Health Insurance Made Easy With These Easy Tips
Finding the right health insurance policy that strikes a balance between good coverage and affordable premiums can be easier than you think if you are armed with the right information. Don't let the lack of some basic advice stop you from finding the right health insurance provider. Here are some tips to get you started.
As your children age into adults, their health insurance coverage will eventually run out. You need to begin talking to them early (say, in the last two years of college) about their insurance needs so that they understand how the transition will occur. Since many employers are cutting benefits, parents are keeping children on their policies longer and longer, but this gets expensive. Perhaps the best advice is to point out the advantages of full-time employment which will provide them with their own independent health coverage.
If you are short of cash, consider taking out a short term health insurance plan. Short term health insurance policies usually costs less and the application process is fast. Most insurance companies offer policies that provide between one and twelve months cover, so short term health plans can be great if you are between jobs.
If you cannot afford insurance, you can try a few things to get the medical treatment you need. Many states offer insurance to qualified people, as well as clinics, that offer care for a sliding scale fee. The money that you save, can offer you the chance to get health insurance later.
Understand you and your families health status when shopping for insurance. If you are a single healthy person, you can take the risk and go for a low-cost, super-high, deductible plan, as the odds are that you will not need to use it as often. If there is a history of illness or if you have children, you will want to pay a little more per month for a lower deductible.
Your employer may offer you a health insurance plan but it may not be the plan that is going to be the best one for you and your family. Be sure to check the limitations of the plans before enrolling for it. Just because your employer has selected this policy to offer does not mean that it is best for you.
If there is a specific doctor that you would like to see, make sure that the insurance plan you are going to be getting is taken by that doctor. This is important, because if that doctor does not take your insurance, you could end up with someone that you do not feel comfortable with.
Make sure that you read the fine print before singing a contract for medical insurance. Otherwise, you may end up agreeing to terms that you do not like. If there are words in the contract that you do not understand, ask a family member or friend to help you or look it up on the internet.
When shopping for health insurance, try one of the many websites that offer rates from several providers at the same time. Enter your information for the type of policy you want and find the rates for different companies offering the coverage you want. This can save not only time, but money too.
Even if you have health insurance, don't be afraid to negotiate with your doctor for your out of pocket costs. Some policies carry a high co-pay, especially for hospital stays and surgeries. Many doctors will reduce your total cost for these things if you ask in their office.
An insurance broker can be an interesting option if you don't have a large amount of time yourself. They will help to gather several options for you before you have to make a final decision. Although this will increase the initial price you pay as you must pay the fee, it can help in the long term.
Do a bit of math when checking out a policy. Many times you get what you pay for, but sometimes that isn't true. Try not to pay for a plan that does not provide a type of coverage that another will for the same exact price. Premiums, deductibles, and co-pays need to be added to everything before making a decision. If a plan seems too good to be true, it most likely is.
Don't let your old policy expire before you get a new one. here If you have a group insurance plan that is going to be terminated, you also have the option of the COBRA Act, which is short for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. You should consider this before getting a new policy.
If your health insurance is inadequate and won't cover a doctor's visit, let your doctor know. If you tell him about your current financial situation he is likely to give you a discount, as keeping you as a patient gets him more money than if you choose to stop going because you can't afford it.
It is sometimes possible to withdraw money from your IRA and use it to pay for your health insurance premiums when you lose your job. You should contact an accountant to be sure you're permitted to do this where you live, and to find out if there are any penalties later for doing it.
When looking for health insurance, determine the type of insurance you need. Preferred Provider Organizations, also known as PPOs, allow you to choose providers outside their network for an additional charge. A POP plan (Point-of-Service) gets you to elect a primary care physician, and they are able to refer you to outside the network if it is required.
All health insurance prices can vary based on the state you are in. One of the best ways to save money is to do research on your state's insurance web site. You will get a list of the companies that are avalible in your area, and the prices that they cost.
Some people don't need full medical coverage. If you are relatively young and healthy, work in a relatively low-risk job, and have little family history of disease, you might consider purchasing only catastrophic health coverage. This will prevent you from incurring the thousands a hospital bill for an overnight stay can cost, but save you money on premiums.
It's nearly impossible to afford health care in America without insurance. New laws will hopefully make it easier to obtain insurance, but there are still many questions to consider when choosing a policy. Sometimes you may think an expense is covered, only to find the insurance company won't pay. Use the advice from this article to make sure you understand your health insurance options before you really need it.
Telehealth and telemedicine for coronavirus: What it is and how to use it now
What is telemedicine?
According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, telemedicine is defined as “the practice of medicine using technology to deliver care at a distance. A physician in one location uses a telecommunications infrastructure to deliver care to a patient at a distant site.â€
Testa says his hospital is using telemedicine both within and outside the hospital to manage the influx of patients needing care. “We're using video visits inside of our hospitals, and inside of our emergency departments, to minimize exposure to our staff, as well as exposure to other patients who are immunocompromised,†he says.
How to use telemedicine
A good place to start is to check with your health care provider, provider system or hospital’s app for a telemedicine portal, download it and follow the prompts.
“We've been doing video visits for over a year and a half — we've already done about 15,000 of them,†says Testa. “What we've learned in interviewing our patients is that more often than not, they had plans to either go to their primary care doctor and it is off-hours, or they had planned to go to a brick-and-mortar urgent care. Virtual urgent care is just more convenient than those options.â€
At NYU Langone, for example, Testa says these video visits are fully integrated into patients’ online health profiles, and visible to their primary care doctors who can easily see what labs or X-rays have been ordered.
If you don’t have a primary care doctor and prefer to use urgent care when you need it, virtual urgent care apps, like PlushCare, Doctor on Demand or MDLive, can give you virtual access to a doctor, 24/7.
Ryan McQuaid, CEO and co-founder of PlushCare, says that under normal circumstances, patients who use his telemedicine platform tend to use it as a primary care provider.
He says these patients usually fall into three buckets: They use telemedicine to manage ongoing conditions, like depression, diabetes or hypertension; everyday care issues like hair loss or birth control; and urgent care issues, like cold and flu, sinus infections or UTIs. And their patients aren’t just tech-forward millennials — McQuaid says elderly patients have begun to embrace telemedicine.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZiSk2MOF17UdugnGNqOAojsLDrM0Qu-pLwshdGqch_M/edit?usp=sharing
Los Angeles clinic puts underprivileged community at greater risk of contracting coronavirus, health care workers say
The clinics serve an area where the proportion of people living below the poverty line is more than double the national average, according to census data. Many patients live in multifamily homes or homeless shelters and have chronic medical conditions, compounding their chances of contracting and spreading the coronavirus, the eight professionals said. African Americans and Latinos have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus, according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"My fear is that once it hits this patient population, it will be the epicenter of L.A.," one of the professionals said.
When the coronavirus broke out, some of the professionals called patients to reschedule routine visits and refill prescriptions over the phone, but they were quickly reprimanded by management and told not to call their own patients, they said.
"This is the first place I've worked that as a provider I'm not given the autonomy to care for them [my patients] medically," one of them said after having encountered resistance to suggesting that patients with non-urgent needs be moved to telehealth visits.
"When you're suppressing the expertise, the knowledge, the morals, the morale of providers who are here to take care of an underserved people, you're almost just kind of re-oppressing them," the professional said.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZiSk2MOF17UdugnGNqOAojsLDrM0Qu-pLwshdGqch_M/edit?usp=sharing
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