Be Part of Your Health Care Team

By Scott Culver
Communications Specialist
WEA Trust

June 2002

In some ways, our health care system is the envy of other nations. We deliver the most advanced health care in the world, work tirelessly at finding cures for deadly diseases, and strive to make sure no one is denied care.

In other ways, however, the U.S. health care system is surprisingly ineffective. It’s so complex and fragmented that patients easily fall between the cracks or get lost in the bureaucracy, with sometimes deadly results.

When you assume more responsibility for your health care, you not only improve your health but you have a positive impact on how the health care dollar is spent.

In many instances, patients receive the right medical care, but just as often they get too little or too much. For example:

• A recent study of children in Pittsburgh found that the bacterium that causes illnesses such as strep throat, acute rheumatic fever, and scarlet fever is becoming resistant to a wide variety of antibiotics. Physicians think bacteria are becoming resistant because of overuse of antibiotics.
  
• Research shows that giving beta blockers, which are commonly used to treat high blood pressure, to heart-attack survivors within a certain time after a heart attack can reduce the risk of heart attack-related death by up to 25%. Unfortunately, these drugs are provided to patients only 25% to 40% of the time.
  
• A study in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that almost half of diabetes patients aren’t getting optimal care.
  

Medical errors happen everywhere in the health care system, including hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, and doctors’ offices. The mistakes include wrong dosages of medicine, erroneous diagnosis, faulty equipment, and incorrect lab reports.

Totally eliminating these mistakes is impossible, but your odds for avoiding a costly error improve when you agree to play a larger role in your own health care.

Increasing your involvement
When you assume more responsibility for your health care, you not only improve your health but you have a positive impact on how the health care dollar is spent.

For Trust health plan members, this is especially important because the money we use to pay your medical bills is your money. Most people tend to think of this as the insurance company’s money, but this is not true. We are a not-for-profit organization. We calculate the cost of medical services and prescription drugs for a group, forecast those needs for the next year, and determine what premium we need to collect to pay those bills. The premium we collect is based on the medical services that members in our health plan use.

It’s your money and your health, and you should know how to get the best care for your money.

Posted May 31, 2002