Tag Archives: personal information

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Helpful Healthcare Links: April 30, 2015

KATHMANDU, NEPAL - CIRCA DEC, 2013: Unidentified child and his pOur helpful health care links focus on two hot topics in healthcare this week– An update on the devastating earthquake in Nepal and an what it looks like when a healthcare record is hijacked. Both are worth your time. And, as always, if you ever come across a healthcare story that you think merits more attention, please send it our way!

Inside Nepal’s Next Challenge: Overflowing Hospitals

Hospitals throughout Nepal are flooded with patients, with thousands in need of care for acute injuries after a massive earthquake that the country’s leader said may have killed up to 10,000.

A Day in the Life of a Stolen Healthcare Record

The process of divining the provenance of stolen healthcare records. These records typically are processed or handled by a gauntlet of third party firms, most of which have no direct relationship with the patient or customer ultimately harmed by the breach.

 

P.S.–TODAY is your last day to sign up for the ObamaCare Enrollment Extension!

Spin your healthcare your way and check out our Easy Healthcare eBook Guides.

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HealthSpin’s Easy Healthcare: Choose Your Health Insurance gives you the practical steps you can take to choose the right insurance plan for you and your family.

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How Will You Get Your Health History When Traveling?

Hiking - hiker woman on trek with backpack living healthy activeMy daughter’s doctor asked us this question during a recent visit.  His answer was surprising: “the Cloud.”  

As many of you know, my daughter was born with a life-threatening illness.  She’s an adult now and working at her first job in an urban city far away from me and her doctors.  She recently had a bad case of food poisoning, which lasted a long time.  We both began to wonder whether this was actually a more serious problem.  We decided to schedule an appointment with her doctor to follow up.  She took a day off of work and flew home.

Although she was fine, we thought it was important to make a plan if she ever got very sick again.  Remember “preparation” is everything in healthcare.  My daughter flies all over the world and often has to leave without much notice.  What would happen if she had a serious problem while she was out of the country?

The doctor told us how important it would be for any doctor she saw to have her important health information about the surgeries she had as a child.  Specifically, he said she should have immediate access to:

  1. The reports from her operations (operative reports)
  2. Any x-rays, and
  3. Discharge summaries from hospital stays

The doctor and I agreed that, although everyone talks about patients having a universal healthcare record that can be accessed from anywhere, this simply does not exist.  He suggested getting the important records and putting them on my daughter’s phone which could be backed up in the cloud.  Therefore, she would have access to the records from anywhere in the world.

Having immediate access to her important health records might be the difference between life and death.  So taking some time now to contact the various hospitals where she had her surgeries, gathering the records, scanning them and putting them where we can immediately access them makes a lot of sense.

Tell me what you do to protect yourself from a health emergency when you or your children travel?  I’d love to hear from you.

A great place to start gathering your health history is to download my FREE eBook, Easy Healthcare: What to Do First which contains a Medical Life List.

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3 Steps To Follow If Your Health Information Is Hacked

We know that our health information is supposed to be kept private, but we are also aware that many institutions are experiencing breaches of some kind. So what do you do if this happens to you? This video shares three simple steps to follow if this happens to you!

Tell us whether you are concerned about you health information being compromised. We’d love to hear from you!

For more information about your health privacy, see HealthSpin’s Easy Healthcare:  Healthcare Privacy.

As Always, we hope we’re helping you “Spin Your Healthcare Your Way!

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P.S.–Please remember that ObamaCare has added an extra enrollment period that from March 15 – April 30, 2015. For more information about your health insurance, see HealthSpin’s Easy Healthcare: Choosing Your Health Insurance 

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