How to Get Better and More Cost Effective Health Care – My Pre-2019 Forbes Articles

Our health care system is a mess, and it is past time for patients to take control of their health care. This series of articles from my Forbes blog shares what patient empowerment means and how to be an empowered patient to get better health care at a lower cost.

Dinosaur Doctors And The Death Of Paternalistic Medicine – There are three types of doctors: Collaborative – lay out all your choices and help you make a decision; Informational – just lay out the choices but don’t help you choose; and Paternalistic – just tell you what they think is best. Thankfully, the paternalistic doctors are going the way of the dinosaur. But if you ever run into one, here is how to deal with the situation.

How Patients Can Help Doctors With Time Management – Doctors are being forced to see more patients in less time. How can you get the care you need under such rigid time constraints? This article shares tips on how to make the most of the time you get with your doctor.

Stopping Runaway Tests And Health Care Costs – How to keep doctors from ordering unnecessary tests.

Become An Empowered Patient – What is an empowered patient and how do you become one to get better health care?

Accepting Bad Health Habits – What if you have bad health habits and you can’t quit them? Learn to accept them and plan for the bad outcomes in advance. I provide details on what to do to prepare.

How To Mitigate Your Health Care Costs – With no fix to our health care system on the horizon, health care costs continue to rise. What can you do to help mitigate the cost of your health care? The only weapon you have right now is to be an empowered patient. This article provides plenty of tips to get the care you need at lower costs.

Manipulating Your High Deductible Health Care Plan – In the new age of high deductible health insurance plans, planning proactively for your health care needs is important to your bottom line. You can’t predict health events, but by thinking ahead, you can make better use of your health care dollars when a significant illness occurs.

Should You Take Your Doctor’s Advice? –  It is important to question your doctor. Make sure they understand your goals and values and match your health care decisions accordingly.

Being an empowered patient takes practice. Share your stories and let me know what else I can write about to better help you in this area.