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If you’ve been
denied health insurance benefits on valid claims – too
many of us are abused by HMOs – American
Consumers Abused by Insurers-Medical wants to help us fight for better
access to medical care and restitution from often fraudulent,
wrongful denial of valid medical insurance claims.
The Consumers Union, publishers of Consumer Reports, offers a Consumer Guide to
Handling Disputes with Your Private or Employer Health Plan.
This guide helps you navigate the grievance procedure and offers
details about your own state's external review program. Invaluable
help for resolving disputes.
Speak
Up and possibly save your life! Deadly medical
mistakes are killing patients in droves. And now a new program
rolled out by federal health officials encourages patients to speak up
and help prevent errors in their treatment. Brochures for patients
and buttons for medical professions invite you to question your medical
care!!
Here's an impressive list of medical associations and patient
advocacy groups, or you can research a condition or wellness topic.
If you need to know if your doctor's been involved in any disciplinary
actions -- and you're lucky enough to live in one of the 20
participating states that allow you access to this lifesaving information
-- look up the info you need in order to make informed choices about the
doctors you entrust your life to.
And, unmask the truth about questionable doctors at www.questionabledoctors.org.
Questionable Doctors is the only comprehensive, publicly available databank that contains information on doctors who have been disciplined by state medical boards and federal agencies in the past ten years.
Also, Health Care Choices provides physician
profiles -- information about doctors including education,
specialty, training, and especially malpractice and disciplinary
proceedings.
To see if your doctor is board certified in his or her specialty,
go to the American Board of Medical
Specialties.
In 2000, a presidential task force labeled medical errors a "national
problem of epidemic proportions." The American Iatrogenic Association
promotes accountability for medical professionals and institutions --
they're devoted to the study and reporting of illnesses and death caused by the medical
profession. As many as 98,000 of us are killed each year by
errors during hospitalization, and according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, 2 million of us acquire infections each
year while hospitalized, with 90,000 dying from those infections.
Public Citizen reveals multibillion dollar boondoggles, studies
with skewed samples to overstate the
cost of drug research and development, worst pills and best pills,
questionable doctors, questionable hospitals, unsafe and unhealthy work
conditions, health risks to U.S. consumers and much more.
The National Center for Health Statistics helps you
with Where to
Write for Vital Records: you'll get information for every state
and US territory with where to write for birth, death, marriage and
divorce certificates.
"Make no mistake about it -- the government wants full access to your
private medical information." The Health Hippo helps today's
health consumers participate in their care by knowing about health
laws and policies that impact care, and they include an admirable collection
of information on health care policy topics.
There’s also a consumer coalition at the
Health Privacy Project site from Georgetown
University addressing privacy regulation.
Your needs
as a patient probably take a back seat to the medical
machine -- organizations who put bean counting and bonuses far ahead of
“Quality” medical care. HARP
(Health Administration Responsibility Project) is a resource for
patients, doctors, and attorneys seeking to establish the liability
of HMOs, managed health care organizations, and nursing facilities for
the consequences of their decisions.
The
information provided on this site is designed to inform you and support,
not replace, your relationship with your doctor.
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