E-prescribing offers the ability to provide the kind of knowledge currently missing for most physicians in a hospital setting – e.g. drug interactions with current meds the patient is on, information about any supplements, or herbal medicines they may use, and a complete history of drug allergies and reactions. With e-prescribing the doctor would have an instant result to refer to instead of relying on anecdotal evidence given by the patient. This would also mean nothing would be second-guessed as the complete medical history is present immediately.
E-prescribing allows doctors to select the right drugs for their patients, takes into account the person’s medication history and allergies, reduces the chances of a bad drug reaction, gives the cost of the drug(s) along with viable alternatives and also indicates if the patient’s insurance covers a recommended drug.
E-prescribing may be the safest and best way to prescribe medications in the future, and it’s just beginning to make inroads in the medical system.
Statistically speaking, most people, at some point in their life, will be the victim of at least one medication error per day if they are in the hospital. Medication errors also occur in other health care settings like doctor’s offices, ER settings, at pharmacies and in long-term care.
Believe it or not, every year there are close to 1.5 million preventable injuries that would have been avoided by taking more care. E-prescribing may reduce the number of medication errors.
E-prescribing is actually on its way in and is currently being used in the health care system by doctors on a trial basis. However, it is actually more serious than just a test, as the federal government is already forking over e-prescribing bonuses to health care providers.
To find out if a local doctor in your area is trying this innovative system, check out www.learnabouteprescriptions.com for a list. Look for e-prescribing to be fully implemented by now, and if any doctors are not using it for 2013 and 2014, they will be penalized 1 percent of 2012/2013 Medicare charges and 2 percent for 2014 Medicare bills.
Johnny Apple was an older man. He loved his job as a carpenter and went home every day proud of what he had accomplished at work. His employer did not provide health insurance, saying it was too expensive and that workers could get it on their own. Johnny figured he didn’t need it. He was careful and he could use the money for something else.
Early one morning on the job, Johnny and his partner were installing cabinets at a new job site. His partner tripped over piece of lumber in the restaurant kitchen. The cabinets, weighing a good 200 lbs. or more, and made of steel, landed on Johnny’s legs. Paramedics were able to cut him loose and get him to the hospital.
With one crushed leg and a broken pelvis, Johnny faced a long road to recovery. He also faced the possibility that he might never work in the carpentry trade again. He had a lot on his plate to deal with. When his hospital bill arrived, his first thought was he would have to declare bankruptcy. He could never in a million years pay that bill. He wished he’d been smart enough to get health insurance.
If you don’t want this story to be yours some day, consider buying health insurance. There are reasonably priced policies available.
If you had a dollar for every person you met who said life insurance was a waste of money, you could likely retire early and live quite comfortably. The irony of this is that those same people who think life insurance isn’t worth spending money on are the same people who worry about how their family will be taken care of if they suddenly die. How will the kids go to college? How will the wife raise the children alone and work full-time?
Consider the case of Joe Average, a dyed-in-the-wool life insurance nay-sayer. He refused to buy insurance, even though he had two young children and a stay-at-home wife. His life was the way he wanted it. He figured he would just save the money he would pay out in life insurance for the kid’s college fund.
On the way to work one day, his car was hit by an 18-wheeler. He was pronounced dead at the scene. He left behind no life insurance. His family had no financial cushion to help them. The wife had to go back to work. The kids had to stay with relatives and the family home went into foreclosure. Is this what you would want to happen to your family if you were killed and had no life insurance in place? Life insurance is necessary, for the love and protection of your family.
This is an ironic story, about a man who figured he did not need health insurance. He was big. He was tough. He worked hard as a logger and was in great shape. He was lean, mean and knew a thing or two about felling huge trees so no one got hurt. He was good at his job, which made him job supervisor at the logging camp. He was always healthy, always on the go and always in great spirits. He loved teaching newbies how to cut trees down the right way.
One day, a newbie did not pay attention to what he was told. The tree he was working on fell the wrong way, right on top of the man who did not need health insurance, that healthy, active, logging supervisor. He was airlifted to the nearest hospital in critical condition with blunt force trauma injuries to the head and abdomen. His pelvis was crushed and he faced a possible leg amputation.
The supervisor did not get out of hospital for eight long and brutal months. He survived. His life could be pulled back together again. But could he pay for his medical care without insurance? No. It’s not about being too strong or healthy to need insurance. You need insurance for the events and illnesses you cannot plan for.
What would you do in a similar situation if you did not have health insurance to help defray expenses? Maybe it’s time to go online and find an affordable health insurance plan.
While we get that you do not have health insurance because you feel you cannot afford it, the better questions are: Can you afford to lose everything you have ever worked for? Can you afford to lose your house? Your car? Your health? Can you afford to pay a medical bill that amounts to about two- to three-years salary?
If you answer “no” to any of those questions, then it’s time to get health insurance, no matter what else you may have to do without. You cannot do without your health. You cannot do with a house, which you may lose if you don’t pay medical bills you racked up when you broke your leg, or sustained some other kind of serious injury requiring medical care. You cannot afford to be without health insurance. Your health is the whole key to living your life the way you want to live it.
If your house, car and boat are insured, then why aren’t you?
You know that you want to protect your family if something were to happen to you. You start looking around online for some decent life insurance quotes. There are some really nice deals out there. In fact, you like the price of the one you found being offered by a very large national company in California. But you live in New Hampshire.
Well, it doesn’t matter, does it? Life insurance is life insurance —- same difference. Why not get the really inexpensive plan that you found? There are several reasons for not buying that really cheap plan that you found. The biggest reason is that you have no idea if it is designed to do what you want it to do. Most people do not read their insurance policies and many buy the least expensive one that they can find. Then they find out later it did not cover what they think it did. They were paying out good money for zero coverage and their beneficiaries are left holding the bag later.
You would not go cheap on house insurance to protect where you live. Why would you go cheap to protect your life? What you buy has a direct impact on the later events of your family’s life. Life insurance is to protect what you love the most. Buy what you need to accomplish that. It’s what really counts.
There are times in one’s life where things are completely up in the air. You just graduated and are looking for a job. You found a new job, but have to move clear across the country for the position. You just finished up with one employment situation and are looking for another. So what do you do for health insurance?
One of the things you might want to check out to ensure that you are covered in case something happens, is short-term health insurance. It is also referred to as catastrophic insurance and covers just about everything, including the kitchen sink. Keep in mind, though, that it is for people who do not have pre-existing conditions. This is why is it reasonably-priced and you can get signed up and get coverage in as little as 24 hours.
It’s never a good idea to go without protecting your health. If you fall, sustain a serious sports injury or even get into an accident, no insurance means huge bills. Huge bills may mean serious financial trouble for you.
Predators hoping to fleece seniors are sending them bills for medical services they never received, double-billing them for the same service, or selling them policies that are worthless. Many seniors do not always recall the details of their health insurance. They are only interested in the fact that it works for them.
If some successful scammer comes along and makes a good case for buying another health insurance policy because it is cheaper, they may well get customers signing up. Who doesn’t want to save money these days, whether they are older or not? The problem lies in buying a cheap policy that sounds absolutely perfect. It usually isn’t absolutely perfect. In fact, it may be worthless and when a customer goes to use it, they find out they are not covered and their documents are fake.
Even if it pains you to think about reading insurance jargon, know your health insurance policy and what it does and dies not offer. If you know what you have and how much you pay, you cannot be scammed into taking something that only sounds good thanks to empty promises.
