Your Insurance Detective › Amherst and Williamsville, NY
Health Insurance Broker Serving Amherst and Williamsville, NY
Written and reviewed by Dick Tracy, licensed health insurance broker (NPN 20414610) · Published September 4, 2026 · Updated September 16, 2026
Yes, there is a health insurance broker in Amherst. My office address is on Main Street in Snyder, inside the Town of Amherst, and Williamsville, Eggertsville, Getzville, East Amherst, Clarence, Tonawanda, and Kenmore are the towns I work every week. Here is the short version of what I do for the Northtowns. If you are self-employed, you have three real doors: a pre-established group plan a solo owner can join, NY State of Health or the same plans off-exchange, and the supplemental layers that cover the deductible. If you are part of the UB crowd, the school plan is gone and I will show you the doors that replaced it. If you practice medicine on the Maple Road corridor and earn well over the 2026 subsidy line, I will explain why your marketplace quote looks the way it does and what beats it. And here is the part most agents cannot give you: I worked on the healthcare side before I was a broker, so you also learn how to use the plan, from billing codes and facility fees to cash prices and reading an EOB. Everything by phone or Zoom, no fee to you. I educate, you decide.
I'm Dick Tracy, a licensed health insurance broker (NPN 20414610) with 80+ carriers and licenses in 25 states, New York first among them. I spent years on the healthcare side of this business before I became a broker, so there is no gag clause on me. You get the tips, the tricks, and the traps. Amherst is not a checkbox on my service-area list. It is where my mail goes.
Buffalo's largest suburb (2020 Census)
Maple Road, Williamsville
and no school health plan since 2024
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, Amherst town; Kaleida Health, Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital; University at Buffalo at a glance and UB Student Life, health insurance.
Amherst and Williamsville are Erie County, so the local question is who you are, not where the line is
On the Niagara Falls page the whole story is the county line: Niagara County has its own marketplace plan list and most of the serious care is across the line in Buffalo. The Northtowns do not have that problem. Amherst, Williamsville, Snyder, Eggertsville, Getzville, East Amherst, Swormville, Clarence, Tonawanda, Kenmore, and Grand Island are all Erie County, so you see the same NY State of Health plan list Buffalo sees, at the same community-rated prices. Only North Tonawanda, Lewiston, and the Falls sit on the other side.
What makes Amherst different is the people. This is the largest suburb in Western New York, with the University at Buffalo's North Campus in the middle of it, a 265-bed teaching hospital on Maple Road, and medical office parks running from Sheridan Drive out to Transit Road. The three groups I meet here more than anywhere else in the metro are UB people whose coverage just ended, self-employed clinicians earning well over the subsidy line, and Northtowns owners and contractors who were never shown anything but the marketplace. The rest of this page is written for those three.
Why talk to a broker who knows healthcare, not only health insurance
When you work for a big employer, somebody in HR picks the plan, checks the network, and takes the call when a bill looks wrong. When you are self-employed in Amherst or Williamsville, that person is you. Most agents can quote you a premium. Very few can tell you what happens after you hand over the card, because they have never worked on that side of the counter. I have. Before I was a broker I worked on the provider side of healthcare, in the billing of medical equipment, and I watched people pay different prices for the identical item because of what each insurance plan allowed. I love talking health insurance and healthcare industry tips and tricks, and there is no gag clause on me. Here is what I teach on every call.
1. Every service has a billing code, and every plan has its own allowed amount for it
The number on a provider's bill is the billed charge. It is almost never the real price. Your plan has an allowed amount for each billing code, and what you owe is figured from that: all of it while you are in your deductible, a percentage of it under coinsurance, or a flat copay. In network means the provider agreed to your plan's allowed amounts. Out of network means they did not. Once you see that, plan shopping stops being about the premium alone and starts being about which network reaches your doctors at which price.
2. It is all about where you walk in the door
The same MRI order, blood panel, or minor procedure can be done at a hospital outpatient department or at a freestanding center, and the hospital setting usually adds a facility fee on top of the professional fee. The Northtowns have both kinds of buildings within a few miles of each other, from Maple Road to Sheridan Drive to Transit Road. Ask which kind you are being sent to before you book. New York backs you up here: a hospital may not bill you a facility fee your insurance does not cover unless it told you in writing, at least seven days ahead, what the fee is and whether your plan will pay it.
Source: New York Public Health Law § 2830 and NY Department of Health guidance on facility fees.3. Ask the cash price before you hand over the card
You cannot put toothpaste back in the tube. Once a claim is filed, your plan's allowed amount is the price. For generic prescriptions, routine labs, and imaging in a year when you will not meet your deductible, the self-pay price is sometimes lower, so ask first. The honest caution: money you pay outside the plan usually does not count toward your deductible or your out-of-pocket maximum. This is a tool for a healthy year and small-ticket care, not for a surgery. My prescription savings guide walks through the pharmacy side.
4. If you pay cash, you are owed a written estimate first
Under the federal No Surprises Act, a provider has to give a self-pay or uninsured patient a good faith estimate of the expected charges when you schedule or when you ask. If the final bill comes in $400 or more over that estimate, you can dispute it through a federal process. The same law protects insured patients from most surprise out-of-network bills for emergency care.
Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, No Surprises Act.5. Look up a fair price before the appointment, not after
You would not buy a car without checking what it should cost. FAIR Health is a national nonprofit that was created in October 2009 out of a New York Attorney General settlement over how insurers set out-of-network payments, and its free consumer site estimates what a procedure costs in your ZIP code, in network and out. Two minutes there tells you whether a quote is reasonable.
Source: FAIR Health, mission and origins; free lookups at fairhealthconsumer.org.6. Never pay a bill until it matches your EOB
The provider's statement and your plan's Explanation of Benefits are two different documents, and the EOB is the one that says what you owe. One of my clients texted me a provider bill for $6,400 and asked if he should pay it. I logged into his plan portal. The claim had already been repriced and paid more than a month earlier, and his real share was a $250 copay. The provider's billing system had simply kicked the old balance back out. Billing mistakes are common enough that I check every one a client sends me. Here is how to read an EOB line by line.
7. A denial is not the last word
If your plan denies a service, you have the right to an internal appeal. On a New York-regulated plan, if the denial stands you can ask for an external appeal, where an independent reviewer outside the insurance company decides, and you have four months from the final denial to request it. Plans governed by federal law have their own appeal path. Either way, I help my clients put the paperwork together instead of leaving them to figure it out alone.
Source: New York Department of Financial Services, external appeals.What you handle alone, and what we handle together
| The job | Enrolling on your own | Working with me |
|---|---|---|
| Price of the plan | The state-filed premium | The same state-filed premium. No fee to you. |
| Checking your doctors and prescriptions | You search each plan's directory | I check them by name against every plan before you pick |
| The 2026 subsidy math | You estimate your income | We run it off your honest full-year number so April holds no surprise |
| Options beyond the marketplace | Not shown on the exchange website | Priced side by side, including a group plan a solo owner can join |
| Learning how to use the plan | The plan documents | A Zoom walk-through: where to go, what to ask, cash or card |
| A bill or denial that looks wrong | You call the carrier and the provider | You text me the bill and we work it together |
Enrolling on your own is a perfectly legal, perfectly fine way to buy coverage, and the premium is the same. The difference is whether you want to do all of that work alone. The tools I hand my clients are collected in my free healthcare savings resource kit. Here are nine things to check before you pick any broker in New York, me included.
The UB crowd: grad students, postdocs, adjuncts, and the new grad whose plan just ended
Here is the fact most people on the North Campus have not heard stated plainly. Effective Fall 2024, UB discontinued the domestic student health insurance plan it used to offer, and it no longer requires domestic students to carry coverage at all. International students and scholars still have a required plan through the university and should leave it alone. Everyone else is on their own for the first time, and "on your own" in New York has more doors than the one email you got.
If you are under 26, a parent's plan is usually the cheapest door on the table. Federal law lets you stay on it whether or not you are a student and whether or not you live at home, and a Buffalo network is often fine even if the plan was bought in Rochester or Long Island. If you are past 26, or that door is closed, NY State of Health is where a stipend-level income gets real help. New York's Essential Plan covers lower incomes for $0 a month, and above that band the premium tax credits kick in. Two rules that matter for you: losing other coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment window, so you do not have to wait until November, and the subsidy is based on your estimate of the full year's income, so a summer research job or a fall teaching contract has to go in the number. Check where your income lands on the 2026 NY State of Health income limits before you fill out anything.
Adjuncts and researchers paid on 1099 are a special case. The marketplace treats you as self-employed, which means the same three doors below apply to you, including the tax deduction for premiums that most part-time faculty never take. If your assistantship comes with a state employee plan, keep it. This section is for the people who do not have one.
The medical corridor: 1099 physicians, therapists, dentists, and the practices along Maple, Sheridan, and Transit
Millard Fillmore Suburban sits on Maple Road, the big multi-specialty groups have offices along Essjay Road and Sheridan Drive, imaging and surgical centers cluster off the 290, and behind every one of those buildings is a layer of people who are technically self-employed: the locum tenens physician, the psychologist or LCSW in private practice, the dentist who owns the chair, the physical therapist on a 1099 contract, the anesthesiologist paid through a professional corporation. You earn well, you are usually healthy, and your marketplace quote makes no sense to you.
It makes sense once you see the two New York rules stacking. The 2026 subsidy cliff is back, so one dollar of household income over 400% of the federal poverty level, roughly $62,600 for one person or $128,600 for a family of four, and the premium tax credit is zero. Most of the corridor is over that line. Then community rating takes over: New York does not price the individual market on age or health, so the healthy 41-year-old surgeon pays the same rate as everyone else in Erie County on that plan. Good policy for the sick, expensive for you. That is the exact situation the pre-established group plan door was built for. Federal law governs those plans rather than state rating rules, so a healthy clinician who is paying full price anyway can often get a wider PPO network for less than a marketplace Gold plan. And if your practice has a few W-2 employees, the small business page covers the group side.
Northtowns self-employed: the realtor, the consultant, the contractor, the owner
Outside the campus and the corridor, self-employed Amherst looks like the rest of the metro, only a little further over the line. Real estate agents, financial and IT consultants, engineers on contract, remodelers and trades, restaurant and shop owners on Main Street and Transit Road. The pattern I see is a household that earns enough to lose the subsidy but not enough to shrug off a $1,000-a-month premium, sitting on a marketplace plan because nobody showed them anything else existed.
If you are paid on a 1099, run an LLC or an S corp with no employees, or sell real estate out of a Main Street or Transit Road office, you count as self-employed for health insurance purposes, and the question I hear most is some version of "what is the best health insurance for a self-employed person in New York, and how much is it going to cost me?" The honest answer is that it depends on three things: your household income against the 2026 subsidy line, your health, and which doctors you will not give up. That is a twenty-minute conversation, and it is the reason this page ends with a calendar instead of a quote form.
The pressure is not letting up. For 2027, Western New York's marketplace insurers asked the state for roughly 9 to 24 percent more, according to their filings with the New York Department of Financial Services as reported by The Buffalo News in June 2026. On September 4, 2026 the state cut that back: individual plans were approved at 6 percent statewide against a 20.6 percent request, and small group at 8 percent against 23.7 percent, per the Department of Financial Services. Western New York still runs above the statewide number. That is the fourth straight year of increases here, after 14, 13 and 7 percent. If your renewal letter is the only piece of paper you are looking at, you are shopping with one option. The section below gives you three.
The three doors, in the order I open them for a healthy owner over the line
Door 1: a pre-established group plan a solo owner can join
There are group health plans that already exist under federal benefits law, and a solo owner can be merged into one. You get group rates instead of New York's community rate, a true PPO network of the PHCS and MultiPlan type nationwide, or MagnaCare here in New York and New Jersey, and a policy you own and keep all the way to Medicare. No payroll, no employees required, and one simple compliance step I walk you through. For the corridor clinician or the consultant over the cliff, this is usually the door that wins on network and often on price, because it is the only one state rating rules do not govern. Here is the full breakdown of how it works.
Fits: healthy Amherst and Williamsville owners over the 2026 subsidy line who want a real PPO. Does not fit: anyone counting on a subsidy this year, because the subsidy only lives on Door 2.
Door 2: NY State of Health, or the same plans off-exchange
New York runs its own marketplace, NY State of Health, not healthcare.gov. It takes everyone at the same price with no health questions, which makes it the safe harbor if you are managing a condition, and it is the only place a premium tax credit lives. You can also buy the identical plan straight from the carrier off the exchange when no subsidy applies: same price, same network, less paperwork. For 2026 the subsidy cliff is back and there is no cap on repaying an overpaid credit at tax time, so estimate off your honest full-year income. Run the free 2026 subsidy calculator for a dollar estimate, check the knockout rules, and if your income lands low, the Essential Plan deserves a hard look. Here is what a broker does that the exchange website does not.
Fits: anyone under the cliff, anyone in the Essential Plan income band, the UB crowd, and anyone whose health makes guaranteed-issue coverage the right call.
Door 3: the supplemental layers
Whichever major-medical door you pick, the deductible is still yours to cover. Accident coverage, critical illness coverage, gap plans, and dental pay cash or pay providers directly when something happens, so a deductible does not land on a credit card in January. For anyone in the trades, and for anyone whose income stops when they stop working, the accident and critical illness layers earn their keep. These are real add-ons I sell in New York. They are not health insurance on their own, and what is approved for sale to a New York resident is narrower than in most states and it changes, so I tell you exactly what is on the table for you on the call rather than promise a product on a web page.
Fits: anyone with a real deductible and a real budget, which is everyone.
How much does health insurance cost in Amherst, NY in 2026?
Because Amherst is Erie County, the numbers are the ones Buffalo sees. New York's 2026 averages for one adult before any subsidy run about $610 a month for the lowest-cost Bronze plan, $817 for the benchmark Silver, and $1,057 for the lowest-cost Gold, per KFF, and community rating means those do not move with your age or your health. A qualifying income puts you on the Essential Plan for $0 a month. Under the 400% line a tax credit cuts the marketplace price, sometimes sharply. Over it, you pay full price, and Door 1 is worth pricing side by side. The Buffalo self-employed page has the full 2026 table and the five-door ranking by income.
I do not quote you a premium from a web page, because the honest number depends on income, household size, the plan tier, and whether the network reaches your doctors. One more thing about "cheapest." The cheapest plan is the one that costs least on the day nothing happens. The best plan is the one that costs least on the day something does. Give me those five facts and I will give you real numbers from real carriers, usually the same day.
Which door is for me?
UB grad student or postdoc, under 26, parents have a plan
The parent's plan, almost every time. Confirm the network reaches a Buffalo primary care doctor and the pharmacy you use. If it does, you are done, and the money stays in your pocket.
UB grad, postdoc, or adjunct, over 26 or no parent plan, stipend-level income
Door 2, with an honest full-year estimate. Check the Essential Plan band first, then the tax credit. A lost school or job plan opens a 60-day window, so do not wait for November. Adjuncts on 1099 pay: the premium is usually deductible.
Self-employed clinician on the corridor, healthy, well over the cliff
Door 1 first, then price Door 2 off-exchange against it. You are paying full price either way. The question is which full price buys the wider network, and it is usually not the marketplace Gold. Add Door 3 for the deductible.
Northtowns owner or contractor, household just over the line
Run the cliff math before you shop. If a legitimate retirement contribution or the self-employed health insurance deduction pulls your modified income under the line, Door 2 with a credit can win. If you are clearly over, Door 1.
A recent serious diagnosis or a condition you are managing
Door 2, for now. Guaranteed issue at a community rate is exactly what New York does well. Take it, get the care, and we revisit the other doors at a later enrollment period once you are on the other side of it.
Your doctor is on Maple Road but your specialist is downtown
Bring me both names before you shop on price. Same county, same plan list, but not every network reaches every building. I check it either way, in writing, before you enroll.
Don't forget the write-off
Whichever door you pick, if you are self-employed the premiums are usually deductible on your federal return through the self-employed health insurance deduction, no itemizing required, capped at your net profit minus half of your self-employment tax, and only for months you were not eligible for an employer plan, including a spouse's. New York's income tax starts from your federal figures, so a deduction that lowers your federal income generally lowers your state tax too, though confirm the details with your tax professional. Run your number on the free self-employed deduction calculator. And remember the plan is the bigger lever than the deduction. A better plan saves you money twelve months a year. The deduction only gives some of it back in April.
What self-employed clients say
“He is big on education and will take as much time with you as you desire. He taught me that there are options available that I wasn’t aware of! I highly recommend reaching out to him to get a second opinion on your health insurance.”James S., CPA · LinkedIn recommendation
“He took the time to show me tons of options I didn’t know were available and found I could save $500 per month over what I had thought. Do yourself a favor and reach out to him.”Megan D. · Google review
“Richard is great at helping people to achieve the impossible with the knowledge he has to help small business owners like myself to grab affordable health care.”Trey P., small business owner · Google review
“Working with Dick Tracy helped me to find affordable health insurance that catered to me as a Small Business Owner!”Stephanie K., small business owner · Facebook recommendation
Individual results vary. Savings depend on your age, income, health, household, and the plan you choose.
Common questions from Amherst and Williamsville
Is there a health insurance broker in Amherst, NY?
Yes. I'm Dick Tracy, a licensed health insurance broker (NPN 20414610), and my office address is 4498 Main Street in Snyder, which sits inside the Town of Amherst, ZIP 14226. I work with people in Williamsville, Snyder, Eggertsville, Getzville, East Amherst, Swormville, Clarence, Tonawanda, Kenmore, and Grand Island every week, by phone or on Zoom with the plan documents on the screen. It costs nothing extra to use me. In New York the carrier pays the broker and the premium is filed with the state, so the price of any plan is the same with me or without me. What you get for free is someone who checks your doctors by name against every plan, runs the 2026 subsidy math honestly, and stays on your side after you enroll.
What health insurance can I get in Amherst or Williamsville if I'm self-employed?
Three doors, and the order depends on your health and your income. One, a pre-established group plan that a solo owner can join, with group rates, a true PPO network of the PHCS or MultiPlan type nationwide or MagnaCare in New York, and a policy you own and keep. That is the first door I open for a healthy owner earning too much for a subsidy, because it is the one door New York's community rating does not govern. Two, NY State of Health, the state's own marketplace, or the identical plans bought off-exchange straight from the carrier. No health questions either way, and it is the only place a premium tax credit lives. Three, the supplemental layers, accident, critical illness, gap, and dental, that cover the deductible the first two leave you. Amherst is Erie County, so your marketplace plan list is the same one Buffalo sees.
UB dropped its student health plan. What are my options as a grad student, postdoc, or adjunct?
Effective Fall 2024, the University at Buffalo discontinued the domestic student health insurance plan and no longer requires domestic students to carry coverage, so a lot of people on the North Campus are shopping on their own for the first time. If you are under 26, a parent's plan is usually the cheapest door, and federal law lets you stay on it regardless of where you live or whether you are a student. If you are over 26 or that is not an option, NY State of Health is where a stipend-level income gets real help: the Essential Plan and the premium tax credits both live there, and losing other coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment window, so you do not have to wait for open enrollment. If your assistantship comes with a state employee plan, keep it. If you teach or do research on 1099 pay, you are self-employed in the eyes of the marketplace, and the three doors above apply to you. International students and scholars have their own required plan through UB and should not change that.
I'm a self-employed physician, therapist, or dentist in Williamsville earning well over the subsidy line. Why is my marketplace quote so high?
Two New York rules are stacking on you. First, the 2026 subsidy cliff is back: one dollar of household income over 400% of the federal poverty level, roughly $62,600 for one person or $128,600 for a family of four, and the premium tax credit is zero, not reduced. Second, New York is community rated, so the individual-market price does not care that you are healthy, do not smoke, and run five miles before clinic. You pay the same rate as everyone else in Erie County on that plan. That combination is exactly why the pre-established group plan door exists. Federal law governs those plans, not state rating rules, so a healthy clinician paying full price anyway can often get a wider PPO network for less than a marketplace Gold plan. I price it against the off-exchange plan side by side and you pick.
How much does health insurance cost in Amherst, NY in 2026?
Amherst is Erie County, so the marketplace numbers are the same ones Buffalo sees. For 2026, New York's averages for one adult before any subsidy run about $610 a month for the lowest-cost Bronze plan, $817 for the benchmark Silver, and $1,057 for the lowest-cost Gold, per KFF. Because New York is community rated, those figures do not change with your age or your health. At the other end, a qualifying income puts you on the Essential Plan for $0 a month. Under the 400% line you get a premium tax credit that can cut the marketplace price sharply; over it, you pay full price, and the group plan door is worth pricing. I do not quote you a premium from a web page, because your real number depends on income, household size, the plan tier, and the network that reaches your doctors. Bring me those five facts and you get real numbers from real carriers, usually the same day.
Do Amherst and Williamsville use the same health plans as Buffalo?
Yes. New York sets marketplace plan availability and networks county by county, and Amherst, Williamsville, Snyder, Eggertsville, Getzville, East Amherst, Clarence, Tonawanda, Kenmore, and Grand Island are all Erie County. You see the same NY State of Health plan list Buffalo sees, at the same community-rated prices. The place that trips people up is the county line to the north: Niagara Falls, Lewiston, and North Tonawanda are Niagara County, which has its own list. So for the Northtowns the question is not where the line is, it is which network reaches the doctors you actually use, from a Maple Road specialist to a downtown hospital, and I check that by name before anything gets signed.
Does it cost more to use a health insurance broker in New York?
No. In New York the premium for any given plan is filed with and approved by the state, and the carrier pays the broker out of that filed premium. You pay the same whether you enroll on your own through the NY State of Health website, through a call center, or with me. The difference is the work: I check your doctors, hospitals, and prescriptions against every plan by name before you pick, I run the 2026 subsidy estimate off your honest full-year income so there is no repayment surprise at tax time, and when a claim comes back wrong, I am the person who reads the EOB and makes the calls. I educate, you decide.
Why use a health insurance broker if I'm self-employed in Amherst or Williamsville?
Because when you are self-employed nobody else is doing the work an HR department does. There is no benefits manager checking your doctors, no one running the subsidy math, and no one to call when a bill looks wrong. A broker does that work at no cost to you, since in New York the plan price is filed with the state and is the same with or without one. What I add on top is the healthcare side. I worked on the provider side of this business before I was a broker, so I also teach you how to use the plan: how billing codes and allowed amounts set what you pay, why the same test costs more at a hospital outpatient department than at a freestanding center, when to ask for the cash price, and how to check a bill against the EOB before you pay it. A website can sell you a policy. I would rather you know how the system works.
Do health insurance brokers save you money?
Not on the premium of a given plan. In New York that price is filed with and approved by the state, so it is identical whether you enroll on your own or with a broker. Where a broker saves you money is everywhere else. First, in which plan you land on: a healthy self-employed owner over the 2026 subsidy line who has only ever been shown the marketplace may have a group plan door nobody priced for them. Second, in the subsidy math: an honest full-year income estimate avoids a repayment bill at tax time. Third, in how you use the plan: choosing a freestanding imaging center over a hospital outpatient department, asking the cash price on a generic drug, and never paying a provider bill until it matches the EOB. Those habits are worth more over a year than most people expect.
Is the cash price ever cheaper than using my health insurance?
Sometimes, yes, especially for generic prescriptions, routine lab work, and imaging when you have a high deductible you are not going to meet. The reason is that every insurer has its own allowed amount for each billing code, and a provider's self-pay price can come in under it. Two honest cautions. Money you pay outside your plan usually does not count toward your deductible or your out-of-pocket maximum, so this is a tool for a healthy year and small-ticket care, not for a surgery. And ask before the visit, because once a claim is filed the insurer's allowed amount is the price. If you are paying cash, federal law gives you the right to a written good faith estimate, and if the final bill comes in $400 or more over that estimate you can dispute it, per CMS.
How do I lower a medical bill when I already have insurance?
Start by not paying it yet. Wait for the Explanation of Benefits from your plan and compare it line by line with the provider's bill. The number you owe is the patient responsibility on the EOB, not the billed charge on the provider's statement. Ask the provider for an itemized bill with the billing codes. If something was coded wrong, denied, or processed out of network when it should not have been, ask for it to be corrected and resubmitted. If the plan denies a service as not medically necessary, you have the right to an internal appeal, and on a New York-regulated plan you can then request an external appeal through the Department of Financial Services within four months of the final denial. New York also requires a hospital to tell you in writing, at least seven days ahead, about a facility fee your insurance will not cover. My clients text me the bill and I do this with them.
Thirty minutes on the phone or Zoom, no fee, no hard sell. Bring your age, your county, tobacco status, a rough income number, the doctors you want to keep, and how you use care. I price the doors that fit you from the carriers I work with and put them side by side. I educate, you decide.
Grab a time right here
Pick a slot below and it lands on both our calendars. No phone tag, no hard sell. I educate, you decide.