Posted on Monday, February 8, 2016

Should You Go to the Emergency Room?

Sometimes it’s easy to know that you need an emergency room (ER). Heart attacks or major accidents, for example, usually warrant a trip to the ER. But what if you are sick or injured? How do you know if you should go to the ER?

In this short video, I talk about what to consider if you are unsure of whether or not you need an emergency room. Watch it now—before an emergency arises—so you’ll be prepared if something does happen.

Have you downloaded the MyHealthSpin toolkit yet? It’s filled with helpful ebooks, worksheets, and videos to help you handle your healthcare with confidence. Get yours today.

Posted on Thursday, February 4, 2016

What to Do With Your Children When You Have a Health Emergency

You’ve been hit with the flu. Or you need to go to the hospital right away (either for yourself or to take a loved one). You can’t just hide under the covers or fly out the door because you have kids at home. So what do you do with your children when you have an unexpected health emergency?

In most cases you are going to want to have someone watch the kids. It may be your spouse or an older child who can responsibly keep an eye on the younger ones. Extended family—parents and in-laws—can be great emergency support if they live nearby. If family isn’t an option, try the babysitter, a friend, or a trusted neighbor. Maybe another parent from your child’s school or scout troop or sports team can watch your children while you take care of the health emergency.

You may even want to plan your list of who to call before a health problem strikes. The less you have to think about or track down while you are sick or in a rush to care for someone else, the easier you’ll get through it.

If there is simply no one else who can take them, do the best you can with what you have. If you are home sick, let it be a movie marathon day for the kids. A day of television won’t melt their minds. Make sure the room is safe and they have plenty of quiet toys to play with. Then you take over the most comfortable spot where you can keep an eye on them while also being out of the way. The couch or a chair in the corner work well.

Let your kids know that, “Mommy isn’t feeling well,” and that you are going to need them to play quietly and not ask any questions. Will this work perfectly? Definitely not. But with a few reminders and some entertainment, your day may be a bit more restful than usual.

If you have to go to a doctor’s office or the hospital and you must bring your children, pack an activity bag with quiet toys—coloring books and crayons, notebook and stickers, stuffed friends, or even electronics with headsets—and clean, easy snacks and bottled water. Snacks and drinks are helpful in taming hungry tummies, which often turn into behavior meltdowns. Choose things that are easily cleaned up if they spill (because accidents happen). Think water or clear juice and fruit snacks, raisins, or dry cereal.

Posted on Monday, February 1, 2016

What To Do When Your Medical Bill Doesn’t Match the Services You Received

A woman was telling me about her recent visit to a new dentist who wanted her to have a full set of x-rays. She felt the x-rays weren’t necessary because it hadn’t been too long since her last set, and she wasn’t experiencing any pain or particular concerns. She requested to have her teeth cleaned only.

A few weeks later she received a bill from the dentist that showed her portion of the payment due. As she reviewed her bill, she found a charge for x-rays—the x-rays that she never had. She called the dentist’s office right away and asked them to correct the bill. They checked her records, verified the services she had actually received and a few days later she received a new bill with the proper dental work reflected.

This happens. It’s not necessarily that the doctor’s office is trying to pull one over on you, but mistakes happen. That’s why it is important to always review your medical bills (or any bills, for that matter) carefully. Make sure that the services you are being charged for are the services that you received.

Most bills will have a breakdown that shows exactly what is being charged: the service or medication administered, the cost, and how much your insurance covered, and how much is left (if any) for you to pay. If you don’t receive an itemized bill, you can call the doctor’s office and ask for one. You’ll usually receive it within a few days.

Why errors like these happen is hard to say. It could be that the dentist office mentioned above simply printed up their standard “new patient” services bill, not realizing that she had declined some of the typical new patient services. The woman handled the situation exactly as she should have. It was irritating, but easily fixed.

Make sure that you and your insurance company aren’t paying for more than you received. Read your medical bills when they arrive to check for discrepancies.