Good Medical Care for the Elderly and How to Get It

Is online medical record storage safe?

As I have earlier written on Aging in Place, companies like Microsoft and Google are getting into the medical record storage business.  Last week, however, the New England Journal of Medicine raised important questions about whether medical privacy rules should be extended to these private firms. Steve Lohr wrote in the New York Times that the authors of The New England Journal article say there are still more questions than answers about the new “personalized health information economy.'’

Soaring co-pays for prescription medications

How many people really read those thick pamphlets that credit card companies, banks, and/or insurance companies send out periodically to advise of a change in policies, interest rates, etc.? Many of these mailings surely end up in a stack that you’ll read when you “get around to it.”

Thus many seniors accustomed to paying a $20 co-pay may have been surprised the last time they went to pick up a refill of commonly used medications used to treat diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, hemophilia, hepatitis C and some cancers. New pricing systems adopted by many insurance companies now require patients to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for medications prescribed to help them save their lives or to slow a disease process.

For more about this troubling trend, see the April 14, 2008 New York Times,
Co-payments for Expensive Drugs Soar.

See also earlier posts Saving money on prescription medications and   Getting medications without charge