Right Care, Right Now: How To Be A Powerful Patient Advocate For A Loved One
“What makes this book different? There isn’t a lot of fluff. Just solid, useful information and tools that will help you make good decisions for a loved one.”
-IJH, San Francisco, California
“RIGHT CARE, RIGHT NOW” is a practical no-nonsense guide written for people short on time who need information about representing a patient in today’s U.S. health care system.
Included are powerful strategies and techniques to plan and process health care decisions for a patient.
This is an easy to read reference that is to the point and heavily linked to essential research, physician, hospital, drug and government insurance websites.
Features:
- How to avoid the top ten mistakes made by most health advocates.
- How to research medical treatment options (and why you shouldn’t rely on Google).
- How to find the best doctors, surgeons and hospitals, and which questions you should ask before you hire them.
- How to do background checks on doctors and hospitals.
- Learn when teaching hospitals tend to make the most mistakes.
- When and how to fire a doctor.
- Why second and third opinions matter.
- How to get get the best second and third medical opinions, and why it is often best NOT to get them from colleagues of the primary care physician.
- How to research and source the best and most economical medications.
- How to work with Medicare and private insurance companies, and deal with excessive charges and billings.
- How to appeal insurance denials of insurance coverage.
- How to establish your legal and practical role as a patient advocate, or outsource to a professional or volunteer advocate.
And much more…
This is the book for non-medical people who must deal with one of the most complex medical bureaucracies on the planet, and who don’t have a lot of time to learn how to do it.
EXCERPTS
FROM CHAPTER 1:
“Your role as a health advocate can mean the difference between life and death for someone you love.”
Every year more than 200,000 deaths in the United States result from hospital errors that could have been prevented. They happen because of distractions, shift changes, miscommunication, or natural human error. Every day there are thousands of examples of misdiagnosis, mistakes with prescriptions and dosages, procedural errors in hospitals, and other problems, nearly all of which could be prevented with quality and procedural control measures.
FROM CHAPTER 9:
“It’s not good enough that Aunt Gertrude likes the doctor and the hospital. Do background checks.”
You don’t have to be at the mercy of a website or a referral. You can find the answers about a doctor’s license for yourself…
Useful Websites:
DocFinder
www.docboard.org
This remains the only combined database of all licensing jurisdictions that has its direct source of data from state licensing boards.
Federation of State Medical Boards
www.fsmb.org/directory_smb.html
This website has links to state medical and osteopathic boards.
Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER)
www.pacer.gov
This electronic public access service allows users to obtain case and docket information from federal appellate, district and bankruptcy courts, and the PACER Case Locator via the Internet. PACER is provided by the federal judiciary in keeping with its commitment to providing public access to court information via a centralized service. The cost is very reasonable.
List Price: $ 12.99
Price: $ 12.99
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The right book, right now.,
This book is a valuable resource for every breathing person who has family. It addresses an issue, patient care, that affects all of us.
The book is easy to read, well organized, and the go-to source of information for quality health care. The list of web sites for specific areas of interest makes the book a very convenient tool. A real time saver!
Everybody benefits when we are all more prepared and better informed about caring for those who mean the most to us.
James
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|Excellent advice,
I am not an expert in health care but rather an individual who is expecting to be a caretaker for a loved one in the not so distant future. This is an excellent compilation of advice to prepare me for that difficult journey.
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|Relevant and to the Point,
I am a health care professional in the acute medical setting and this book hit the nail on the head. It was concise and straight forward. The chapters were well organized and offered specific and relevant information that was written in laymen’s terms.
For those who are caught off guard and are suddenly in the position of being a health care advocate, this book is designed so that one can go right to the chapter that is relevant to their situation and find the information they need.
This book is also a great resource for anyone who could potentially be thrown into an advocate role. As I have seen in my professional experience, that could be any of us! This book gives you tools and tips on how to prepare yourself and your loved ones for that transition if it were to arise. For example, the importance of completing an Advanced Directive and other critical documents is clearly laid out and tools to help you get started on that critical step are provided. I frequently see patients and their loved ones in situations where this process had not been completed and the stress it creates can be devastating to those trying to make critical decisions at the most inopportune time.
The chapters are packed with relevant and credible resources that can be accessed on the internet or via phone. There is nothing more difficult than experiencing the emotional trauma of having someone you care for who is afflicted by an illness and relying on you to be their voice and not knowing where to find the answers you need. I would recommend this book to my patients as well as my family and friends.
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