We switched health insurance providers again a few months ago, because of a new position my husband took on. I braced myself for the fallout. Despite the fact that I got an early start on informing our various physicians and pharmacies that we’d be switching, it’s once again been an extremely bumpy road — er, more of ridiculous time-suck, if you want to get particular about it.
1) Various doctor’s offices insisted that were “still…
Over at DiabetesDaily, there’s been a series of discussions going on about How the Internet is Changing Diabetes Care — a topic about which I have many opinions (surprise, surprise). I was particularly intrigued to see Manny Hernandez’s piece about the implications of referring to us all as “consumers” rather than “patients.” He doesn’t much like it. I have a different take.
Manny’s concern is that viewing us as “consumers” puts a “bigger emphasis on how…
I’m in New York at the moment (hi Mom!). Yesterday I took part in a very interesting gig put together by the Consumer Reports Health organization, the folks who bring you practical ratings on everything from running shoes to “best buy drugs.” It was a small gathering of health bloggers, online experts and journalists organized expressly to “encourage an interactive discussion bout consumer-driven healthcare and how health bloggers have transformed health communication.” Hmmm, I suppose…
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All this talk about “Health 2.0” and the “power of the healthcare consumer” only makes sense if we patients really do have choices. And lots of us still feel that we don’t. We’re either stuck with whatever our insurance provider dictates, or we don’t have the time/money/resources to really drive our own medical treatment.
While the financial aspect remains a painful hurdle, there’s lots of help on the way with respect to getting patients the…
As usual, the annual ADA Scientific Sessions Conference was exhilarating and exhausting. You have to be in awe of such a confluence of the pharmaceutical and technological advancements that enable us PWDs to live happy and productive lives.
But outside of the science and medicine, there’s something else big going on. We stand at the dawn of a new era of patient empowerment that applies “consumerism” to health and medical care in ways never seen…