Health Insurance Insider

Estimates from a study conducted by the Boston University have estimates that run into 200,000 incidents of identity theft for use in medical purposes. This translates into an annual loss of $53 Billion dollars in lost revenue for the health industry which is why even the president and presidentiables have taken up the battle cry to implement much needed reform on the Health care Industry which analysts have been saying is going downhill for quite sometime now. This drive is to make health care more accessible thus in effect dissuades people from turning to the said crime. The rising cost of medical health care is to blame and the government has now just begun to pay notice to the said problem which hopefully would be resolved once elections seats a new president of gives the current one another term.

If you look at statistics, cases of identity theft for medical purposes are still quite rare but are steadily rising. An article on the internet that had an addict steal a drivers license of another person and using the same to get into a hospital and deliver a baby she later abandoned has caught the attention of health industry leaders. The true owner of the Identification card when she was contacted by the hospital and police due to the abandoned baby was surprised of course and had to go through a horrendous ordeal to prove to the authorities that she was the rightful owner of the said ID and not the user. She then had to contend with the fact that the medical history of the Meth addict has now been incorporated into hers and clearing up the mess took a lot of resources in terms of attorney�s fees and other such costs. So be aware of your ID�s and as a matter of fact any document piece of paper that has your address and other personal numbers like your social security and tax account numbers for they can open the doors to a nightmare you wouldn�t want to be caught in as the poor woman had.

The president�s drive to reform the Federal taxation structure to boost federal government profits towards a revamp of the Government sponsored health care system was welcomed and scorned equally. The reforms were in hopes of making private insurance at par with government sponsored health care programs giving them a run for their money. The Health care system of the federal government has come under fire during the recent months due to many pitfalls and failures of the federal government to provide all the necessary funding and support to these programs in such cases that were highlighted by Katrina and more recent tragedies that left many Americans asking the question, where is the government health care system when you needed it most. More info in the following posts.

Many people are seemingly content with not having a healthcare insurance plan, as long as they maintain a healthy lifestyle, and aren’t sickly. However, the time always comes for some sort of hospital or medical treatment, which is bound to cost you a lot of money if you are not prepared.

The good news is that there are a lot of healthcare plans out there, both public and private, each having its own pros and cons. It’s up to you to research which works best in terms of your needs and financial capability. It’s always best to do a little research and look at terms and conditions and coverage of each plan or policy in order to compare and assess which works best for you. Government / State insurance for one offers healthcare at a lot of levels, so you may want to start there.

Doctors seem to be utterly unamused at how the newly introduced eRx system works for they often disregard up to date warnings and alerts posted on medications they are prescribing. This has been found in Boston where a pilot project was introduced to save on medication costs eliminating the prescription pad that has been so much a part of a doctors office as the stethoscope is. eRx is a system where prescriptions from doctors can be generated electronically without having to write down a manual prescription on a pad. This adds accuracy and traceability to prescriptions for they are automatically sent to the pharmacy for correct dispensing and dosage.
The move is aimed to cut costs such as faxing all prescribed medication summaries and the elimination of the pad itself on which more traditional prescriptions are written. The eRx also enters automatically into the patient’s medical history file, updating it as medication is prescribed. One problem has surfaced in the pilot study, doctors are not paying any attention to any contradiction recommendations or alerts from the system even if it has seen a potentially risky drug combination. The system also automatically adds information in real-time from drugs researchers and the USFDA where any health warnings are released regarding specific medication and the contradictory effects they may have when used in conjunction to other drugs. It seems the human factor is again trying to pull down another good concept at making the health care system safer, for a huge majority of ambulatory services have been noted to be caused by such contradictions or adverse reactions to drugs takes at the same time.