Author: Laurence J. Kotlikoff
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476772290
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
Learn the secrets to maximizing your Social Security benefits and earn up to thousands of dollars more each year with expert advice that you can't get anywhere else. Want to know how to navigate the forbidding maze of Social Security and emerge with the highest possible benefits? You could try reading all 2,728 rules of the Social Security system (and the thousands of explanations of these rules), but Kotlikoff, Moeller, and Solman explain Social Security benefits in an easy to understand and user-friendly style. What you don't know can seriously hurt you: wrong decisions about which Social Security benefits to apply for cost some individual retirees tens of thousands of dollars in lost income every year. How many retirees or those nearing retirement know about such Social Security options as file and suspend (apply for benefits and then don't take them)? Or start stop start (start benefits, stop them, then re-start them)? Or-just as important-when and how to use these techniques? Get What's Yours covers the most frequent benefit scenarios faced by married retired couples, by divorced retirees, by widows and widowers, among others. It explains what to do if you're a retired parent of dependent children, disabled, or an eligible beneficiary who continues to work, and how to plan wisely before retirement. It addresses the tax consequences of your choices, as well as the financial implications for other investments. Many personal finance books briefly address Social Security, but none offers the thorough, authoritative, yet conversational analysis found here. You've paid all your working life for these benefits. Now, get what's yours.
Get What's Yours
Get What's Yours for Medicare
Author: Philip Moeller
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501124013
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
A coauthor of the New York Times bestselling guide to Social Security Get What’s Yours authors an essential companion to explain Medicare, the nation’s other major benefit for older Americans. Learn how to maximize your health coverage and save money. Social Security provides the bulk of most retirees’ income and Medicare guarantees them affordable health insurance. But few people know what Medicare covers and what it doesn’t, what it costs, and when to sign up. Nor do they understand which parts of Medicare are provided by the government and how these work with private insurance plans—Medicare Advantage, drug insurance, and Medicare supplement insurance. Do you understand Medicare’s parts A, B, C, D? Which Part D drug plan is right and how do you decide? Which is better, Medigap or Medicare Advantage? What do you do if Medicare denies payment for a procedure that your doctor says you need? How do you navigate the appeals process for denied claims? If you’re still working or have a retiree health plan, how do those benefits work with Medicare? Do you know about the annual enrollment period for Medicare, or about lifetime penalties for late enrollment, or any number of other key Medicare rules? Health costs are the biggest unknown expense for older Americans, who are turning sixty-five at the rate of 10,000 a day. Understanding and navigating Medicare is the best way to save health care dollars and use them wisely. In Get What’s Yours for Medicare, retirement expert Philip Moeller explains how to understand all these important choices and make the right decisions for your health and wealth now—and for the future.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501124013
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
A coauthor of the New York Times bestselling guide to Social Security Get What’s Yours authors an essential companion to explain Medicare, the nation’s other major benefit for older Americans. Learn how to maximize your health coverage and save money. Social Security provides the bulk of most retirees’ income and Medicare guarantees them affordable health insurance. But few people know what Medicare covers and what it doesn’t, what it costs, and when to sign up. Nor do they understand which parts of Medicare are provided by the government and how these work with private insurance plans—Medicare Advantage, drug insurance, and Medicare supplement insurance. Do you understand Medicare’s parts A, B, C, D? Which Part D drug plan is right and how do you decide? Which is better, Medigap or Medicare Advantage? What do you do if Medicare denies payment for a procedure that your doctor says you need? How do you navigate the appeals process for denied claims? If you’re still working or have a retiree health plan, how do those benefits work with Medicare? Do you know about the annual enrollment period for Medicare, or about lifetime penalties for late enrollment, or any number of other key Medicare rules? Health costs are the biggest unknown expense for older Americans, who are turning sixty-five at the rate of 10,000 a day. Understanding and navigating Medicare is the best way to save health care dollars and use them wisely. In Get What’s Yours for Medicare, retirement expert Philip Moeller explains how to understand all these important choices and make the right decisions for your health and wealth now—and for the future.
An American Sickness
Author: Elisabeth Rosenthal
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698407180
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 434
Book Description
A New York Times bestseller/Washington Post Notable Book of 2017/NPR Best Books of 2017/Wall Street Journal Best Books of 2017 "This book will serve as the definitive guide to the past and future of health care in America.”—Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene At a moment of drastic political upheaval, An American Sickness is a shocking investigation into our dysfunctional healthcare system - and offers practical solutions to its myriad problems. In these troubled times, perhaps no institution has unraveled more quickly and more completely than American medicine. In only a few decades, the medical system has been overrun by organizations seeking to exploit for profit the trust that vulnerable and sick Americans place in their healthcare. Our politicians have proven themselves either unwilling or incapable of reining in the increasingly outrageous costs faced by patients, and market-based solutions only seem to funnel larger and larger sums of our money into the hands of corporations. Impossibly high insurance premiums and inexplicably large bills have become facts of life; fatalism has set in. Very quickly Americans have been made to accept paying more for less. How did things get so bad so fast? Breaking down this monolithic business into the individual industries—the hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, and drug manufacturers—that together constitute our healthcare system, Rosenthal exposes the recent evolution of American medicine as never before. How did healthcare, the caring endeavor, become healthcare, the highly profitable industry? Hospital systems, which are managed by business executives, behave like predatory lenders, hounding patients and seizing their homes. Research charities are in bed with big pharmaceutical companies, which surreptitiously profit from the donations made by working people. Patients receive bills in code, from entrepreneurial doctors they never even saw. The system is in tatters, but we can fight back. Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal doesn't just explain the symptoms, she diagnoses and treats the disease itself. In clear and practical terms, she spells out exactly how to decode medical doublespeak, avoid the pitfalls of the pharmaceuticals racket, and get the care you and your family deserve. She takes you inside the doctor-patient relationship and to hospital C-suites, explaining step-by-step the workings of a system badly lacking transparency. This is about what we can do, as individual patients, both to navigate the maze that is American healthcare and also to demand far-reaching reform. An American Sickness is the frontline defense against a healthcare system that no longer has our well-being at heart.
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698407180
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 434
Book Description
A New York Times bestseller/Washington Post Notable Book of 2017/NPR Best Books of 2017/Wall Street Journal Best Books of 2017 "This book will serve as the definitive guide to the past and future of health care in America.”—Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene At a moment of drastic political upheaval, An American Sickness is a shocking investigation into our dysfunctional healthcare system - and offers practical solutions to its myriad problems. In these troubled times, perhaps no institution has unraveled more quickly and more completely than American medicine. In only a few decades, the medical system has been overrun by organizations seeking to exploit for profit the trust that vulnerable and sick Americans place in their healthcare. Our politicians have proven themselves either unwilling or incapable of reining in the increasingly outrageous costs faced by patients, and market-based solutions only seem to funnel larger and larger sums of our money into the hands of corporations. Impossibly high insurance premiums and inexplicably large bills have become facts of life; fatalism has set in. Very quickly Americans have been made to accept paying more for less. How did things get so bad so fast? Breaking down this monolithic business into the individual industries—the hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, and drug manufacturers—that together constitute our healthcare system, Rosenthal exposes the recent evolution of American medicine as never before. How did healthcare, the caring endeavor, become healthcare, the highly profitable industry? Hospital systems, which are managed by business executives, behave like predatory lenders, hounding patients and seizing their homes. Research charities are in bed with big pharmaceutical companies, which surreptitiously profit from the donations made by working people. Patients receive bills in code, from entrepreneurial doctors they never even saw. The system is in tatters, but we can fight back. Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal doesn't just explain the symptoms, she diagnoses and treats the disease itself. In clear and practical terms, she spells out exactly how to decode medical doublespeak, avoid the pitfalls of the pharmaceuticals racket, and get the care you and your family deserve. She takes you inside the doctor-patient relationship and to hospital C-suites, explaining step-by-step the workings of a system badly lacking transparency. This is about what we can do, as individual patients, both to navigate the maze that is American healthcare and also to demand far-reaching reform. An American Sickness is the frontline defense against a healthcare system that no longer has our well-being at heart.
Marching Toward Coverage
Author: Rosemarie Day
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807018953
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 242
Book Description
A lively, clear explanation of the American healthcare reform movement from a noted expert—giving women the tools they need to demand fair and affordable coverage for all people Healthcare is one of America’s most dysfunctional and confusing industries, and women bear the brunt of the problem when it comes to both access and treatment. Women, who make 80 percent of healthcare decisions for their families, are disproportionately impacted by the complex nature of our healthcare system—but are also uniquely poised to fix it. Founder and CEO of Day Health Strategies Rosemarie Day wants women to recognize their trouble with accessing affordable care as part of a national emergency. Day encourages women throughout the country to share their stories and get involved, and she illustrates how a groundswell of activism, led by everyday women, could create the incentives our political leaders need to change course. Marching Toward Coverage gives women the clear information they need to move this agenda forward by breaking down complicated topics in an accessible manner, like the ACA (Affordable Care Act), preexisting conditions, and employer-sponsored plans. With more than 25 years working in healthcare strategy and related fields, Day helps the average American understand the business of national health reform and lays out a pragmatic path forward, one that recognizes healthcare as a fundamental human right.
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807018953
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 242
Book Description
A lively, clear explanation of the American healthcare reform movement from a noted expert—giving women the tools they need to demand fair and affordable coverage for all people Healthcare is one of America’s most dysfunctional and confusing industries, and women bear the brunt of the problem when it comes to both access and treatment. Women, who make 80 percent of healthcare decisions for their families, are disproportionately impacted by the complex nature of our healthcare system—but are also uniquely poised to fix it. Founder and CEO of Day Health Strategies Rosemarie Day wants women to recognize their trouble with accessing affordable care as part of a national emergency. Day encourages women throughout the country to share their stories and get involved, and she illustrates how a groundswell of activism, led by everyday women, could create the incentives our political leaders need to change course. Marching Toward Coverage gives women the clear information they need to move this agenda forward by breaking down complicated topics in an accessible manner, like the ACA (Affordable Care Act), preexisting conditions, and employer-sponsored plans. With more than 25 years working in healthcare strategy and related fields, Day helps the average American understand the business of national health reform and lays out a pragmatic path forward, one that recognizes healthcare as a fundamental human right.
Your Best Health Care Now
Author: Frank Lalli
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501132903
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
Inspired by his viral New York Times article, prize-winning investigative journalist Frank Lalli details how he mastered the ins and outs of health care—and how you, too, can get the best care for your money. Frank Lalli, the former editor of Money and George magazines, has devoted his career to getting to the bottom of a good story. When he was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a rare but potentially deadly blood cancer, he put his reporter’s instincts to work and got the wonder drug he needed at an affordable price—thousands of dollars less than he was told he would have to spend. Amazed by the complex and arbitrary nature of the health care system, he decided to share what he has learned as his own Health Care Detective so that others can find their best care and save money, too. Based on three years of research and more than 300 first-hand interviews with experts, Your Best Health Care Now is your easy-to-follow, real-world guide to making today’s health system work for you. You’ll learn all the smart moves and timely tips to get better care and save hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars—no matter what your concerns may be. Whether you’re trying to book a free check-up or negotiate with a surgeon, looking for an effective generic drug or the best price for a brand-name, or worrying about high insurance deductibles and rising premiums or a stack of surprise bills, Your Best Health Care Now has the answers you need to take charge of your wellbeing.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501132903
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
Inspired by his viral New York Times article, prize-winning investigative journalist Frank Lalli details how he mastered the ins and outs of health care—and how you, too, can get the best care for your money. Frank Lalli, the former editor of Money and George magazines, has devoted his career to getting to the bottom of a good story. When he was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a rare but potentially deadly blood cancer, he put his reporter’s instincts to work and got the wonder drug he needed at an affordable price—thousands of dollars less than he was told he would have to spend. Amazed by the complex and arbitrary nature of the health care system, he decided to share what he has learned as his own Health Care Detective so that others can find their best care and save money, too. Based on three years of research and more than 300 first-hand interviews with experts, Your Best Health Care Now is your easy-to-follow, real-world guide to making today’s health system work for you. You’ll learn all the smart moves and timely tips to get better care and save hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars—no matter what your concerns may be. Whether you’re trying to book a free check-up or negotiate with a surgeon, looking for an effective generic drug or the best price for a brand-name, or worrying about high insurance deductibles and rising premiums or a stack of surprise bills, Your Best Health Care Now has the answers you need to take charge of your wellbeing.
The Price We Pay
Author: Marty Makary
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1635574129
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
New York Times bestseller Business Book of the Year--Association of Business Journalists From the New York Times bestselling author comes an eye-opening, urgent look at America's broken health care system--and the people who are saving it--now with a new Afterword by the author. "A must-read for every American." --Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief, FORBES One in five Americans now has medical debt in collections and rising health care costs today threaten every small business in America. Dr. Makary, one of the nation's leading health care experts, travels across America and details why health care has become a bubble. Drawing from on-the-ground stories, his research, and his own experience, The Price We Pay paints a vivid picture of the business of medicine and its elusive money games in need of a serious shake-up. Dr. Makary shows how so much of health care spending goes to things that have nothing to do with health and what you can do about it. Dr. Makary challenges the medical establishment to remember medicine's noble heritage of caring for people when they are vulnerable. The Price We Pay offers a road map for everyday Americans and business leaders to get a better deal on their health care, and profiles the disruptors who are innovating medical care. The movement to restore medicine to its mission, Makary argues, is alive and well--a mission that can rebuild the public trust and save our country from the crushing cost of health care.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1635574129
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
New York Times bestseller Business Book of the Year--Association of Business Journalists From the New York Times bestselling author comes an eye-opening, urgent look at America's broken health care system--and the people who are saving it--now with a new Afterword by the author. "A must-read for every American." --Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief, FORBES One in five Americans now has medical debt in collections and rising health care costs today threaten every small business in America. Dr. Makary, one of the nation's leading health care experts, travels across America and details why health care has become a bubble. Drawing from on-the-ground stories, his research, and his own experience, The Price We Pay paints a vivid picture of the business of medicine and its elusive money games in need of a serious shake-up. Dr. Makary shows how so much of health care spending goes to things that have nothing to do with health and what you can do about it. Dr. Makary challenges the medical establishment to remember medicine's noble heritage of caring for people when they are vulnerable. The Price We Pay offers a road map for everyday Americans and business leaders to get a better deal on their health care, and profiles the disruptors who are innovating medical care. The movement to restore medicine to its mission, Makary argues, is alive and well--a mission that can rebuild the public trust and save our country from the crushing cost of health care.
Health Your Self
Author: Janice M. Horowitz
Publisher: Post Hill Press
ISBN: 1642933546
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 234
Book Description
Know what’s driving your doctor’s decisions—and how to protect yourself. Through compelling real-life stories, Health Your Self reveals the forces that compromise your medical care, and arms you with the tools to navigate around them. • When a doctor refers you to a colleague in a hospital, there’s a hidden influence: he gets a bonus. • When a psychiatrist prescribes medication to school children, it might have more to do with the colossal overreach of drug companies than something your kids actually need. • When you are handed unnecessary painkillers at urgent care, the doctor could be bucking for a five-star rating on a patient satisfaction survey. Enough of those, he gets a raise. Health Your Self turns you into a smart, practical—and brave—healthy skeptic. “Backed with her twenty years of health reporting for Time, Janice M. Horowitz produced this eminently readable guide that empowers you to get the healthcare you really need. More knowledge, less waste, better care.” —Frank Lalli, the Health Care Detective™ at NPR’s Robin Hood Radio “This is a controversial book and I’m ready for the tough questions my patients are bound to ask after reading it.” —Jane Farhi, Cardiologist, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City “Finally, your own personal and portable patient advocate! Chock full of personal stories, this book is a public service. You’ll wind up the smartest person in the waiting room.” —Lillie Rosenthal, D.O., New York City “Health Your Self takes you behind the privacy curtain. When you turn the last page, you realize you were just handed everything it takes to get the best medical care possible.” —Leslie Laurence, Co-author of Outrageous Practices
Publisher: Post Hill Press
ISBN: 1642933546
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 234
Book Description
Know what’s driving your doctor’s decisions—and how to protect yourself. Through compelling real-life stories, Health Your Self reveals the forces that compromise your medical care, and arms you with the tools to navigate around them. • When a doctor refers you to a colleague in a hospital, there’s a hidden influence: he gets a bonus. • When a psychiatrist prescribes medication to school children, it might have more to do with the colossal overreach of drug companies than something your kids actually need. • When you are handed unnecessary painkillers at urgent care, the doctor could be bucking for a five-star rating on a patient satisfaction survey. Enough of those, he gets a raise. Health Your Self turns you into a smart, practical—and brave—healthy skeptic. “Backed with her twenty years of health reporting for Time, Janice M. Horowitz produced this eminently readable guide that empowers you to get the healthcare you really need. More knowledge, less waste, better care.” —Frank Lalli, the Health Care Detective™ at NPR’s Robin Hood Radio “This is a controversial book and I’m ready for the tough questions my patients are bound to ask after reading it.” —Jane Farhi, Cardiologist, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City “Finally, your own personal and portable patient advocate! Chock full of personal stories, this book is a public service. You’ll wind up the smartest person in the waiting room.” —Lillie Rosenthal, D.O., New York City “Health Your Self takes you behind the privacy curtain. When you turn the last page, you realize you were just handed everything it takes to get the best medical care possible.” —Leslie Laurence, Co-author of Outrageous Practices
The Health Care Consumer's Manifesto
Author: Deborah Dove Gordon
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN: 1440874042
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
A health care executive at Harvard explains how to become a savvy consumer and get the value we all deserve for our health care spending. This book navigates and demystifies the confusing world of health care shopping. Readers go on a guided tour inside American health care to learn why it is so messy, and who is invested in keeping it that way. The text offers a new vision of how health care could work if it were truly designed to meet consumer needs, creating a call to action on how to demand and help create such a system. A wake-up call to an industry tenuously holding on to the status quo and ripe for true disruption, this book outlines what consumers can do themselves and demand from doctors, hospitals, health plans, and policy makers to get more for their health care spending and, in so doing, reshape the health care system into one we all deserve. Using real and compelling consumer stories intertwined with expert analysis, this book illustrates why it is so difficult to act as an engaged health care consumer in the United States and pulls back the curtain to expose the forces that hold the system in place.
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN: 1440874042
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
A health care executive at Harvard explains how to become a savvy consumer and get the value we all deserve for our health care spending. This book navigates and demystifies the confusing world of health care shopping. Readers go on a guided tour inside American health care to learn why it is so messy, and who is invested in keeping it that way. The text offers a new vision of how health care could work if it were truly designed to meet consumer needs, creating a call to action on how to demand and help create such a system. A wake-up call to an industry tenuously holding on to the status quo and ripe for true disruption, this book outlines what consumers can do themselves and demand from doctors, hospitals, health plans, and policy makers to get more for their health care spending and, in so doing, reshape the health care system into one we all deserve. Using real and compelling consumer stories intertwined with expert analysis, this book illustrates why it is so difficult to act as an engaged health care consumer in the United States and pulls back the curtain to expose the forces that hold the system in place.
Which Country Has the World's Best Health Care?
Author: Ezekiel J. Emanuel
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1541797728
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 464
Book Description
The preeminent doctor and bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel is repeatedly asked one question: Which country has the best healthcare? He set off to find an answer. The US spends more than any other nation, nearly $4 trillion, on healthcare. Yet, for all that expense, the US is not ranked #1 -- not even close. In Which Country Has the World's Best Healthcare? Ezekiel Emanuel profiles eleven of the world's healthcare systems in pursuit of the best or at least where excellence can be found. Using a unique comparative structure, the book allows healthcare professionals, patients, and policymakers alike to know which systems perform well, and why, and which face endemic problems. From Taiwan to Germany, Australia to Switzerland, the most inventive healthcare providers tackle a global set of challenges -- in pursuit of the best healthcare in the world.
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1541797728
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 464
Book Description
The preeminent doctor and bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel is repeatedly asked one question: Which country has the best healthcare? He set off to find an answer. The US spends more than any other nation, nearly $4 trillion, on healthcare. Yet, for all that expense, the US is not ranked #1 -- not even close. In Which Country Has the World's Best Healthcare? Ezekiel Emanuel profiles eleven of the world's healthcare systems in pursuit of the best or at least where excellence can be found. Using a unique comparative structure, the book allows healthcare professionals, patients, and policymakers alike to know which systems perform well, and why, and which face endemic problems. From Taiwan to Germany, Australia to Switzerland, the most inventive healthcare providers tackle a global set of challenges -- in pursuit of the best healthcare in the world.
Health Insurance and Managed Care
Author: Peter R. Kongstvedt
Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Learning
ISBN: 128415209X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 355
Book Description
Health Insurance and Managed Care: What They Are and How They Work is a concise introduction to the workings of health insurance and managed care within the American health care system. Written in clear and accessible language, this text offers an historical overview of managed care before walking the reader through the organizational structures, concepts, and practices of the health insurance and managed care industry. The Fifth Edition is a thorough update that addresses the current status of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), including political pressures that have been partially successful in implementing changes. This new edition also explores the changes in provider payment models and medical management methodologies that can affect managed care plans and health insurer.
Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Learning
ISBN: 128415209X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 355
Book Description
Health Insurance and Managed Care: What They Are and How They Work is a concise introduction to the workings of health insurance and managed care within the American health care system. Written in clear and accessible language, this text offers an historical overview of managed care before walking the reader through the organizational structures, concepts, and practices of the health insurance and managed care industry. The Fifth Edition is a thorough update that addresses the current status of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), including political pressures that have been partially successful in implementing changes. This new edition also explores the changes in provider payment models and medical management methodologies that can affect managed care plans and health insurer.