Surviving American Medicine
How to Get the Right Doctor, Right Hospital, and Right Treatment with Today’s Health Care
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Modern medicine means new ways in which you are getting will get your medical care. Modernization of the insurance industry is changing policy coverage and benefits, and many individuals are loosing their work-related health policies. Costs have dramatically increased. Because of a shortage of doctors, office care is frequently given only by nurse practitioners or physician assistants. Higher costs in the medical office are resulting in fewer staff, less attention to patients, shorter visits, and less attention to disease prevention and following health care guidelines. Hospitals frequently facing financial losses are reducing staff and using hospitalists in place of your own physicians for care, with lower patient satisfaction, less attentive care and more medical errors. Modern medications are 10 to 1000 times more expensive than old standards, overburdening family budgets. Shortened hospital stays require hospitalists to transfer more patients into skilled nursing facilities and rehabilitation centers. The fact is, times have changed, and they’re not changing back. In today’s American modern health care landscape, you are now in charge of your own well-being. You are steering the boat, so to speak. And to do so, you need to be able to navigate the waters. That’s what this book is designed to do—to guide you in making these choices and to help you understand what’s going on behind the doors of the hospitals and insurance companies so you will know how to get the best doctors, how to argue false charges on your bills, how to pick the best insurance coverage, and how to insure that at the end of the day, you feel like you’re in control—not like you’re being run over by the giant corporations we now call ‘hospitals’ or ‘health care plans’ or ‘institutes.’ This book is designed to give insider tips I’ve garnered from my forty years as a physician, professor, administrator, and researcher. Through true stories of my patients, my friends and even my doctor colleagues who have shared all their frustrations with me, we will look at the shortcomings of the modern medical system. Learn from their mistakes. Do what they didn’t. Push where they stopped. You’ll probably live longer as a result.
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About the Book
We live in a time when the business of health care has superseded the care of health. Health-care reform isn’t just political rhetoric: it’s a reality. It’s happening every day—and for you it means new ways of getting your care. Virtually every American understands we are experiencing dramatic changes in the delivery of health care and the insurance programs that pay for it. In Surviving American Medicine, Dr. Cary Presant lays the foundation to help you take control of these issues and help you become your own advocate.
Surviving American Medicine shows you how to make the best decisions by providing inside tips about getting the best doctors, good insurance, safe hospitals, and affordable medicines—from an author and physician who is a national expert on health care. With insights from his medical experience and reliable internet resources, Presant gives you the information to survive, reduce the risk of illness, and cure or control diseases.
Relying on his forty years of experience as a physician, professor, administrator, and researcher, Presant empowers you to work with your team of doctors, nurses, hospitals, and even insurance companies to maintain your health and prolong your life. He helps you learn to make choices about your health are so you feel confident you’re getting the best treatment possible.
About the Author
Cary Presant, MD, is an internist, a hematologist, and an oncologist in Los Angeles; a national expert in health care; and the author of over four hundred scientific medical articles. Presant has taught and conducted research at the University of Southern California, Washington University School of Medicine, Columbia University, National Cancer Institute, and City of Hope National Medical Center.