installs somebody like Scott Bessent. I think that's one of the ones, the Treasury Secretary that he has in Treasury right now. That's who he's kind of talked about as being the next Fed Chair. Well, if you put Scott Bessent in there, is he going to be somebody who's going to?

• 13:31Speaker 00

  Bend every time.

• 13:32Speaker 02

  Bend every time and lower and do what, you know, is, is expected. And okay, we're going to lower interest rates by 2%. In the short term, that might sound great for you and I as, as, um, somebody maybe buying a house or somebody buying a car. Um, you know, the, the infusion of cash into the, you know, it might be a very short term sugar spike. Right? But long-term economic damage from that, the inflation that would come from that.

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  Yeah.

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  Can be very detrimental.

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  I'll, I'll, I'll tell you about my experience. So I, I was raised in a different country where the system is different. So the Federal Reserve is basically ran by the executive branch.

• 14:16Speaker 02

  Yeah.

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  And it did not have the same impact it has here. I like the separation between the executive branch and the Federal Reserve and being independent. This is probably the only country on earth where that exists. Everybody, everywhere else.

• 14:29Speaker 02

  Britain is very similar. Yeah.

• 14:31Speaker 00

  Maybe.

• 14:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:32Speaker 00

  Maybe, but you go everywhere. Canada is not that. You go to other European countries, France is not that. So that separation between the government and the Federal Reserve is something that investors, the stock market, everybody is relying on.

• 14:47Speaker 02

  It's what's made our banking industry so healthy.

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  The best in the world, in my opinion.

• 14:52Speaker 02

  Yes, the strongest in the world.

• 14:54Speaker 00

  So I'm, I'm glad it was denied and I hope it stays that way.

• 15:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:02Speaker 00

  All right. Good conversation, Justin. Thank you very much. When we come back, we have a guest. We'll take our first break, Stephen.

• 15:07Speaker 01

  Are you nearing retirement and currently working with a financial advisor? Are you not sure if you're invested appropriately? Call our offices at 661-847-1000 to sit down with a MoneyWise financial advisor for a no obligation assessment.

• 15:31Speaker 00

  We're back. The MoneyWise Show. I'm Sammy Abiao here with Justin Leland. Are we live, Stephen?

• 15:39Speaker 01

  Are you talking?

• 15:40Speaker 00

  Yes, I am.

• 15:40Speaker 01

  You're live, baby.

• 15:43Speaker 00

  I like the music. I didn't want it to stop. But we needed to stop because we have a great guest here today. Dr. Vip Dev, a friend of mine, friend of the show, friend of MoneyWise, Director of Plastic Surgery at California Institute of Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery. Welcome back, Dr. Dev.

• 15:58Speaker 03

  Thank you, Sammy. It's so good to be back. I love being here.

• 16:00Speaker 00

  We love having you. There's always something that I either learn or just enjoy the conversation. So I'm excited for today's conversation.

• 16:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, you know what? I learn too. Every time I come, I learn.

• 16:12Speaker 00

  So, so right before we started, you started telling me that you were down in Mexico.

• 16:17Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 16:17Speaker 00

  But not on vacation.

• 16:18Speaker 03

  Well, kind of on vaca-, you know, okay, so it's kind of been my, my personal ambition to see the seven wonders of the world.

• 16:27Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 16:27Speaker 03

  Right? I've seen most of them, but I haven't seen three of them. Well, I hadn't seen four of them until I went to Chichen Itza.

• 16:34Speaker 00

  Nice.

• 16:35Speaker 03

  So I happened to be there and I saw Chichen Itza, but I still have Christ the Redeemer I haven't seen. I haven't seen the Pyramids of Giza and I haven't been to the Great Wall.

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  Okay.

• 16:46Speaker 03

  So I'm going to see the three of those this next year. It's on the list and it's coming down, so I'm gonna.

• 16:51Speaker 01

  It's on the bucket list.

• 16:52Speaker 03

  It's, it's on the bucket list. And interestingly, I'm going to try to operate everywhere I go there, too.

• 16:57Speaker 00

  So, and that's what you did down in Mexico?

• 16:59Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, it was great.

• 17:00Speaker 00

  So when you, when you go on you, on, on these trips, which I envy you for doing such a

• 17:04Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:04Speaker 00

  great job for the communities you visit every time, because you've done it in my country of birth, Morocco, whenever you've visited.

• 17:10Speaker 03

  Which was awesome.

• 17:11Speaker 00

  Years, years, years back, and I would love for you to go back. I would love to accompany you next time you go.

• 17:16Speaker 03

  Okay, that's great.

• 17:17Speaker 00

  So, so tell us about.

• 17:18Speaker 01

  Me too.

• 17:21Speaker 00

  Mexico, you went down there and you did some work, so tell us about that.

• 17:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, so, so, just li- literally, simple, simple work, just identifying simple wounds right now, you know, that's just it, is that there's a lot of diabetics, there's a lot of, a lot of, like, peripheral vascular disease, you know, a lot, we use that word, you know, peripheral vascular disease, peripheral means distant from the heart, basically, that's what, the furthest points from the heart.

• 17:47Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 17:48Speaker 03

  So like the legs and the, and the fingers, right? Particularly peripheral vascular disease is the feet and the legs.

• 17:54Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 17:54Speaker 03

  All right? And so peripheral vascular disease means that people have low blood supply, they have neuropathy, which means they don't have any sensation below the knees, or they're diabetics and they have really no sensation.

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  Hmm.

• 18:11Speaker 03

  Right? And they get wounds, like people step on nails or people step on rocks and they get a sore, but because their blood sugars are so high, they don't heal.

• 18:22Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 18:23Speaker 03

  And all these people want is someone to tell them, "What do I do next?" And you'd be amazed, sometimes, all you have to do is use a simple thing that we have around the house, I'm gonna tell you guys what it is, honey. Honey has been around for thousands of years, right?

• 18:41Speaker 00

  To actually apply on the wound?

• 18:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 18:43Speaker 00

  Because it has-

• 18:44Speaker 03

  It has antibacterial- Antibacterial properties.

• 18:46Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 18:47Speaker 03

  And it breaks down the necrotic, the dead parts of the wound, right? How cool is that?

• 18:53Speaker 00

  It's very, and I'm gonna say, going limp here and say, every household has honey.

• 18:59Speaker 03

  Every household has honey, some sort of honey.

• 19:01Speaker 00

  That's right.

• 19:02Speaker 03

  Some sort, right?

• 19:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 19:03Speaker 03

  But Sammy, even further, every household has some sort of sugar. People don't know this, but you can put white granulated sugar on a wound. And if you're patient enough and you look at it and you treat it every day, a couple of times a day, you'll see improvement. The problem is that our society has become so advanced that we've forgotten the basics.

• 19:27Speaker 01

  The natural home remedies.

• 19:29Speaker 03

  The natural stuff.

• 19:30Speaker 00

  So you bring up honey. I know a couple of years back, you've introduced me to manuka honey.

• 19:36Speaker 03

  Manuka honey.

• 19:36Speaker 00

  The first time I ever heard about manuka honey is from you.

• 19:40Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 19:41Speaker 00

  And you told me, hey, it's got a lot of things, healing powers and stuff. My mom swears by it, by the way. I introduced her to manuka honey and she swears by it.

• 19:51Speaker 03

  Right.

• 19:51Speaker 00

  And that stuff is not cheap, though.

• 19:52Speaker 03

  It's not cheap. It's not cheap. And do you know why it's not cheap?

• 19:55Speaker 00

  No.

• 19:56Speaker 03

  Okay, I'm gonna tell you. Because, number one, it has to, it has to come from bees, number one. Has to come from bees. The byproduct of manuka, or the actual manuka honey process, comes from tea trees. The tea tree leaf, it's a small, little, white flower that only grows in certain parts of the world, like New Zealand. And the bees have to digest it and then spit it out to produce the honey in the honeycomb for us to do that. And it's in small amounts. Therefore, limited quantities increases the price.

• 20:34Speaker 00

  So that, I mean, I buy it from Costco.

• 20:38Speaker 03

  Right. And even that's expensive.

• 20:40Speaker 00

  I know. And so Stephen is laughing because him and I compete on how many times we're gonna go to Costco a week.

• 20:48Speaker 01

  Live off it. We live off Costco.

• 20:51Speaker 00

  But, I mean, you've got to be careful with buying this stuff, though, right?

• 20:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, there's different levels of it. There's grades, is what we call it. International grades, right? And so if you were to get the highest grade of manuka honey, for a small jar, you're gonna pay about a hundred and fifty dollars.

• 21:10Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 21:11Speaker 03

  It's that expensive. Now, remember, though, this honey isn't the honey that you just take out with a spoon and put in your mouth. You're probably not gonna like the taste of it because it's a little bitter.

• 21:22Speaker 03

  But by definition, it is honey.

• 21:24Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 21:25Speaker 03

  And it is phenomenal in the way it works. If you put manuka honey on a wound, it is bacteriostatic, means it keeps the bacteria from growing. It also has lytic properties where it breaks down the bad parts of the wound, allowing the bed, the wound bed, to then produce healthy tissue by developing a better blood supply. And it's amazing, it's phenomenal of how it works.

• 21:53Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 21:56Speaker 00

  Mic drop.

• 21:57Speaker 03

  I know, right?

• 21:58Speaker 00

  All the learnings that we do. Now, Dr. Dev, I have, I mean, I've known you for years. I was your banker at one time.

• 22:07Speaker 03

  Yes, you were.

• 22:08Speaker 00

  And you get involved in a lot of stuff. But more importantly, I know you as a community leader. You might not, you know, serve on the board, but you will be involved with people that have needs but can't afford them. Multiple times you've helped people that I know, people or stories that you've told us about. Are you still involved in the wound center?

• 22:30Speaker 03

  I am. I still run the wound care center. I'm there, I'm the medical director of it. I started the wound care center. I am the surgeon that runs the wound care center and I'm there every Monday still. It's part of my routine. Every Monday, if you ask someone, where's Vip? They'll tell you, oh, he's probably at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital Wound Care Center.

• 22:50Speaker 00

  Are you seeing an increase in the need with all the cuts that are happening? Or nonprofits not receiving USAID? Or how is that going?

• 23:01Speaker 03

  No, it's interesting. You know, I just met a young gentleman today who has an assisted living facility on Union Avenue, a really nice young man. And I could tell you is that he is seeing, he is living what I've been seeing for the last six years, just before COVID. And that is a gradual increase in the population that really, really needs health care, primary health care. And guess what? Those are also the patients that have difficult wounds, difficult health care problems, and they need services.

• 23:35Speaker 00

  And a lot of the times... Some of these people might not be able to afford the care. They either qualify for insurance or they don't have insurance or very low insurance, which disqualify them from certain programs or having good quality care.

• 23:52Speaker 03

  Absolutely, you know, Sammy, late last year, I met with some folks at Kern Family Health. And all of us know Kern Family Health, right? I mean, they really provide a great, great service to our community. You know, if you were to say the population of the city of Bakersfield is close to 400,000, what if I told you that I think statistically, I believe the number is 260,000 lives, patients, our Kern family lives?

• 24:17Speaker 02

  Right.

• 24:18Speaker 03

  What does that tell you, right?

• 24:19Speaker 02

  More than 50% of our population is...

• 24:20Speaker 03

  That tells you that, you know, the man that we're sitting in this room with or the person outside that door has Kern family health. Okay? And that's based on need, on income, on services, right? That's the way we have to look at this. And the whole, the whole population's changing.

• 24:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 24:38Speaker 03

  And so we have to see that. We have to realize that. What if I told you that Lake Isabella, right? Everyone knows that area, Kernville, Lake Isabella. The average income of that population's 15,000 a year, right? I mean, think about that.

• 24:52Speaker 00

  Yeah, this is an hour and a half away from where we live.

• 24:54Speaker 03

  An hour and a half from where we are. Kern County, by the way, right? So we have to be very, very sensitive to that. And as a physician, as a plastic surgeon, people say, well, gee, why do you even care? Well, a project that's very, very close, dear to me, the Wound Care Center, serves that population.

• 25:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 25:13Speaker 03

  You know, and so that's important. It's really, really important that that project survives and does well. And thankfully, we've done well and, and had, continue to survive. But it, it hasn't survived by itself. It survived with the help of like Bakersfield Memorial Hospital. Dignity Health has been very, very adamant and, and, and very, they've been very foundational in that survival. And they're always there for it. So when I ask for things, you know, and physicians do that, you know, we, we need the latest and best things, sometimes we can get them. But Memorial has been really good about getting those things for me. And so it's been really good.

• 25:53Speaker 00

  Do you get support from other hospitals besides Memorial?

• 25:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. So I can't forget, you know, the Adventist system is very, very, very good about supporting things that we need as well. Very collaborative. Our society, our city is very unique in that way. It's a very collaborative community. Even though we have two different healthcare systems, it's incredibly collaborative. And the physicians, because it's a smaller community, physicians kind of cover both hospitals. That's what really makes it collaborative in my mind, I think.

• 26:23Speaker 00

  That's awesome. Great conversation. We're going to take our break. When we come back, there's a lot of stuff that I want to talk and ask Dr. Dev when we come back.

• 26:32Speaker 01

  Don't forget, Money Wise is more than a radio show. We're an independently owned local wealth management firm with 60-plus years of collective experience. Our financial advisors are here to help you, Kern County. Together, let's be smart, be safe, be money wise.

• 26:52Speaker 00

  We're back at the Money Wise Show. Sammy Abiyawi with Justin Leland and our guest, Dr. Vip. Dev, Director of Plastic Surgery at California Institute of Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery. Thanks for being here with us, Dr. Dev. We talked about the Burn Center. We talked about some of the experiences of you going outside of the country and helping. One of the things I wanted to just ask, staffing seems to always be, or talent seems to always be a problem. Not just in the healthcare industry, but in every industry. Is that something you're seeing as well?

• 27:28Speaker 03

  Sammy, you know, I'm glad you asked that question. I think as much as I love our community and I love the Central Valley, I mean, you know, for not all my life, but most of my life, I've been here. And I wouldn't be this, I wouldn't be where I am without it. For the same reasons, though, we, that's one of the problems that we have right now is recruiting. Recruiting talent. You know, earlier I mentioned that the population of the city and the county has grown so much. What if I told you that as the population's grown, we've not attracted similar talent to serve that portion of the community? I'll give you an example. Statistically, we're supposed to have one plastic surgeon for every 110,000 people.

• 28:14Speaker 03

  Populations maybe over a million now, right? Technically, we should have maybe eight plastic surgeons living and working here. We have three.

• 28:22Speaker 00

  So you, I know you, I know Dr. Freeman.

• 28:25Speaker 03

  Right, and we have Dr. Mitz, who's going to retire this year.

• 28:29Speaker 00

  So it's you and Dr. Freeman, really?

• 28:30Speaker 03

  Right. You see what I mean?

• 28:32Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 28:32Speaker 03

  We don't have enough.

• 28:33Speaker 01

  That's why you're getting the bucket list trip while you can?

• 28:39Speaker 03

  Yeah, look who's talking. The guy who's playing good music, by the way, Daft Punk, I love Daft Punk. But I mean, yeah, that's funny, but you're totally true. It's totally true because I realized like, I'm not getting any younger, right? And, you know, as I get older, there's only so many surgeries I can do in a day.

• 28:58Speaker 00

  That's right.

• 28:58Speaker 03

  That means that someone's going to get missed along the way because I'm not going to get to them.

• 29:03Speaker 00

  So now we have to make the trip over the grapevine or go up north or whatever in order for us to be serviced.

• 29:08Speaker 03

  We can't keep doing that. It's not fair to the patients. What if any of you have to go and then you have to come back or there's a complication, right?

• 29:17Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 29:17Speaker 03

  So yes, attracting physicians, attracting nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, all that has been really, really difficult for the last five, six years and it's gotten even harder since COVID.

• 29:33Speaker 00

  Yeah, why do you think that? I mean, our community is a given community. It's a growing community. We have nice neighborhoods. We have amenities. Yes, the weather is hot. We don't have the beach, but this community is awesome.

• 29:46Speaker 03

  Sammy, you know what? Look, I've been to Vegas. It's really hot there, too. Palm Springs, it's really hot there, too. So is, so is Phoenix, okay? These are all hot places. I don't see a single person saying, well, gee, I would never go to Phoenix. You know what I mean? I think it's, people just need to understand that the community is really dependent on what you make of it.

• 30:11Speaker 03

  Okay, I mean, you know, we raised a family here. My kids grew up here. My kids love Bakersfield, but they're going to move on. And if they choose to come back, they're going to choose back, they're going to choose to come back because I never have ever said to them that this is a terrible place. I've told them, the reason why you're able, my daughter's going to go to Pepperdine to play volleyball. You know why I think she's going to be able to go there? Because of the opportunity that her father got by coming back to Bakersfield to practice plastic surgery. You see what I mean? I think that needs to be said more commonly than any other negative statement.

• 30:51Speaker 00

  Yeah, I've seen, I'm friends with a lot of doctors, amongst them Dr. Rasham Sandhu, and he, and he, he put a video together with the help of his marketing person that I thought was an awesome video that we should all promote because it helps recruit people to Bakersfield and shows what we have here in this community. It's not just the heat, it's not just, you know, the cows. No, there's more to us than just that.

• 31:18Speaker 03

  A thousand percent. You know, I mean, look, we feed a big part of this world.

• 31:23Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 31:24Speaker 03

  How come no one ever says that? Right? How come that's not the first thing out of someone's mouth?

• 31:27Speaker 00

  I always say this, when people in LA, San Francisco, and they run out of lettuce, then they're gonna know, oh, yeah, Central Valley, Salinas, 90% of the lettuce grown is in the country comes from there.

• 31:41Speaker 03

  Of course.

• 31:42Speaker 00

  You know, places like this.

• 31:43Speaker 03

  Baby carrots. You know, when the world doesn't have enough baby carrots, they're gonna say, geez, where's that coming from? Right? Where is it?

• 31:49Speaker 00

  Almonds.

• 31:49Speaker 03

  Right.

• 31:50Speaker 00

  With almond milk and all the almond products that we have.

• 31:53Speaker 03

  Absolutely.

• 31:53Speaker 00

  We need to highlight all of this. But more importantly for me, I think we need to highlight us as a community. Because whenever you go to a foundation dinner, or a charity dinner, the amount of giving that you see, and I'm not talking about just, I've been a banker, and I know people and what they make and what they have. But it's everybody, from, from like middle, middle class to high class, whatever, everybody's a given person in this community. And that's something to be very proud of.

• 32:22Speaker 03

  Sammy, I'll tell you what, that, that is a great point. I've gone to a fundraiser, a, an organ procurement fundraiser in Bel Air. We had the same one here in Bakersfield. Do you know that we raised a hundred thousand dollars more than the same one in Bel Air?

• 32:38Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 32:38Speaker 03

  Think about it.

• 32:39Speaker 02

  That's amazing.

• 32:40Speaker 03

  Think about it. You see what I mean?

• 32:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 32:42Speaker 03

  Because that's what we do. That's what this community does.

• 32:46Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, I'm, I'm.

• 32:47Speaker 02

  The Fresh Prince was a little bit stingy.

• 32:53Speaker 00

  I wanna, I wanna go back to one subject you talked about, and that's the affordability of healthcare.

• 32:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 32:58Speaker 00

  Okay, and how we can, how we can help. So, so I know there's avenues and stuff. So Dr. Sandhu and I, we started a foundation called Thrive and Purpose Foundation. So where people can apply for grants and, and we give two, I think four grants a month.

• 33:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 33:13Speaker 00

  To, to people that can afford. And there's a, there's a group of, in the population that, again, doesn't qualify for insurance or have very little insurance. There's certain medications that they can, that can help them with whatever the, the, is diabetic, heart condition. But the medicine is too expensive for them and sometimes they forego having it.

• 33:33Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 33:34Speaker 00

  So, how, how can we do more of this, Dr. Dev?

• 33:38Speaker 03

  So, I, I'll tell you, the best way, and I think you're smart for doing this with Dr. Sandhu, who I think is a great guy, by the way. So I think partnering with the folks that can actually deliver the service. Because you know, think about it. And I think about this all the time, you know, is if you want, if you wanna build a house and you know a construction guy, how perfect is that, right? Because he has access to the people that can build you the house. All you need is the materials. If, if you want to help people, particularly in healthcare, well, approach the doctor. Approach a physician, right? And so you approach a physician, say, hey, I wanna do this. And in my mind, if you approach the right physician, which is most of my friends, is

• 34:23Speaker 03

  they'd say, sure, how can I help?

• 34:24Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 34:25Speaker 03

  Okay? And you know how we can help? Is provide the service. So, like for breast cancer, what I do is if there's a person in this community that needs any help with breast cancer, all they have to do is come. If they come and they say, you know, my insurance said that they won't do this. Okay, fine, don't worry about it. We're gonna do it at the surgery center. I can't do it at the hospital because that's the hospital's issue.

• 34:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 34:47Speaker 03

  But I could do it at the surgery center because I own it. I can have the anesthesia because they work for me, right? You know Dr. Abdu, right? So, Abdu would do it. If I do it, he would do it.

• 34:57Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 34:57Speaker 03

  You see what I mean? We have the facility, great. We have the team because they work for me, and I can provide what they need. You know what? That's how I can make that happen. If you know someone that needs help, tell them, hey, call me. Go see Dr. Dev. I know him. Just explain your problem with him. And if we can do it safely, we should do it.

• 35:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 35:19Speaker 03

  Because it really doesn't cost us anything. Yeah, and people are worried about like, well, gee, what if I, you know, how much is it going to cost me? Well, really, it doesn't cost you anything because I can value my services to zero if I want.

• 35:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 35:32Speaker 03

  Right?

• 35:32Speaker 00

  It's my time.

• 35:33Speaker 03

  It's my time. I can value that, right?

• 35:35Speaker 00

  It's my time, my facility. I can do whatever.

• 35:37Speaker 03

  So then people say, well, gee, what if you get sued? And you know what I say every time someone asks me, well, aren't you worried about getting sued? I'm like, absolutely not. Not to this day, I'm still not worried about getting sued. Because you know why? In order for me to worry about getting sued, I have to limit my services. If I go beyond the services that I can create.

• 35:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 35:59Speaker 03

  Then I've given everything to that person.

• 36:01Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 36:02Speaker 03

  Okay? And usually, when you do that, no one wants to sue.

• 36:07Speaker 00

  Comes around.

• 36:08Speaker 03

  That's right. No one wants to sue.

• 36:09Speaker 00

  It always comes around.

• 36:10Speaker 03

  Because they know your heart's in the place of help.

• 36:12Speaker 00

  Yeah. We have a listener question. Has your guest worked with any AI in his medical field? That still scares me.

• 36:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 36:22Speaker 00

  I'm interested in knowing more about this too.

• 36:25Speaker 03

  So you know, it's interesting. My nephews were here a couple of weeks ago and they talked about, you know, they said, hey, you know, China just said they did the first AI gallbladder.

• 36:35Speaker 00

  Yeah, I read about that.

• 36:36Speaker 03

  Right?

• 36:36Speaker 00

  Right?

• 36:36Speaker 03

  You guys hear about this? First AI gallbladder. And I told them, I said, that's great. But that's a gallbladder that went perfectly fine.

• 36:47Speaker 02

  What happens if it goes sideways?

• 36:48Speaker 03

  What happens if it goes sideways? And the answer to that question is no, I have not. Because quite honestly, I'm afraid to. Because I'm not smart enough to know all the questions I need to ask. And here's why, Sammy. Is because when I'm working, I can't even describe to you the algorithm that I'm thinking about. I'm just doing it.

• 37:10Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 37:10Speaker 03

  Because it's muscle memory. It's muscle memory like, hey, wait a minute, you know, there's a bleeder there. I know exactly what to do, you know, I'm just going to do it. I'm not smart enough to tell AI the algorithm way out there of what I need to do if something goes wrong, right?

• 37:25Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 37:26Speaker 03

  That's, I just don't have that bandwidth. But. I do know that there is a place for it. But you know what? Personally, I think the place is in the screening, not in the doing. Does that make sense?

• 37:39Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 37:39Speaker 03

  You know, like physically, I think we need a human being there because I think the human touch is like, you know, you don't, I, I don't want my surgeon to be a machine. I want my surgeon to be a human.

• 37:52Speaker 00

  Yeah, I agree. I agree with you. I, I, I had a, I had a car accident and you fixed me up. But I remember whenever we had the first, uh, uh, meeting, you, you're one of those doctors that still rely on touch. You look at my eye, you look at this. Oh yeah, you, you, you gotta pay attention to this. You gotta pay attention to that.

• 38:10Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 38:10Speaker 00

  Your diagnostic was looking at me, asking questions and, you know, touching my, just my, my fingernail. It's like, hey, there's, we need to pay attention to maybe high sugar here or whatever.

• 38:21Speaker 03

  Right.

• 38:22Speaker 00

  That's, that's, that's amazing.

• 38:23Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 38:24Speaker 00

  AI, I don't think, I don't know, maybe AI can do that, maybe not, but.

• 38:27Speaker 02

  Maybe with some like really like micro surgeries, maybe like the, what is it? The, um, the Da Vinci machine that they talk about, but you're still physically doing the surgery, but you're doing it through the machine. It's not the machine itself.

• 38:41Speaker 03

  It's an extension of the person.

• 38:42Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 38:43Speaker 03

  Right.

• 38:44Speaker 02

  That's the part that I, if it's a machine that's just, I'm okay going to the, uh, was it Kura sushi where the, the, the, the little robot brings me my Dr. Pepper? I'm okay with that. I don't know if I want to doing, uh, heart surgery.

• 38:59Speaker 03

  Right, but, but, but look, I mean, even with that, think about, think about that sushi versus the sushi where you go up to the counter and you're looking that guy in the eye.

• 39:10Speaker 02

  It's better.

• 39:11Speaker 03

  And you're saying, oh, that's exactly right. You see what I mean?

• 39:13Speaker 02

  Right.

• 39:13Speaker 03

  The quality, the service.

• 39:15Speaker 01

  Sometimes.

• 39:16Speaker 02

  Oh, no way.

• 39:17Speaker 01

  I'm gonna go with Mitch and my guy. You keep talking about it. I don't even think you exist.

• 39:21Speaker 00

  Well, it took you six months to get me my hot dog from Costco.

• 39:24Speaker 01

  Hey, you got him. You know, when the guy goes out for lunch every day, he didn't want a Costco hot dog.

• 39:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:30Speaker 00

  Great conversation, Doc. I wanna, I wanna ask a little bit more about, just going back to these federal cuts that are happening today. Do you see any impact on our local healthcare industry?

• 39:43Speaker 03

  Yeah, I think, you know, we might, we might have an issue with the Medicare cut. But to be honest with you, Sammy, you know, through my career, Medicare has cut physician reimbursement one or two percent, three or four times that I can remember. You know, it's never been enough to alter my income. To be honest with you, it's never affected any of it. Why? Because you know what happens? During the time the cuts are happening, the population keeps growing. And that's volume.

• 40:19Speaker 00

  I see.

• 40:19Speaker 03

  Right?

• 40:20Speaker 00

  So the cut happens, volume replaces the cut that you-

• 40:23Speaker 03

  It replaces the cut. One, one percent of, you know, a doctor's salary. I mean, come on. I'm not a greedy guy, you know what I mean? That's the way I look at it. It's like, okay, one percent, okay. You know, there'll be a hundred more patients.

• 40:39Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:39Speaker 03

  Because the population keeps growing, okay? But here's, here's my issue. My issue is, as the population keeps growing and we're cutting that, what are we doing to replace the talent that's not being replaced? So, like, we're aging out, Sammy. You know, our community is aging out of physicians.

• 40:59Speaker 00

  We, we, we're actually, we're gonna start the show with this question from a listener with, talking about the LA rail and people moving into our city from LA, from the Bay Area for affordable-

• 41:12Speaker 02

  Long commute, yeah.

• 41:13Speaker 00

  And affordable housing. Our population is, is booming.

• 41:17Speaker 03

  Is booming.

• 41:18Speaker 00

  Affordability is decreasing, but so is the healthcare affordability and also talent.

• 41:26Speaker 03

  Talent. And it's, it's not coming in. You see what I mean?

• 41:29Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 41:29Speaker 03

  Those people that you say are moving in- They're not physicians moving in.

• 41:34Speaker 00

  No.

• 41:34Speaker 03

  They're still in LA.

• 41:35Speaker 02

  Right. They still have their house in Malibu.

• 41:38Speaker 03

  Right, right. They're still in LA. They're not coming over and say, hey, you know, I heard 100,000 people are moving. They're going to need plastic surgery. Let's go. They're still there.

• 41:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, you're driving down to them.

• 41:48Speaker 00

  Correct. Yeah, it's, I know, it's, it's not puzzling to me because as an ex-banker, I've known the challenge of doctors.

• 41:55Speaker 03

  Right.

• 41:55Speaker 00

  And you and I talked about this. It costs, I mean, an astronomical number to hire somebody.

• 42:01Speaker 03

  Right.

• 42:02Speaker 00

  To go through a recruiter.

• 42:03Speaker 03

  Of course.

• 42:04Speaker 00

  And, and go through that process. It takes you a couple of years.

• 42:06Speaker 03

  Right.

• 42:07Speaker 00

  To get somebody interested and just come in doing an interview here in Bakersfield.

• 42:10Speaker 03

  Absolutely.

• 42:10Speaker 00

  Then the dating phase starts, the schmoozing, in order for us to, hey, this is a good town to be in.

• 42:18Speaker 03

  Right, right.

• 42:19Speaker 00

  And, and, and, and that's something that, that we need to do more of, I think.

• 42:23Speaker 03

  We do.

• 42:24Speaker 00

  And I, and I think I would challenge not just the private sector, but also the, the government of the town because it's going to become a problem. If we don't act upon it.

• 42:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's, it's already a problem, Sammy.

• 42:35Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 42:35Speaker 03

  Honestly, it's right under our noses. It's become a problem. And we, I, I applaud this show for talking about it because no one talks about it. But these are the real conversations the folks at City Hall, at county offices, should be having. Because that's where, it's happening right under our noses.

• 42:56Speaker 00

  Yeah, we, we, I mean, we have, did they ever replace Jim Damian?

• 43:00Speaker 02

  I don't think they, they don't, I don't think they built, uh, replaced that economic development position with the county.

• 43:06Speaker 00

  To me, that was a great position because he came from the, uh, private sector. Drove, you know, growth and, and marketing Bakersfield and Kern County in general to outsiders.

• 43:18Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 43:18Speaker 00

  And we were seeing the impact. I think there's something to be said about that, but also we need to do more of that. I know Richard Chapman.

• 43:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, the Kern Economic Development Corporation, EDC, yeah.

• 43:27Speaker 00

  But, but, and I, and he always talks about healthcare.

• 43:30Speaker 03

  Always.

• 43:31Speaker 00

  The number one industry that, that's growing.

• 43:34Speaker 02

  Employer, yeah.

• 43:34Speaker 00

  An employer is, is healthcare.

• 43:36Speaker 03

  Right. Healthcare, absolutely.

• 43:38Speaker 00

  So do we need to go overseas and bring people?

• 43:41Speaker 03

  Well, so here's the thing, I've already thought about that. The problem is that I run to legislation issues, regulations, credentialing, like, you know, this, they have to come here, they, it's, we don't make it easy for them. We're not making this, you know, there has to be a way around it. I mean, when I go to other countries, Sammy, the minute I land, I can start operating.

• 44:01Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 44:02Speaker 03

  You've seen it.

• 44:03Speaker 00

  Yep, I've seen it.

• 44:04Speaker 03

  I can do it.

• 44:06Speaker 03

  Someone comes here, yeah, someone comes here and we put them through a barrage of paperwork.

• 44:13Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 44:14Speaker 03

  I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, legalities and all these issues that it's, it's insurmountable. They can't even get it done.

• 44:23Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, people are, I mean, from a nursing standpoint, a lot of the nurses that are willing to come and work here for better life, better, they cut their teeth in the Middle East, for instance.

• 44:34Speaker 03

  Of course.

• 44:35Speaker 00

  And they have, in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, they have, they adopted the American system of healthcare.

• 44:43Speaker 03

  Of course.

• 44:44Speaker 00

  So the training of these nurses is very robust, I would say.

• 44:46Speaker 03

  It's great.

• 44:47Speaker 00

  Their bedside manner is very good. So why can't we just go and poach away?

• 44:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, they would love to.

• 44:54Speaker 00

  And I, yes, I have family members that would love to be here.

• 44:57Speaker 03

  They would love to come.

• 44:58Speaker 00

  And there, these are people that are gonna produce, not just come here and rely on system and get from, no, they're gonna come here and work.

• 45:05Speaker 03

  They're gonna come. The only time that's ever happened, Sammy, in my career is during COVID.

• 45:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 45:12Speaker 03

  During COVID, we made accessibility easy, but just like that, it ended.

• 45:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 45:19Speaker 03

  Just as quick as it came, it ended.

• 45:21Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 45:22Speaker 03

  And, you know, I don't know if we'll ever see that again.

• 45:26Speaker 00

  Yeah, and, yeah, it's hard for me to see that right now with the legislation that we have.

• 45:32Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 45:32Speaker 00

  But we all, I also see the need, I have two Asian parents that I'm taking care of.

• 45:37Speaker 03

  Absolutely.

• 45:37Speaker 00

  And in my household, so I, I see the need, I know the need, but I also have my in-laws that are Asian as well.

• 45:45Speaker 03

  Right, right.

• 45:46Speaker 00

  So just my family, my small family, we have four people that need to be taken care of.

• 45:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 45:51Speaker 00

  So the need is there, I, I really like what you said about, hey, this is what this government and the city need to be talking about. And I think we need to create some type of,

• 46:03Speaker 00

  Conversation between the private sector and the city to promote this, this, this area.

• 46:10Speaker 03

  Yeah, and I'm trying, so I'm hoping that someone, someone listens.

• 46:14Speaker 00

  Well, that's why I've got the radio show, Doc.

• 46:16Speaker 03

  There you go.

• 46:16Speaker 00

  Just keep coming here, keep promoting it, and hopefully we make an impact.

• 46:20Speaker 03

  All right. Thank you so much.

• 46:22Speaker 00

  Yeah, always, always a pleasure to have you. A great conversation. Stephen, who do we have tomorrow?

• 46:28Speaker 01

  We have Chris and Seth, the Thursday crew, and we'll get to the questions we didn't get to tomorrow. You'll have some two financial advisors being able to address those. And if you still have some questions, send them in 24 hours a day at 661-842-2000. Thank you, Dr. Dev, the lifesaver. Thank you, Dr. Dev. And until then, be smart, be safe, be money wise.

• 47:02Speaker 04

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