Affordable Health Insurance Options Are Available
Buying medical health care insurance is an absolute necessity in today's world. Due to the extreme cost of doctor visits, surgeries and medical tests, owning quality health insurance is a must. The key to finding the perfect health insurance for you and your family is to educate yourself on the different policies and figure out which policy is best suited to fit your needs. The following article contains some great health insurance tips.
Make sure your insurance will cover overseas doctor visits. If you have health insurance, it is important to read the fine print. You don't want to get sick in a foreign country, go to the doctor, and find yourself unable to pay for it. Make sure you have extra money available should your health insurance provider not cover the expenses.
To make sure you have the best health insurance, don't let your policy lapse while you're looking for new coverage. If you lose your insurance for some reason, you may be eligible for COBRA. This is a government program designed to let you continue with your insurance until you can find a new policy.
Long-term care health insurance can help cover the cost of assisted-living facilities for the elderly. It can be expensive or impossible to get if you wait until you need coverage. The time to buy is when you are in your fifties, and it's best to look for a policy that provides protection against future cost hikes.
If you do not want to change doctors or facilities, make sure that your current provider is covered when changing plans. It's frustrating to try to save yourself money only to find out you have lost your doctor of the past 10 years. Check on the approved facilities as well so you don't end up having to go to a hospital that is inconvenient for you.
Increase your deductible for lower premiums, but prepare to pay more out-of-pocket expenses. If you feel that you cannot afford your premiums, you can consider a deductible increase, but make sure you take all other expenses into account. You may not actually be saving money if you visit the doctor more frequently.
Even if your cherished pet spends all of its time indoors, pet insurance is still a good idea. There are many hazards that can happen inside, there can be injuries or accidental poisoning, and a pet can also slip out where anything might happen. Even though your pet is indoors, they could still break one of their bones or a tooth which requires expensive veterinary care.
Once you have a good travel health insurance policy in place, you will be able to relax and fully enjoy your vacation. Without it, you might feel overly cautious and miss some more info great opportunities for fear of being injured or becoming ill. While you may not need your travel health insurance policy at all, just having it in place will bring you peace of mind and may end up saving you a lot of money should the unexpected occur while you are on vacation.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZiSk2MOF17UdugnGNqOAojsLDrM0Qu-pLwshdGqch_M/edit?usp=sharing
Telehealth changing care from outer space to local clinics
A coach for the Detroit Red Wings hockey team beams an ultrasound image of a player's ankle from the locker room to a nearby hospital. Doctors diagnose a fracture.
A similar ultrasound device, miles above on the international space station, peers into astronauts' chests and examines how their lungs weathered a recent spacewalk.
Welcome to the world of telehealth. Those examples are a few from the field, more narrowly defined as telemedicine. Telehealth uses digital technology to project a doctor's presence in places as different as rural Kansas and outer space, without the patient ever stepping into a physician's office.
Telehealth made a shaky debut in the early 1990s, when high costs, regulatory barriers and plodding Internet speeds hampered its acceptance. But today, improved technology and falling costs have made innovations like videoconferencing, home medical monitoring and digital records available to more Americans.
It has even become a White House priority.
"The 21st century health care system is using a 19th century paperwork system," President Bush said during an address last month in Baltimore.
Bush cited the subject in his State of the Union address this year, asking Congress for $100 million to improve health care information technology. A presidential committee has said it will release a report in June recommending that federal agencies make it an integral part of the nation's health care planning.
Interest in better medical oversight has spiked since a federal study in 1999 estimated that 98,000 people die annually from medical errors that occur in hospitals -- some of which could be prevented by computerized systems to check prescriptions, monitor drug interactions and offer better access to records.
"Patients will be the greatest winners," said Jeffrey Dunbar, who founded a telemedicine firm in the mid-1990s and now works for Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. "The technology has come a great way ... We have taken a quantum leap in the past five years."
https://edition.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/05/10/tele.health.final/index.html