Recent Articles
Screening for memory loss can help guide life choices
A quick, simple screening tool can help detect memory loss and other mental changes that might be affecting a patient’s ability to manage on their own.
Fight fraud: Guard your Medicare card
If you have Medicare, you can protect your identity and help prevent health care fraud by guarding your Medicare card just like you would a credit card.
Marketplace confusion opens door to questions about ‘skinny’ health plans
Consumers coping with the high cost of health insurance are the target market for new plans claiming to be lower-cost alternatives to the Affordable Care Act that fulfill the law’s requirement for health coverage.
Parents not liable for medical debts of adult children on shared insurance
Are parents responsible for adult children’s medical debts? Should people squeeze in appointments and expensive procedures before year’s end because of changes that might come with the GOP tax bill? Should consumers pay a broker to help them enroll in a plan?
Women also use drugs – not that you can tell from drug policy
In the UK, men are more likely to try drugs than women and they significantly outnumber women in accessing treatment, reinforcing the view that male drug use is the norm. But the number of women who use drugs is probably massively underestimated.
Retail rage: Why Black Friday leads shoppers to behave badly
Black Friday creates a competitive environment since not all shoppers can get what they want. Thus, this competitive environment causes both positive and negative emotions. Consumers are thrilled when they get what they want and frustrated when they do not.
Three or four cups of coffee a day does you more good than harm – study suggests
Drinking moderate amounts of coffee – about three or four cups a day – is more likely to benefit our health than harm it. This is important to know because around the world over two billion cups of coffee are consumed every day.
How Obamacare changed the love lives of young adults
The ACA provision that allows children to stay on their parents’ health plan until age 26 has led young adults to delay decisions to start a family. Health insurance eligibility also seems to have influenced choices women made about contraception, leading to a decrease in abortions as well as birth rates.
Doctor’s Rx for a stiff knee: A prescription for 90 Percocet pills
I recently hobbled to the drugstore to pick up painkillers after minor outpatient knee surgery, only to discover that my doctor had prescribed me 90 Percocets. Talk about using a shotgun to kill a mosquito.
Problems with your hospital care? Speak up!
There are laws that cover, among other things, your rights to privacy, nondiscrimination, language interpretation and visitation. But beyond legal protections, there are people you can talk to and steps you can take to improve your situation if you feel you’re not getting the care you deserve. And patients’ opinions do count.
