How to Insure Your Medical Records Are Correct and Why You Should Care

By Debbie Parkinson

Tracking your family's medical records is a primary factor involved with prevention of illness and effective handling of medical emergencies. A record of your family's medical history documents essential medical data such as your weight, height, cholesterol, blood pressure, and allergies to drugs for instance.
It also should include a personal history as well as a family history and contain health conditions and associated treatments, diseases that tend to run in your family as well as details on immunizations and allergies. In an emergency or trip to another state, this information could play a key role in the quality of care you receive.
It should be apparent to you exactly why such a record would certainly be vital if a health situation occurred. Having your medical information when you need it gives you added control over your physical health and could very well be critical in carrying out treatment decisions. Urgent conditions also require the ability to immediately have available information regarding matters such as prescription drugs, a person's blood type, and allergic reaction info.
You may be operating under the mistaken assumption that your health practitioner or medical center is keeping all your essential medical data in the event you need it, but unfortunately this is not always the situation. Less than half the states in the United States have laws ensuring the general public the right to their medical files. In addition countless people who have asked for and received copies of their medical records have discovered inaccuracies, errors, and issues.
Furthermore, medical records maintained by medical related practices are frequently incomplete. There are a number of life situations that could result in your medical records being incomplete. You may possibly move a number of times in your lifetime and switch medical professionals each time. Your assorted health professionals may not always keep one another abreast of your conditions and the associated treatment.
Many times, an effort to patch together a personal medical history turns into a useless exploration through previous bills and health insurance archives. All this info should have been gathered up before a health emergency.
Some of the medical information you may want to keep on your own include emergency numbers for the police and fire departments as well as doctors and poison control centers.
You will also want to keep a record of the diseases or conditions that have occurred in your family along with info such as blood pressure, cholesterol levels, blood types, and immunization records for instance.
You want to keep track of all your preventative screenings and a result of all those screenings as well as hospital and laboratory records. Also it is a good idea to allergies, along with symptoms, and treatments. If you are a woman, you want to make sure that you have access to all gynecological records.
Also include any prescription or over the counter medications you are currently taking.
Write to your medical practice and request a copy of your medical records. You will find that even though your state does not have a law guaranteeing you access, many will respond. You might even offer to pay for the costs of photocopying for instance. If you are refused access, demand that the practice put the denial in writing.
Keeping a good handle on your medical records is a good step towards insuring that you will receive the treatment that you need if the occasion ever arises.

Debbie Parkinson is known as a free lance writer researching and writing on various matters useful for a wide ranging audience. Debbie's article topics are varied and her articles include subjects relating to health and enjoying the outdoors. Learn more about planning mouth watering and nutritious meals outdoors on the Weber Charcoal Grill and in particular the Weber Performer Charcoal Grill.

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HIPPA Disclosure Documents Can Save Your Family in a Medical Emergency

By Raymond Freer

Are you aware of the medical privacy laws?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule, the Privacy Rule, a Federal law, gives you rights over your health information and sets rules and limits on who can look at and receive your health information. These laws definitely protect your privacy, but they can as well keep your family from getting medical information on you in the event of an emergency. Even a spouse or eighteen year old child, without proper paperwork in place can leave you in the dark as far as their medical condition.
An example of a situation would be a spouse traveling on business to another city in the state, with a three hour drive from your home. He gets in an auto accident on the way home and is transported unconscious to the nearest hospital and is being attended by the best medical personal.
You are notified by the police that your spouse has been taken to their local hospital. You are very upset and want to know your spouse's condition; you call the hospital to ask what is happening to him. The nurse in the hospital cannot release any medical information to you unless you have a HIPAA disclosure document executed by your spouse allowing you to know his medical information.
Now you are very nervous and you do not know anything about your spouse's condition. You decide to drive to the hospital, a three hour drive, and the entire drive you do not know anything that is going on. Fortunately, when you get to the hospital your spouse is out of surgery and conscience. You spouse can now authorize you with the doctors to allow you to know their medical situation.
HIPAA protection protects everyone over the age 18 (your son or daughter even while in college) from disclosing your medical information. Please consider getting the appropriate paperwork in place before you your family members have a condition that can because you stress during medical emergencies. Get a HIPAA disclosure document executed on each family member at minimum if they want to have you know about their medical condition.
For a more complete protection there are three documents that can be easily executed for each family member that can properly protect your family for most common situations.
1. HIPAA Disclosure Document - Specifies who can be disclosed your medical information.
2. Medical Power of Attorney - Specifies who can make medical decisions on your behalf.
3. Living Will - Specifies your wishes regarding prolonging life medical treatments
The safe way to generate these three documents is work with your family lawyer to have them drawn up properly for your state. Please keep an electronic copy of the executed document in your email to ensure that you can get access to it when you need it or are not prepared to use it.
Avoid undue stress during an emergency, make sure you understand the HIPAA laws and prepare your family to work with the laws by having your documents in place.

Raymond Freer is a Texas licensed insurance broker located in Austin, Texas working for RF Insurance Masters providing affordable health and life solutions invites you to visit http://www.rfimasters.com
If you need additional information on this article please send a note through http://www.rfimasters.com/page5/contactus.php

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Where is Your Health Information? Not Knowing Could Kill You!

By Wendy Blair

Do you have a family doctor? How long have you been his/her patient? Do even they have a complete and comprehensive picture of your medical history going all the way back to birth? Not many do these days. Family doctors are hard to find and the result is that there isn't really anyone at the helm of your healthcare. There isn't that consistency that existed in the days of housecalls.
Of course, the day of the housecall has long since seen sunset, but if you're not under the care of a G.P. (general practitioner), then who is making sure you get your annual physical? Who is plotting and planning to get those middle age tests looked after? And, who has ALL of your medical records.
These days, we are all in a hurry and in a society of global mobility, our records are being scattered hither and yon! The walk-in clinic you visited last week has a record of your prescription for that nasty chest cough. And the emergency room that you took your son to after that little soccer incident has the x-ray of his sprained ankle. But does anyone, anywhere have a record of everything ... every treatment that has been undertaken ... every medication ...
In all, one million adults and 130,000 children in Ontario alone don't have a family doctor. The OMA says the province needs 1,000 general practitioners now. (Hamilton Spectator Nov. 26, 2007) (This number grows exponentially when you look across North America ... to a whopping 9.8 million!! - US Govt. Committee on Healthcare, Statistics -June, 2007). Government has, over the past few years, introduced a number of programs to provide more medical care especially to rural settings, but is it enough?
There's too much room for error with numbers like this staring healthcare in the face ... medical error that is! And medical errors cost money and lives!! People's lives are permanently changed or even ended unnecessarily every day across North America due to the lack of essential information needed for doctors to make informed decisions about our care. The time for change is NOW!
But who needs to make the change exactly? Governments across North America and worldwide are recognizing the need and making funds available to improve communication capabilities in the medical industry. Medical practitionners have long-since noted a gap in the flow of information between facilities, private practices and healthcare providers of all sorts. All of these groups are thoughtfully and positively working toward change, but I would suggest that it is not their sole responsibility.
In fact, I would argue that responsibility is just as much that of the individual as it is their doctors' and governments'.
So today's order of business ... where is your personal health information right now ... right this minute? Do you have it neatly organized and typed on your computer or does only your doctor or medical practitioner know for sure? Maybe there's a trail of prescriptions dating back to 1985 somewhere in your medicine cabinet?
Here's the rub folks ... you never know when you might need to know about yours or your family's medical information! What if you're on vacation thousands of miles from your doctor's office or what if they're just not available at the time? You just never know when your health information will be needed to help you or someone you love in a crisis?
Medical information technology is forefront in the new US administration's mandate and your information is in their sights. Canada is working hard to implement a system for health communication as well. But their systems are still years away. What are you going to do in the meantime?
It's up to you to take control! Do it! You have both the right and the responsibility to make sure that your health information is accurate, complete and current.
Bottom line ... something is always better than nothing. Even if you just take a few minutes to write down life threatening conditions, a little of your medical history and what medications you take regularly, it's better than leaving things to chance. Emergency contact information is also important in any personal health record so that healthcare providers can get in touch with someone who knows and cares about you. Keep your notes in your wallet and give a copy to someone who cares about you.
Better yet, make it as comprehensive as you possibly can. The more information you can provide, the less likely it is that an unnecessary medical mistake will affect your life!
It's time for all of us to take responsibility for our own information in every area of our lives. How else can we really be sure the world has an accurate picture of who we really are?

Wendy Blair, a long time business administrator and youth/community development advocate is now serving as President of EMERG-e-Solve Inc. Parenting a Type 1 Diabetic and caring for elderly parents led her to develop a comprehensive user-friendly software called the LIFECompass Personal Health Record. For more information on the LIFECompass PHR and related topics, visit her blog at http://www.lifecompassphr.info or email blairwen@rogers.com

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What You Need to Know About Online Medical Resources

By Madison Lockwood

Medical advice online is available via a variety of sources. These sources range from commercial, to non-profit, and governmental. We'll examine a few of the major players in each sector.
After a shakeout in the commercial medical websites (remember DrKoop.com?) there are a number that have emerged with viable financial models that can also be useful for preliminary medical information. The leader in the industry is WebMD, a site that has shown sufficient success that it can afford to engage in broadcast advertising. A recent start-up that made a lot of noise when its doors opened is Revolution Health, a company that hopes to compete with WebMD and others; among their plans are kiosks in retail stores that will provide a sort of hybrid service. Revolution Health was founded by Steve Case, the man who brought us AOL.
Other strong contenders include MedlinePlus; a well organized site that includes, among other informational sources, 165 tutorials using slides and/or video. This site contains the health database produced by NIH's National Library of Medicine. eMedicine.com started out as a professional resource for those in the medical profession. According to their website, "Nearly 10,000 physician authors and editors contribute to the eMedicine Clinical Knowledge Base, which contains articles on 7,000 diseases and disorders. The evidence-based content, updated regularly, provides the latest practice guidelines in 59 medical specialties." In 2003 they launched a consumer version at eMedicineHealth.com.
MedHelp.org, despite its org. designation, is a commercial online healthcare destination. They claim to be the sixth most visited healthcare website. Medem is a hybrid website, designed to provide an online location for personal health records. The site combines its physician-oriented service with some consumer information. It's the online version of a medical health records third party administrator. It is also recognized as an excellent resource for information by other information providers in the field.
From the U.K. comes NHS Direct located at http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/help/. The service began as a telephone consultancy for health issues and is now more than a telephone health line - along with their website; they have added a digital TV service that is interactive. The home page has a couple of excellent tools for assisting in analyzing symptoms.
For a vetted list of informational sites visit healthweb.org. This site simply lists medical issues in clickable form. Click on diabetes, for instance, and you will be given a page with several medical schools and affiliated research organizations that have specialty information on the topic located on their websites. Another fine compendium of information is posted by the Department of Health and Human Services at consumer.gov/health.htm. This site provides a list of issues and illnesses to choose from and has in its database a great deal of specific material from such resources as the National Institutes for Health.
The Medical Library Association has a top ten list of sites that they have identified on the basis of credibility, content, purpose and links. Those include cancer.gov; familydoctor.org; the Mayo Clinic (mayoclinic.com) and kidshealth.com which is sponsored by the Nemours Foundation.
Other highly recommended non-profit sites include the University of Pittsburgh's Health Information for the Consumer at http://www.hsls.pitt.edu/guides/chi/. This site is another well organized consumer site that provides basic information on health problems and suggests a path for finding treatment. Aetna provides the support for InteliHealth (intelihealth.com) a site that utilizes Harvard Medical School's consumer health resources.
If you're looking for a family orientation, there's medFamily at: .medfamily.org. This site contains sections on women's health and children's health along with the standard collection of encyclopedic material and featured articles. For general information and recommendations, the large organizations such as the American Medical Association and the American Cancer Society have large databases. The AMA in particular tries to provide localized information for people seeking medical help.

Madison Lockwood is a customer relations associate for ApolloHosting.com. She brings years of experience as a small business consultant to helping prospective clients understand the ways in which a website may benefit them both personally and professionally. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting [http://www.apollohosting.com], ecommerce hosting [http://www.apollohosting.com/e-commerce], vps hosting, and web design services to a wide range of customers. Established in 1999, Apollo prides itself on the highest levels of customer support.

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The Medical Information Age - Talking To Your Doctor About The Latest Medical Advances

By Glenn Sheiner

These days we're living in what is being called the "information age." People are booking their own flights from home and downloading music and video from all over the world.
Well, the "information age" applies to the world of medicine too. Cutting-edge medical information, if you know how to search for it, is now only a click away as you sit in front of your computer.
But, medicine is an intimidating arena and the stakes are incredibly high. Plus, the relationship between patient and doctor has traditionally been based on a high degree of trust.
What I'm saying is that I think that it's uncomfortable for most people to aggressively question their doctors. Because of this discomfort, patients may not feel as inclined to do their own research. They fear that they might upset their doctor if they walk into the medical office with research they've done themselves.
But, in my opinion, this unprecedented access to medical information will ultimately lead to revolutionary changes in the way patients and doctors interact.
I learned first-hand a few short years ago that researching an illness on the internet can be a daunting task.
A close family friend was diagnosed with breast cancer and asked me to do some research. Even though I was an emergency physician at a university hospital, I quickly learned that using the internet to get the most current information on published studies, new treatments, and clinical trials was not as easy a task as I had thought.
Ultimately I figured out how to navigate the "medical internet jungle". I found the information I needed and learned a lot along the way.
If you plan to research cutting-edge medical information on the internet, you'll need to find your own smart way.
In the end, after gathering all the information, you'll become an informed patient.
And There Are Lots Of Benefits In Being An Informed Patient
Some of the benefits are obvious. Like making sure that your doctor is aware of all potential cutting-edge treatments and available clinical trials. You need to know that "no stone has been left unturned" in the search for your best treatment option.
Knowing that you're receiving state-of-the-art care should be an enormous comfort to you.
But there are other benefits as well.
An informed and involved patient becomes a partner in his or her health care.
Too often a lack of real understanding leads patients to stop, skip, or otherwise not fully comply with their treatment. But, an informed and involved patient is much more likely to follow through with all the aspects of a treatment regimen.
In the end, it just makes good sense to be as informed as possible.
There's A Critical Second Part Of The Process
This second part involves talking to your doctors about the cutting-edge treatment options you've discovered in your research.
This is the part of the process that I believe frightens patients the most. Let me restate here what I believe will take place in the interactions between doctors and patients.
Just as patients will get more and more used to questioning their doctors in the next few years, doctors will get more and more used to being questioned by their patients.
Patients Can Now Access The Latest Medical Information.
When Their Lives Are At Stake, They're Going To Do The Research.
In the final analysis, doctors want to help their patients. And, as patients become more and more informed, doctors and patients will become accustomed to having educated, thoughtful conversations on the medical literature and what the best treatment options might be.
This doesn't mean however that there will be never be a conflict between what the patient wants and what the doctor is recommending.
For example, there might be a new surgical procedure which is being used in the treatment of certain cancers. There may be recent published studies suggesting that the new procedure might result in fewer side effects or a quicker recovery time while having the same cure rate.
But, it's possible that this procedure is only being done by a few surgeons in your area as it's new and takes some specialized training.
You might discuss this with your doctor who admits that he or she does not perform the new procedure.
At that point, you may have to make a decision about whether or not investigating the new procedure is really worthwhile.
The most common sense approach to this dilemma would be to consult with a physician specializing in the new procedure as well.
Imagine That You're An Investigative Detective
Ask straightforward but tough questions to all your doctors including questions about their results, their experience level, side effects of any proposed treatments, and the published data.
You may want to ask if you may speak to other patients that have already undergone treatment by these doctors. If you are able to do this, ask these patients how they decided on a particular treatment or even a particular doctor. Ask them how they're doing.
Continue investigating until you feel you have all the information you need to make your decision.
Many pieces of information may come up in your research. For example, there might be certain technological advances being used in certain centers which help in the accurate staging and planning of treatment. Maybe the center that you're being treated at doesn't offer these services and your research has led you to believe that there is benefit to them.
Again, you may have to make a decision about where you want to be treated.
Or, your doctor may recommend a treatment regimen to you and not mention that there are clinical trials which may be available. Or, he or she might recommend a certain clinical trial without mentioning that there are other clinical trials taking place at other medical centers.
As you do your own research, you need to be very aware that the cutting-edge treatments may not be offered everywhere.
Frank discussions with your doctors may be unavoidable. But, it's very important for you to remember that you're dealing with a serious illness and the most important thing is that you get the best possible care.
Don't Allow Your Fear Of Creating Conflict With Your Doctor Stop You From Aggressively Pursuing The Best Possible Care.
The conversations you'll have with your doctors will ultimately become quite different. Being aware of all the options allows you, if you choose, to take more responsibility for the decisions that have to be made.
Ultimately, in today's rapidly changing universe, patients are taking on more of the responsibility for making treatment decisions.

Dr. Glenn Sheiner is a medical doctor with diplomas in Emergency Medicine, Sports Medicine, and Family Medicine. Dr. Sheiner is the author of the medical multimedia digital product called Cancer Research Online Made Easy.
Dr. Sheiner created this product to help patients research cutting-edge medical information in hours not days. The product contains 5 videos illustrating exactly what to do. To learn more go to Cancer Research Online Made Easy

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Career As A Medical Billing and Coding Specialist Information

By Rock Pierce

Medical billing and coding information helps the health care professionals like the doctors and nurses to receive adequate reimbursements for their services. The information collected assists the specialist to assemble all the relevant data, which is important in the billing process.
The information also ensures the proper and accurate filling out of the insurance claim forms. For efficiency and adequate retrieval of the medical information, it is the responsibility of the specialist to enter all of the relevant information into a computer. And using this data, the specialist is able to analyze medical invoices since they provide ICD-9-CM, HCPCS level II and CPT codes which are relevant for the data analysis.
The information also includes the explanation of a patients benefits, or the short name is EOB interpretation and analysis. Medical practitioners have a responsibility to keep the patients personal data private, and to distinguish their fields from others. The billing specialist maintains their secrecy oath which assures their patients the safe custody of their medical information.
The medical practitioners use the coding and billing stats to record the patients medical records, and to record insurance and other medical claims along with the documentation, and the various diagnosis procedures. Since medical billing and coding information is only known amongst the medical practitioners, and coding specialists,we rely on them to interpret such codes.
The health care industry therefore relies heavily on medical billers and their coding skills. This is because the patient's records and registers, insurance claims and patient's payment accounts are all maintained using this vital info. The billing and coding information therefore assists the specialist to effectively organize the patient's records, statements and their bills.
Through this information, the specialist is able to claim the medical fees from the various insurance companies, and in some cases directly from the patients. Coding and billing is therefore vital in the day-to-day running of health care facilities across the entire world.
This type of work is fast paced, and demanding, it is not a job for everyone. But if this is a job, or career you think that you would like, the pay is not bad.
If you are looking for a job, or career that you can rely on in our uncertain economy, this is a job that is less likely to decrease in the future. With businesses cutting back recently, you might also consider a job doing medical billing and coding from home.

Are you interested in education, or information for this field? Here are more facts> medical billing and coding information.

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Some Facts About Medical Identity Theft

By Gregory Shepard

Can identity thieves be using your medical records and health insurance information to get medical treatment and prescription drugs? Do people use your information to submit false bills to insurance companies? You bet they do and that's why millions of people worldwide have been victims of medical identity theft.
Medical identity theft occurs when your medical records or health insurance records are used by someone else to obtain medical related services. This could be the worst type of identity theft because it can affect you in so many ways. If someone steals your medical insurance number and goes to a doctor or hospital and receives services, possibly even surgery, you can have some huge problems. It can also mean that your private medical information that should be confidential, may now be public.
Whenever someone uses your identity to get treatment, this becomes a part of your medical history which will contain information that is inaccurate, possibly leading to improper treatments. That information could be a different blood type, misleading test results, allergies or perhaps even a diagnosis of an illness such as HIV. This can result in adverse reactions to medications or getting the wrong blood type in a transfusion. There are enough errors that occur in medical treatments already without making the problems worse through bad information.
Now that your medical history has been altered, the effects on your insurance coverage and premiums are also in jeopardy. You may have unpaid insurance bills from services you didn't receive. Usually medical insurance does not pay for all of the charges leaving you responsible for the unpaid deductibles and co-payments. Your insurance benefits can reach their limits so when you do need medical care you will find that you are no longer insured. Not having health insurance can be a big problem anyway, especially for the elderly and people who have chronic health conditions.
Other issues could be credit problems and legal issues. Suppose someone receiving treatment using your information is found under the influence of illegal drugs, that may bring the police to your home or business. You can be denied employment because your credit rating has been damaged from the inaccurate information that now appears in your medical history. The HIPPA laws make it very difficult for you to get access to medical information. Just like other types of identity theft that everyone can fall victim to, you can count on a long battle to restore your identity by yourself.
It's everyone's responsibility to protect their own personal medical information. Identity theft cannot be completely prevented and with the rising costs of medical treatment along with the economic downturn, I only see this problem getting worse. This is just another reason why it's necessary to have a plan in place that works quickly to minimize the damage and restore your identity.

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