FORWARD MOVEMENT!

I am back!  Stronger than before, and boy (some days more so than others)!  I'm amazed at the distance folk have gone just to get me under their control!  Maybe I really am awesome, huh? NEWSFLASH: I'll get thru this and keep moving forward.

In other news, I'm a new mom, so naturally I will be writing about children's health and insurance coverage.  Who knows, maybe even a sneak peak at my bundle of joy :)

Meanwhile, medication errors are still on the rise, and I need to develop a medical billing and coding tool to help identify and hopefully prevent medication errors in the future; if I can help at least one facility, that will make my day!  I haven't presented in a while, so this will be interesting ;-)

Back to the pharmacy I go? Or will it be the medical records department? Or a doctor's office? Or the classroom?

Thanks for stopping by to see me :)

Need a Job?

"Need a job?"  What kind of question is that?!

The average unemployment rate (2014) in the United States is nearly 7%, according to the Huffington Post (02/07/2014).  So, yes!  The average person does need a job!

Without a job, one is usually left with no health insurance coverage.  An alternative? Try enrolling in Medicaid.  Eligibility requirements pertaining to income & assets, age, and familial status, apply; additional terms, such as citizenship status, and coverage vary from state-to-state.

Once a job is finally secured, health insurance is back on the table with components required by "ObamaCare," of course.  Benefit packages for full-time positions tend to include health insurance; check with your employer about benefits for part-time positions.

***Please note that Medicaid coverage is not "free," per se.  If ever a Medicaid recipient inherits a large sum of cash, Medicaid receives their portion of the inheritance first.***

Here's a tip... Don't splurge, just because you think the cost is on someone else's dime; be conservative, and save yourself some grief, once it's time to "pay the piper!"

Pretty interesting, how job status ties into health insurance coverage, huh?  Good!  So, I'll see you, soon!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Doctor Office Issues

How do you feel about your doctor's staff? How do you feel about your doctor?

I'm hoping your responses are positive and happy, but I'm not naive enough to expect it. The truth is, either your doctor's staff and/or you doctor is/are likely to cause you negative feelings. (Sorry to be the bearer of bad news).

But, I love my doctor! What could possibly cause me to feel negatively about my doctor? Here are a few potential examples:

1) Difficulty communicating with staff;

2) Unable to reach a live person via their 24-hour on-call service;

3) Failure to follow your insurance plan's protocol, resulting in your inability to receive your prescriptions; 

4) Broken promises to call in your prescription to a pharmacy; or

5) Doctor's failure to answer your questions and/or provide you with the resources necessary to improve your medical condition; just to name a few.

Chances are you (or your child/loved one) are probably not feeling well. So, the last thing you need is for processes to run in inefficiently. So what are you going to do? Complaining is useless, unless you are willing to actually do something about it. Things you CAN DO:

1) Take advantage of your time and Express your concerns directly to your doctor;

2) If things don't change, write a letter to your insurance plan, explaining your concerns;

3) Shop around for another doctor/healthcare provider;

4) It doesn't matter if your health insurance plan is Medicaid, Medicare, Tricare, Aetna, Cigna, etc.;

5) Always remember, IT'S YOUR DIME FOR THEIR TIME. Your doctor owes you appropriate service.

NOW, GO GET IT!!!
...and come back to see me, soon!

Baby girl on her way!

On Monday, one of my best friends learned that her bun in the oven is a female bun =) I was secretly wishing for a girl, anyway! Really, as long it's a healthy baby... but yeah, it's a girl.

You see, if it were a boy, then we would have all those issues (click the title above, "Baby girl on her way," for details) to worry about; circumcision or lack of it is not a fun topic. Besides, I want to give her pretty frilly, little girly-girl clothes and accessories to wear =)

Congratulations, my friend! I love ya!!!

ObamaCare is NOT the point

The bottom line is all Americans need access to quality care.  Yes, everyone should be required to have health insurance, and here's why.  When the average uninsured person gets hurt or becomes sick, their first stop is the emergency room instead of a physician's office.  It is common knowledge that health care services cost much more at an emergency room than a physician's office.  Common sense should also reveal that a person's right to choose whether or not to have health insurance is less important that the social burden the lack of health insurance poses on the public, as well as health care facilities as a whole.

Though the Hill-Burton Act, which later became Title XVI of the Public Health Service Act, was enacted for the purpose of subsidizing health care costs for the indigent, its purpose would be non-existent if everyone had health insurance in the first place.  Sure, there are some who can afford to pay for health care services without health insurance.  Perhaps, those individuals may go about financing their health care in a different manner.  But for the bulk of the American population, who can not pay cash for annual exams or cardiac catherizations, mandatory health insurance coverage should indeed be in place, and it will, once 2014 comes around.

When focusing on the content of the new federal law that requires everyone to obtain and maintain health insurance, and not the name of it, perhaps the advantages of it will become more noticeable.  Two key advantages of the Affordable Care Act include the expansion of health care coverage and improvement  of the quality of health care services.  In other words, everyone will have access to health care services, which in turn should facilitate the ability of health care providers to properly treat patients in a timely manner.  The idea is that preventative maintenance can help control certain diseases, while preventing others.  However, the American people must not expect President Obama to solve every single problem (inherited or otherwise), especially when some of the tools are within the power of the people.

Regarding power, coverage is expected to vary from one state to the next.  This makes sense because  different health conditions affect people in various parts of the United States.  Another advantage of the Affordable Health Care Act is that small businesses will not be forced to provide insurance for their employees and contractors.  Other major advantages include the removal of penalties for pre-existing health conditions and tax credit for the purchase of a health insurance plan.

Whether this plan is referred to as “ObamaCare” or not, all Americans need to access to quality health care.  That is the point.  To learn more about how to estimate your health care costs visit www.healthcare.gov