Quick Guide To Navigating The Healthcare System

Quick Guide to Navigating the Healthcare System is a self-help educational piece of literature that will help caregivers and patient understand the healthcare system. This guide will cover information on Medicare, Medicaid, and mental health services. While this book can be used for any age group, it is geared mostly for the senior citizen population or adults currently on disability that received Medicaid services. The book's goal is to provide educational, medical information in a people-friendly approach. This book has been strategically worded so that it can be understandable for any reader. A medical social worker created this book to provide insight into things that were seen as difficult to understand from patients or things they did not know.

Suddenly, dramatically, and seemingly overnight, U.S. healthcare has morphed into something virtually unrecognizable. There are a slew of new requirements, regulations, goals, buzzwords, and acronyms. It is a revolution in how we view the role and responsibilities not only of the physician and patient, but also of the nurse, the nurse practitioner, physical therapist, nutritionist, medical assistant, pharmacy technician, social worker, and other healthcare professionals. But you don’t just have to cope in this new world of healthcare. Now you can learn how to thrive amid all these changes and challenges. Written by the Chief Medical Officer of one of the world's leading global healthcare data and analytics companies, Navigating Healthcare Reform: An Insider’s Guide for Nurses and Allied Health Professionals is a compelling and easy-to-follow guide to understanding our unfolding healthcare reform — including its biobehavioral and psychosocial aspects — and learning how to take advantage of the opportunities it presents. Practical information is written expressly for nurses and allied health professionals to give you a straightforward understanding of this revolution, along with practical tips for how to survive and thrive in this new era of healthcare. Engaging style presents content using Dr. Edelstein's trademark easy-to-understand voice. Positive tone puts the politics aside and offers a uniquely hopeful message (one of challenges but also one of opportunity). Noteworthy quotes throughout the text help emphasize key takeaways. Vignettes within each chapter help to translate the content into real-life situations. Pearl boxes in the margins summarize critical points and knowledge that can be translated into your career. Engaging cartoons underscore the key messages of book in a fun, memorable manner.

Do you really need to pay that outstanding balance with the hospital? Do you know the differences between a nurse practitioner, a physician’s assistant, a physician, and a paramedic? Did you realize that not all hospitals can treat your stroke, heart attack, or trauma with equal speed and effectiveness? How should you negotiate and appeal a hospital charge? Can you do anything to minimize the medical mistakes that your provider might commit? In Prepare to Defend Yourself . . . How to Navigate the Healthcare System and Escape with Your Life, Matthew Minson, a physician and disaster medicine and healthcare policy expert, pulls back the examination room curtain on the healthcare system, empowering patients and their families to become proactive and knowledgeable users of medical services. Written in a humorous, patient-friendly style and loaded with the author’s cartoons and other visual aids, this essential consumer’s guide to modern healthcare provides down-to-earth, accurate advice that any reader can use, whether preparing for surgery, dialing 911, or simply getting a prescription filled.

Healthcare is changing and you need to know how—and what to do about it. Getting good medical care shouldn’t be so confusing—or so costly. Healthcare, Insurance, and You simplifies the many confusing details about our healthcare system so you can make informed decisions. Result? Better health at lower cost. With the advent of healthcare reform, things are changing—especially when it comes to insurance. Most people will now have to buy insurance. Do you know where to get a policy or what to look for in one? Did you know more people will now qualify for free or subsidized healthcare? Even if you get insurance through work, you'll face new choices that you'd better understand to maintain your peace of mind. As this book shows, the failure to understand how insurance and the healthcare system work can have a major impact on your physical and financial health. Healthcare, Insurance, and You is an easy-to-use guide that explains the main challenges you face when trying to get excellent healthcare: choosing the best insurance policy for your situation, finding the right doctor or hospital, buying prescription drugs the least expensive way, picking out the right Medicare plan, or fighting for your rights when dealing with insurers or medical providers. Healthcare, Insurance, and You includes tips, resources, and strategies for navigating the healthcare system and avoiding common mistakes so you can get the best healthcare for you, your family, or your organization without breaking the bank. This book shows you: How to choose a health plan that best meets your medical and financial needs, including new options under the Affordable Care Act Ways to cut through red tape and fight billing errors and claim denials What businesses need to know about offering—or not offering—insurance to employees How to plan ahead for a disability or for end-of-life care Healthcare costs rank high on the list of money concerns Americans have. And when it comes to getting great healthcare for you and your family and avoiding crippling medical bills, knowledge is power. Healthcare, Insurance, and You is a practical guide that explains the complicated healthcare system in plain language—and puts the power of good health back in your hands.

You or your loved one has just been diagnosed with a chronic illness, or worse, a terminal illness. All of a sudden, there are decisions to be made and discussions that need to take place. Are you prepared? Do you even know where to start? Discussions: A Guide to Navigating Healthcare Choices is the answer. Read this book and refer to it often. As the baby boomers age and grow into illness, they will want an easy guide to navigating and understanding all of the healthcare avenues available. They will want to know what the treatment options are and how to make good choices for themselves in a very confusing and overwhelming healthcare system.

The title of this booklet is Discussions because there is a real need to have some of these discussions when you are a complex or chronically ill patient. These need to take place between the patient and physician, the patient and family, and the patient and caregivers. It is not enough to say that those close to you understand what you would want in certain situations. It is amazing, although the subjects are diffi cult, that people handicap and burden others to make decisions about health care while never talking about these diffi cult topics. Some people feel that if they are discussed, then they will occur, much as people ignore talking about death, not wishing to tempt it into occurring. Presented in this pamphlet are very diffi cult but very important subjects that should be discussed more than once, and many should be ongoing discussions with caregivers and physicians. Many patients feel that if these discussions are so important, the doctor should bring them up and begin the talk. However, physicians are not trained to begin these discussions any more than patients are trained to do so, and the lack of communication on so vital a subject as types of treatment choices or feeding tubes can become critical decisions for others to make in chronically ill patients.

Praise for the Seventh Edition: There are many books on the U.S. healthcare system, but few have the longevity of this one. It is easy to read and straightforward in its approach to difficult subjects such as the rise of the Tea Party and how that movement has impacted healthcare. This update is certainly needed as the landscape has changed dramatically since the previous edition was published. Doody's Medical Reviews The eighth edition of this best-selling text, valued for its concise and balanced introduction to the U.S. health care system, is entirely updated to reflect alterations to health care services, delivery, and financing resulting from the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The text describes how our health care system currently functions, the key forces that led to its structure, and the influences likely to shape the industry during the next 5 to 10 years. With an emphasis on policy development, the authors underscore the fluidity of the system and examine the debates and conflicts that have shaped health care changes and influenced American values and belief systems. Other new areas of focus include an assessment of who uses health care and in what way, health care trends, and a forecast for the health care system of the future. The text elucidates the basic building blocks of the health care system, including its components, organization, services, and financing. It describes the ongoing evolution of the system since the passage of the ACA, development of accountable care organizations (ACOs), and uneven acceptance of Medicaid expansion by states. Organized to facilitate understanding of concepts at work, the text provides health care students with a clear road map of the field in which they will practice, so they can position themselves to navigate the upcoming changes. New to the Eighth Edition: Entirely updated to address changes in health care services, delivery, and financing resulting from the ACA Describes influences that will shape the industry in years to come Emphasizes policy development Assesses current consumers of health care and how they use it Examines the debates and conflicts that have structured health care change Monitors health care trends Discusses the continuing evolution of our system since the ACA Explores the development of ACOs Reinforces information with illustrative tables and figures Key Features: Remains the most concise and balanced introduction to the U.S. health care system Ideal for use in undergraduate courses, in graduate survey courses, and in courses introducing the subject to medical students Includes review questions at the conclusion of each chapter Provides a full suite of ancillary materials for the educator, including an Instructor's Manual, PowerPoints, and a test bank

The Healthcare Labyrinth is not just a comprehensive guide to navigating health plans--it offers a blueprint for fixing our broken healthcare system. The American health insurance system is anything but simple to maneuver. Health plan enrollees become entangled in an intricate and opaque maze of confusion, often resulting in frustration, regret, and deep debt. In The Healthcare Labyrinth, health plan and healthcare technology veteran Marc S. Ryan seeks to demystify the U.S. healthcare system, helping Americans become wiser consumers and allowing them to navigate the maze with more confidence and certainty. Marc walks through how the current system operates, tracing the dysfunction, high costs, and lack of quality to three major issues: --a lack of affordable universal access; --little focus on wellness, prevention, and care management; and --outrageous pricing, especially compared to other developed nations. Using his decades of experience, Marc outlines a bipartisan blueprint to transform America's unique system without upending the employer-based system. He relies on leading academic, research, and mainstream media sources from across the political spectrum to examine the U.S. healthcare system and compare it to those of other developed nations.