Money Matters: Managing Medical Costs and Health Insurance

Most health and medical charitable organizations are worth donating money to, But many are not very efficient, and spend too much of our donated money on administrative costs such as salaries or legal fees. How can we know which charities are the best ones to donate to?

Johns Hopkins Medical Hospital and University issue a number of information pieces like white papers, health and news alerts. Complaints from readers indicate that they are receiving bills for white papers they didn't order. Here's more information about those complaints and what can be done about them.

Readers have complained they received Johns Hopkins Hospital Medical White Papers and the bills for those white papers when they haven't ordered them, and don't want to pay for them. Read about how to stop the arrival of the Johns Hopkins White Papers and their associated bills, too.

If you are a patient in the United States, you cannot escape the relationship between your healthcare, your finances and credit. If you can't pay for care, then either you can't get it, or your bills will ruin your credit. And if you have bad credit, you may not be able to get insurance. Learn about the many ways your credit and finances...

Patients are beginning to wield their power as consumers to improve access and satisfaction with their providers, access to the services they want, and the costs associated with their care. The basic tenets of healthcare consumerism address the influences patients can have.

These guidelines will help you choose the best health insurance coverage for you and your family, either during open enrollment, or when your circumstances change.

So often there are aspects to getting good healthcare that are difficult to understand. Why won't the doctor spend more time with us? Why is some Internet health information unreliable? Why does my insurance company deny the treatment my doctor has recommended? The answer is "follow the money."

When we are denied the medical care we want or think we need, having a knowledge of the concept of healthcare rationing will go a long way toward helping us how to combat it. Understanding healthcare rationing will also help us understand conversations in the coming years about healthcare reform.

American health care is too often more about sickness and money than health or care. The fact that hospitals now use patients' financial information is a measure of this problem. While it seems unfair to ask hospitals to do business with people who won't pay, it also seems unfair to patients to have to worry about whether they will get treatment based on their credit records.

Healthcare fraud costs Americans billions of dollars each year, and contributes to the dysfunction of the healthcare system. Understanding how fraud takes place can help us patients recognize it, and take steps to report it.

From inertia to actions and reactions, there are many ways we can apply Sir Isaac Newton's three laws of motion to explain healthcare.

From inertia to actions and reactions, there are many ways we can apply Sir Isaac Newton's Laws of Motion to healthcare. We start with some basics, and readers add their own, too.

We seem to be able to find plenty of suggestions online about how we patients can save money on our healthcare (some which work, most which don't) - but we patients have ideas about how insurers, providers and the government can save money, too... Suggestions that don't shortchange us patients; instead they are more efficient ways of doing business. Here are some suggestions from About.com empowered patient readers about ways the system can save money but ensure good care for us, too.See submissions