As the holiday season approaches and you’re finalizing your travel plans, you may have wondered, at some point, what would happen if you had a medical emergency while on vacation? That’s a great question. Before hopping in the car or boarding a plane and visiting family in another state — or even another country —…
Health insurance literacy is just a fancy way of saying that you have a thorough understanding of your health insurance coverage and benefits. Why is health insurance literacy so important? Your family’s health and finances depend on it. Health Insurance Literacy Definition: An individual’s ability to seek, understand, select, and use their health insurance services….
If you subscribe to our newsletter, you may recall earlier this month reading about open enrollment for individual health insurance through the Health Insurance Marketplace. We encouraged you to start doing your research now so that you’re ready to choose your 2023 plan as soon as open enrollment starts on November 1. In this Health…
Did you know you can get help with enrolling in individual health insurance and seeing if you’re eligible for cheap or free health insurance? One easy way to find free assistance near you is to visit the local help page of Healthcare.gov and enter your city or zip code. This is a safer bet than…
If you’ve ever been diagnosed with chronic pain, then you know how difficult navigating your health insurance options have become. Specifically, as the opioid crisis has come into clearer view, patients say it’s harder to get treatment for pain and their options are more limited. Also, the cost of medical care is higher than many…
Vaccine Preventable Diseases. About a century ago, some of the most common diseases to cause severe illness were polio, measles, and mumps. In fact, before vaccines were developed, these contagious illnesses were responsible for thousands of deaths each year, including in children. After vaccines came along, many common illnesses were preventable, curable, and some were even eradicated.
West Virginia has a low number of residents without health insurance, so DHI wanted to find out why. We interviewed Joylynn Fix, Director of Health Policy at the Offices of the Insurance Commissioner for the State of West Virginia. She gave the inside scoop on health insurance in West Virginia and what her agency does….
Tracking down vaccination and immunization records is easier now than ever. In the past, if parents didn’t keep a hard copy of a child’s vaccines, there was very little an adult could do to recover those records. Now, many states have secure and confidential immunization registries. They even store records from multiple sources — schools,…
Community health centers (CHCs) are the largest and most successful primary care system in the country. Serving 1 in 11 people in America, CHCs play a vital role in the healthcare safety net. They provide medical, dental, behavioral health services, and more, regardless of insurance status or ability to pay. CHCs are also called Federally…
Last month we launched the two-part series, At Home Testing Kits. Just to quickly recap, home testing kits are like mini laboratories that consumers can purchase online or at their local pharmacy. They’re designed to diagnose various medical conditions. And when we say “various,” we’re not kidding. You can buy an at home testing kit…