If you are uninsured or underinsured, and particularly if you have been laid off, whether you are using COBRA or not, you'll be interested in this free e-book which you can obtain from this week's WOW - Website of the Week.
The Healthcare Survival Guide is offered by a group called Health Advocate. Health Advocate provides review and negotiation of medical bills, and assistance for patients who are facing challenges with their medical care.
Among the best information on this website/in this book, is COBRA information, including choices you can make if your COBRA is about to run out.
My only disagreement with the information is the suggestion that we should use free PHR offerings to track our medical information -- as discussed many times previously on this blog.
This book is promoted as "the complete guide to surviving healthcare" -- and while I wouldn't go that far, it does have some great suggestions for all of us who realize we can get the care we need for less than we pay today.
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Book Cover © Health Advocate, Inc.
While I have read your blog and am familiar with your stance on privacy issues as it pertains to PHRs, I believe that that they offer significant advantages, and that’s likely why they are included in this Guide. The individual controls what information is put in their PHR, for one thing, so they do not have to put anything in there that they would be worried might jeopardize a job or other situation in the event of a privacy breach. Even an incomplete record can be helpful in the event of an emergency, or if the person is managing a chronic illness, such as hypertension. For example, a person can upload their daily blood pressure reading(s) into their HealthVault account, rather than creating a diary, and could, if they chose to do so, email or share that information with their physician. It’s a step that could save them a trip to the doctor, say, if they were dialing in a medication. It’s a given that health records are going to be shifting to a digital format. Using the digital format to maximize healthy outcomes seems to be a viable and important opportunity.