Why You Need a Personal Health Record

Storing and tracking your medical records online can help save you time, money and possible health complications by taking an active role in monitoring your health.

Pop quiz: Name the medications prescribed to you, the findings of your last medical exam, your cholesterol level, and the date you received your rubella immunization shot. If you had a personal health record, you’d quickly know the answers to these. A personal health record, also known as a PHR, is a tool that can help you track, monitor and share your health information.

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Purchasing Individual Health Insurance: What you need to know

Approximately 20 million Americans will be purchasing individual health insurance in 2010 thanks to lost jobs and benefit cuts. Learn more to find a plan that fits your health-care needs.

You can find individual insurance plans through a broker, one of the many online sites, or by going directly to an insurer. In all cases, you’ll need to do some research to ensure you select the best health-care coverage for you. Provisions of the health-care reform will help make this process easier in the future, but for now it’s up to you to carefully review your options.

It’s a good idea to have a basic understanding of health insurance before you begin comparing different individual insurance plans. Sites such as healthinsuranceinfo.net and healthcarecoach.com can provide you with a good knowledge base.

Individual health insurance plan options
Essentially there are three types of plan options for you to choose from: fee-for-service, HMOs, and PPOs.

• With fee-for-service plans, the insurer will pay for part or all of your care according to the policy you purchase. You get to choose your doctor and medical facility. Fee-for-service plans are typically the most expensive option.
• Health maintenance organizations (HMOs) require you to pay for your health care in advance through a monthly fee. Deductibles and copays are usually less expensive, but you must use a provider and clinic within the plan.
• With prefered provider organiztions (PPOs), you pay a deductible and copay (or coinsurance), but only when health care is received. You can utilize a network of providers and clinics for a discounted, negotiated rate. You can still see a doctor outside of your network, but it will cost more.

Read More About: What You Need to Know About Purchasing Individual Health Insurance

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What Is a Health Insurance Exchange?

As part of the recent health-care reform bill, health insurance exchanges will become available in 2014. Learn what a health insurance exchange is, and how it might benefit you.

Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act
With the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 come many changes to the way health insurance is provided, purchased, and paid for. The Act will touch just about every American in one way or another at some point in time—some provisions of the bill are immediate and others take effect in the coming years. One of the changes that will take place in 2014 is also one of the most controversial: the requirement for citizens to purchase health insurance. To help accomplish this, health insurance exchanges will be established. But what is a health insurance exchange, who runs it, and who benefits from it?

Health Insurance Exchange Explained
The concept of health insurance exchanges isn’t new—two states (Utah and Massachusetts) already have them. But beginning January 1, 2014, all Americans will have access to an exchange. Health insurance exchanges are a place to comparison shop for private health insurance plans. Essentially, they are meant to be cooperatives that enable purchasers to band together, spread their risk pool, and have a choice of a variety of plans.

Exchanges do not offer their own health insurance plans, but instead review policies offered on the exchange to determine if they meet government standards and are “in the interest” of potential buyers. They do not set premiums, but can help keep costs low by removing plans from the exchange due to rate hikes.

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What Does Health Care Reform Mean For Me?

The passage of the recent health-care reform bill has left many Americans confused about how it will affect them. Learn what immediate changes of health-care reform could affect you.

Many Questions!
Will I loose my health insurance coverage through my employer? Will my insurance costs increase? Will the government dictate what type of health insurance policy I have?

These are just a few of the questions Americans have had since President Obama signed into law the $938 billion Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 on March 23. And after a year-long debate about reform and a bill that’s over 2,000 pages long, it’s no wonder people are confused.

So how will the new health-care reform bill affect you? As with any matter this complicated, it all depends—on your age, your income, and other factors. Following is a brief overview of some of the most-talked-about changes that could affect you in the immediate future.

Read More About: What Does Health Care Reform Mean to Me?

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