Health Insurance And A Few Words Of Advice
Your health is a vital part of your survival, so why not insure it? Health insurance meanwhile is a hit and miss, it can be a great payoff when you find the company and policy that is right for your needs. The article below contains some well formed tips that are sure to be of help to you when trying to find the perfect health insurance.
Take out insurance to protect yourself against financial ruin. Health insurance should be one of the highest financial priority on your list. Health problems are always a possibility and if health concerns arise, the cost of hospital bills alone could easily bankrupt someone who does not have health insurance.
Health insurance may not completely cover the cost of birth control or well-woman visits with your physician. An alternative to a regular gynecologist is Planned Parenthood, which offers exams, counseling and birth control on a sliding scale, meaning the amount you are charged is based on your ability to pay. County health clinics may also offer these services.
Unless you are actually suffering an emergency, you should always avoid the emergency room unless you want huge charges on your health insurance bill. A doctor's visit is far more affordable. If you plan it in advance and do not waste the hospital's resources and time, you will not have to pay a lot of money for your visit via deductibles.
If you're self-employed, remember that health insurance is tax-deductible. Talking to your accountant could mean that your health insurance costs less out of pocket than you expected, because of tax law allowances on your adjusted gross income. Medical costs can also be tax deductible however, so talk to a tax expert to decide what will offer you the most savings.
All insurance plans are going to differ slightly, so the most important thing you can do is ask questions. Health insurance is nothing to play around with. If you do not get everything you absolutely need, you may be left footing the bill when you fall ill. That's going to be expensive and possibly even life threatening.
Before getting a prescription filled, you should hand the pharmacist your insurance card. Some companies will actually pay a percentage of medication prescriptions for their customers. That means that you could save money on your prescriptions. You can look online to see what your policy does and does not cover.
If you are suffering from any disease or condition, make sure you find out what your health insurance company thinks of that! There are companies who will not insure you if there is a pre-existing condition involved and some charge outrageous fees for insuring someone with a pre-existing condition. The best way to get a good price is if you do some research.
It is important that you take price into consideration when looking for medical insurance. Although having health insurance is very important, you do not want to end up losing it because you cannot afford the premiums. If a potential insurance company's premiums seem too high, shop around for another one. You can even try to negotiate a lower price with your preferred company.
Being aware of laws applicable to health insurers, is vital to protecting yourself and your coverage. Most of the time, an insurance company cannot cancel coverage or deny payment because of a clerical error on your part, including during the application process. Unfortunately, paperwork and red-tape are part of the health insurance process, but knowing your rights up front, enables you to plow through it with greater confidence.
Instead of paying high rates for certain health insurance, go with an HMO. Not only will this save you a lot of money, but they are easier to use. Also, most HMOs do not have as many restrictions on pre-existing conditions as regular health insurance companies do, meaning it is easier to get approved check here for an HMO.
If you like your current doctor and you do not want to change providers then you need to make sure that you find out whether he or she is one of the network providers before signing up with any company. Many health insurance companies will not cover you if you see a doctor that is out of the network.
As you can see, health insurance is easier to navigate than most people think. You can absolutely make your health insurance work for you, if you know which questions to ask and how to make appeals. Learning the ins and outs of your insurance is a challenge but the time is well worth spending, if it saves you money on health care costs.
The coronavirus pandemic could push telemedicine into the mainstream
Telemedicine has been around for more than two decades, but its adoption among Americans has been relatively low. The coronavirus pandemic is quickly changing that.
With millions of people around the country forced to stay home in lockdown and worried about potentially exposing themselves to the virus, many of them are turning to telemedicine companies' virtual consultation services. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most people that contract the coronavirus only suffer mild illness and can recover without leaving their homes. Telemedicine companies are stepping in to give patients a chance to talk through their symptoms and decide if they need to be hospitalized.
CareClix, a virtual health platform based in Alexandria, VA, has more than 20 million users across the US and says it saw a 50% increase in usage in March. Zipnosis, another telemedicine company based in Minneapolis, reported a 3,600% increase in virtual visits on its platform over an 11-day period last month.
"Unfortunately, it's taken some pretty extraordinary circumstances, but I think this will be a watershed moment for the industry," Zipnosis CEO Jon Pearce told CNN Business. "Certainly in the past few weeks with Covid, I think people's desire to have trusted advice from medical providers is just gone through the roof ... and that's what we can facilitate in a very fast fashion. And more importantly, we can facilitate that without leaving your home."
Both companies have different approaches to telemedicine.
CareClix, founded in 2012, connects patients to doctors through an on-demand video platform that attempts to recreate the in-person experience in a virtual setting — similar to chatting with your doctor on FaceTime.
"We really try to mimic what's done in brick and mortar," said CareClix co-founder and CEO John Korangy. "From the user's perspective for the patient and... the doctor, they're not doing anything different than they would if you came and saw me face to face. The only thing different is now we have a monitor in between us."
While CareClix's technology is used by hospital networks and healthcare providers around the US, the company also has an internal team of doctors that can provide remote services to patients.
Zipnosis, on the other hand, operates in what is known as asynchronous care — where the doctor and patient don't need to be in the same place (even virtually) at the same time. The company, founded over a decade ago, has users fill out a virtual questionnaire through a chatbot-like tool that packages their responses for a doctor to review and diagnose. Zipnosis claims this can dramatically speed up the process, allowing doctors to make a diagnosis in an average of 89 seconds.
"Instead of talking to a doctor over video, you would answer a series of yes [or] no questions," Pearce said, "the same questions they would be asking you in real life when instead of doing that, we have a really smart computer system do it."
Telemedicine has its limitations — some complex diagnoses and treatment may require in-person interactions. If a patient appears particularly sick, telemedicine companies will recommend they go to a clinic or hospital. But the technology can play an important role in easing some of the initial load from walk-ins, particularly as the global pandemic places strain on the healthcare system and makes people nervous about being exposed to the virus.
"What's happening is that people are worried," said Ann Mond Johnson, CEO of the American Telemedicine Association, a non-profit organization focused on increasing the adoption of virtual health technologies. "People don't know really what to do, where to go, whether or not they should get a test for the virus. And so the hospitals are really deeply concerned about managing exposure."
CareClix has begun offering free Covid-19 evaluations to its users, while over 40% of health care providers that use Zipnosis's technology are also offering free screenings.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/27/tech/telemedicine-coronavirus-wellness/index.html