Healthcare Choices : 5 Steps to Getting the Medical Care You Want and Need

Making healthcare decisions is hard, but making the right choices has never mattered more. Healthcare Choices: 5 Steps to Getting the Care You Want and Need gives you the tools you need to choose the best medical care—for you. Archelle Georgiou, MD, explains her CARES model, the formula she developed to help family, friends, and thousands of television viewers make smart healthcare decisions that balance the best medical options with individual preferences. Using more than 30 real-life stories and insider tips, she demonstrates how to use this step-by-step guide to access the medical information you need to evaluate your options and make well-informed choices. Whether you are addressing a life-threatening illness, self-managing a minor ailment, selecting a doctor, or buying insurance, Georgiou's roadmap shows you how to be an active participant in your care. Her "go to" approach describes how to: Identify all treatment options for an illness, including those not mentioned by your doctor. Make treatment decisions that reflect your priorities and preferences. Find the best doctor to treat your condition. Communicate with your doctor and make shared treatment decisions. Choose the health insurance plan that's right for you. Maintain a voice in your lifestyle as you age. Healthcare Choiceswill give you the confidence to advocate for the healthcare you want, need, and deserve. People are getting older and living longer. Accessing healthcare from birth to death, however, has become more complicated, and as information becomes more accessible, it also becomes more difficult to sift through the messages and find answers that apply to our own individual lives. Here, an MD and health insurance executive offers a guide to finding the best care, navigating the complicated systems on both sides (insurance and health providers), and taking ownership of one's healthcare consumption. Including real questions from actual patients, the author is able to suss out those issues of most importance to today's healthcare consumers. --Publisher Making medical decisions is overwhelming. Dr. Archelle Georgiou has helped thousands of people make choices that balance the best medical options with individual preferences. Now she shares her 5-step formula so you can make smart decisions tailored to the care you want and need