Like a recurring bad dream, it’s health insurance open enrollment again. Whether you have your health insurance through your employer, from healthcare.gov, or Medicare, no doubt your mailbox has been full of notifications with changes to your plan, or solicitations to new options. When I ask people about this, most say they file them in …
Kevin* is fortunate to have health insurance through his job with a local construction company. Like most of us, he didn’t look very carefully at his options; he’s 34, generally healthy, and chose the plan with the lowest monthly cost. He makes about $35,000 a year, enough to keep the wolves away, but not enough …
Anymore, it seems for most of us every medical bill has a surprise when we first open the envelope! How does a provider (doctor, hospital, laboratory, imaging center) decide how much healthcare costs? It’s a pretty closely guarded secret, and it’s not uniform across providers. But suffice it to say, it definitely requires some serious …
Inevitably when I’m asked what I do and respond that I’m a private patient advocate, one eyebrow raises, followed by “What’s that?” My “Private Patient Advocate” elevator speech goes something like this: “Private patient advocates are independent professionals that help patients and their families clarify options for managing their healthcare as well as the cost …
An advertisement arrived in my mail recently from a local hospital system offering a special promotion on “heart disease, stroke, and aneurysm prevention package testing.” The tests included were extensive, and the mailing screamed not to wait to schedule these “life-saving screenings.” And, by the way, these tests are normally valued at over $2100 but …
Before you jump in…Re-thinking preventive health screening Read More »
Monica* had driven herself to the emergency room at a local hospital late at night after experiencing severe abdominal pain. She was worried she might have appendicitis, and her insurance company nurse line had advised her to go to the emergency room. A CT scan, MRI, and blood work were ordered, and intravenous pain medication …
Caveat Emptor! (Or…a new twist in paying for healthcare) Read More »