What Does “Explanation of Benefits” Mean?
Posted: April 30, 2012 Filed under: Medical | Tags: EOB, Explanation of Benefits, health insurance statement, medicare Leave a comment »Think back to the last time you received one of those forms from Medicare or your health insurer that’s marked “THIS IS NOT A BILL.” Chances are you stuck it in a pile or even tossed it in the garbage, never really looking at it. But if you take the time to understand and review these forms, you may save a lot in out-of-pocket expenses. I once saved $9,500 because of an error on the form—more on that later.
What’s the form all about?
This form is called your “Explanation of Benefits,” or “EOB” for short. By law, Medicare or your insurance company must send it to you every time a medical practitioner or hospital submits a claim for services provided to you. Sometimes, a single form will include a long list of services rendered—especially if you were hospitalized. While the form does not go into detail about the services listed, the EOB is for you, the patient, to review and know what portion, if any, of the charges you will have to pay out-of-pocket—and to spot errors.
What should you look at first? Read the rest of this entry »
Misdiagnosed Death
Posted: January 20, 2012 Filed under: Medical | Tags: medical misdiagnosis Leave a comment »You Can Help Your Doctor Get it Right
Millions of patients each year are misdiagnosed and treated for the wrong disease. A report in The Journal of the American Medical Association estimated that between 40,000 and 80,000 hospital deaths a year in the US are due to misdiagnosis. In autopsy studies, researchers have found that doctors misdiagnosed illnesses between 20% and 40% of the time.
What Goes Wrong? Read the rest of this entry »
Having Surgery at the Doctor’s Office?
Posted: November 4, 2011 Filed under: Medical | Tags: doctor's office surgery Leave a comment »Just 30 years ago, more than 90% of all surgical procedures were performed in hospitals, requiring at least one night’s stay. But because of advanced surgical techniques and safer, easier to administer anesthesia, one-third (about 15 million surgeries) are now performed on an outpatient basis at hospital-owned or independent surgery centers. And still another 15 million operations — everything from the removal of a skin cancer to cataract surgery and knee arthroscopy — are performed in physicians’ offices.
In-hospital surgery, hospital-run outpatient centers and independently owned surgicenters are highly regulated by both federal and state governments, and most must be certified by well-respected accrediting organizations to be eligible to bill Medicare or private insurance companies. But surgical procedures performed in physicians’ offices are not tightly regulated. In fact Read the rest of this entry »
Yank Those Wisdom Teeth
Posted: November 2, 2011 Filed under: Medical | Tags: wisdom teeth Leave a comment »
qr5 (sxc.hu)
THINK BEFORE YANKING THAT WISDOM TOOTH!
Shortly before my next-door neighbor shipped her daughter off to college, she took her to an oral surgeon to have her wisdom teeth removed. The teen was not experiencing dental problems of any kind, but taking out wisdom teeth before they cause concern has become a routine rite of passage for many American adolescents, just as getting your tonsils out was in my generation. In fact, last year the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons issued a statement recommending that young people have their wisdom teeth removed regardless of whether or not the teeth are “diseased or symptomatic” — but personally I’m not convinced, and neither are a growing number of patients and dental professionals. To put it bluntly, I suspect a case of procedures for profit… and not for health.
A WISE DECISION? DO THE MATH
Some wisdom about those wisdom teeth: Read the rest of this entry »
New HPV Test for Cervical Cancer
Posted: June 24, 2011 Filed under: Medical | Tags: Cervical cancer, HPV test Leave a comment »
NEW HPV TEST FOR CERVICAL CANCER SAVES LIVESWhich Hospital is Best?
Posted: July 20, 2010 Filed under: Medical | Tags: which hospital is best Leave a comment »Hospitals You Should Avoid
Michal Zacharzewski, SXC
Going to the hospital… it sounds almost quaint to the modern ear, when we can now choose among so many different kinds of hospitals.
There are traditional community hospitals… academic medical centers… small, upscale private hospitals (some owned by doctors)… long-term-care facilities… and specialty hospitals that focus on particular disciplines such as rehabilitation or ophthalmology.
Why so many different kinds? Is one type better than the others? Are you getting bad care if you don’t go to a specialty hospital? Is it misguided to just choose the closest, most convenient hospital? These are just some of the questions I’ve heard from readers over the past year… so I thought it would be helpful to ask medical consumer advocate Charles B. Inlander, author of Take This Book to the Hospital with You, what people need to know in order to choose the right hospital every time.
Specialty or General? Read the rest of this entry »
Staples or Stitches – Which After Surgery?
Posted: May 10, 2010 Filed under: Medical | Tags: staples or stitches after surgery 2 Comments »
Leo Synapse (sxc.hu)
The next time you have surgery, minor or major, you may want to ask your surgeon how he/she plans to close your wound — because the answer may affect how fast you heal.
Doctor, Doctor, Wash Your Hands! — please.
Posted: April 7, 2010 Filed under: Medical | Tags: doctor washing hands, doctors with dirty hands, Nosocomial infection Leave a comment »
rweller (sxc.hu)
How to Be Sure Your Doctor’s Hands Are Clean
The very thought of asking a doctor or nurse to “wash up” would give some people hives — the gall!– but by now, we all know that unwashed hands, especially in a hospital or other medical setting, can spread very dangerous infections. In an attempt to make this less difficult for people who feel uneasy at the thought of making such a request, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has made a video you can see online that shows a way to do this comfortably — and effectively.
The five-minute video urges hospitalized patients to make sure that everyone who touches them — including doctors, nurses and other health-care professionals — cleans hands first, either with soap and water or an alcohol-based sanitizer. As the video says, health-care providers know they should do this — but as you’ve undoubtedly seen with your own eyes, sometimes they don’t. In fact, studies suggest that although 90% of health-care providers say they wash their hands before patient contact, about half the time they don’t.
These lapses literally cost lives. Here in the US, hospital patients get about 1.7 million infections annually while being treated for something else… and hospital-acquired infections are responsible for nearly 100,000 deaths each year.
So how do you make this awkward request? The video shows an encounter that unfolds like this: Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t Get Scammed by Medical Web Sites
Posted: March 31, 2010 Filed under: Medical | Tags: medical web sites, scammed by medical web sites Leave a comment »
kikashi (sxc.hu)
The “cutting edge” concept that consumers should be active participants in our own medical care is a core philosophy here at Daily Health News. We’ve long preached that when it comes to health, knowledge is power. However, since so many companies now combine marketing with online medical “information” while trying to pull in as many “participants” as possible, it is important to be aware that not all resources that come up on a “Google” search have your best interests in mind.
Says Who?
I went to the nonprofit Medical Library Association (mlanet.org) for professional guidance on how to evaluate the trustworthiness of health sites, and they suggested looking at four key criteria before deciding to trust a particular site… Read the rest of this entry »
Comments