Jane Neff Rollins Msph

Health Care Navigation 101 Jane Neff Rollins Msph

Have you ever had a run-in with the health care system and ended up feeling powerless because you didn't know how to make wise health care choices? Were you ever so pissed off at your health insurer that your inner voice told you "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore"? Have you ever racked up huge medical bills? That's the health care trifecta-powerless, pissed off, and paying through the nose. This book is about how to win the health care trifecta-by making the health care system work for you. Let me illustrate how this can happen by telling you a story. One morning when I was in my mid-40s, I was driving to work at 70 mph in the high speed lane of a Southern California freeway, surrounded by dozens of cars barreling along at the same speed. I suddenly felt like there was an elephant sitting on my chest. I couldn't breathe. I started sweating. I thought, "It can't be a heart attack, I'm too young." I was terrified that I was going to lose consciousness. As I started to move across four freeway lanes to get to the shoulder, I was convinced that not only was I going to die, but I was likely to crash into and kill 12 other people as I lost consciousness. It turned out I wasn't having a heart attack; I was having a panic attack, something I had never heard of until then. I was insured with a health maintenance organization (HMO) at the time, so it took three weeks to get my primary care doctor to approve a referral to see a psychiatrist, which I knew I desperately needed (since my dad was a psychiatrist). I made an appointment to see a shrink that a friend recommended, but who was not part of my HMO, and paid for the visit out-of-pocket. My insurance company didn't want to reimburse me, so I had to fight with them so they would pay me back. And I won. That determination to make the health care system work for me, instead of against me, is a characteristic of the empowered patient. Now, more than ever, we all need to be informed, empowered health care consumers. You've already shown that you're on your way to being an empowered patient-you've picked up this book. I'm going to show you, step-by-step, how to make our broken health care system work for you, too. If your primary care physician dismisses your concerns and runs out the door almost as soon as she comes in; if your health insurance plan doesn't meet your needs; if your insurer has denied you care and you want to fight back-these are all indications that you need to learn your way around our broken health care system so you can get the health care you deserve. This book will show you how.