You Have Time to Die and Go Broke

By Linda Salerno-Forand

The healthcare system has turned into a giant labyrinth, which is extremely difficult to navigate. The thought of dealing with a serious or terminal illness is terrifying enough without having to go against the fortress of hospital administrators, health insurance companies and endless waits in doctors queues just trying to get the care you need. But you can be empowered in learning how to deal with the complex healthcare system getting the best care possible without breaking the bank.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669861003

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COPYRIGHT © 2023 BY LINDA SALERNO-FORAND.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 01/13/2023

Xlibris

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CONTENTS

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1     Knowledge is Empowerment!

Chapter 2     Visiting the Doctor

Chapter 3     Going To The Emergency Room

Chapter 4     Advocates

Chapter 5     Insurances

Chapter 6     Health Care For All

Chapter 7     Mental Health Issues

Chapter 8     Caregiving

Chapter 9     Admitted To Hospital

Chapter 10   Future of Healthcare

Reference Guide

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my husband David, who will always be in my heart. I would do it all over because, damn! It was good loving you!

And to my dad who taught me many life lessons, the main one being

Just do it. That was my mantra during the journey of writing this book.

I will always be your loving daughter.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to the people who gave their time and knowledge being interviewed. I will always be grateful. You are wonderful.

Rebecca (nurse)

Jan Pfahl (nurse)

Doctor Maggie Pollard

Douglas Brown (UMASS)

Donna LeBlanc McCarthy

Carol LeBlanc

Kenny and Linda LeBlanc

Suzann Curry (Health Care for All)

Hannah Frigand (Health Care for All)

Phil Wyzik, from Monadnock Family Services.

I also referenced many news articles for this book that are too numerous to mention.

Managing Editor: Elizabeth Compton

Associate Editor: James Compton

Chapter One

KNOWLEDGE IS EMPOWERMENT!

As any caregiver can tell you, trying to navigate the healthcare system on your own can be a nightmare. So knowledge on how the healthcare system works is empowerment.

Visiting the Doctor

The first thing you should do is be prepared when you go to the doctor’s office. I strongly recommend that you have a pocket folder with your name and date of birth on it. Inside the folder you should keep your paperwork that has a complete list of everything for the doctor.

This would include:

Your complete name;

Your preferred name, i.e., nickname;

Your current address;

A list of your doctors;

What kind of doctors they are;

Their telephone number;

The practice they belong to.

Your complaints, from the most important to the least.

Your current medications, including over the counter;

The dosage of the medications

A list of any known allergies;

A copy of your healthcare card;

Any healthcare proxy information

A list of emergency contacts

Keep this list with you and update it as necessary if any changes are made. This makes it much more efficient for doctors and nurses to provide care and treatment for you. It’s also important in case you have to go to the Emergency Room or if any emergency responders need to be called. It provides them with the most up to date information and reduces the chance of error. You should also make sure that your primary emergency contact person has a copy of this list as well.

The reason being is that the doctor/healthcare workers either in the ER or the responding paramedics may not have access to all of your medical records, so this will help out a lot. Though this is initially time consuming, in the end, it can literally save your life. If you choose to do so, you can even have this information on your phone, but you should definitely have a copy for those on your HIPAA form as well.

After having interviewed both healthcare professionals and patients, it’s my conclusion that the healthcare professionals need to have more training in empathy. They need to learn to truly listen to their patients. I understand that the healthcare workers can become so frustrated by dealing with the current healthcare system that they can lose focus of their original purpose of why they entered the profession in the first place. We all deserve better.

Healthcare Horror Story

Then there are the times when things just go horribly wrong in healthcare. These are the types of situations that should never have happened in the first place, but sadly, they happen more often than you realize. This person and their child deserved to be treated much better than they were, yet they were left hanging in the lurch, without proper care and no empathy.

My son was about 12 years old when he started feeling horrific pain. He was trying to pass a kidney stone. I called his specialist and he told me to take him to a local children’s hospital. It was a Friday night and I told him that the wait in the ER would be hellaciously long. He said he would call ahead and tell them to take him right in for pain management. So I took him to this children’s hospital, which was supposed to be one of the best