Most of us today spend more time planning a party or buying a car than we do planning our healthcare. Granted, it is not as pleasant to create a plan for our healthcare as it is to picture ourselves behind the wheel of a new Mercedes or BMW, but the stakes are certainly much higher. And, chances are great that if we are proactive and make decisions before we need medical attention, if and when we do need care, our outcomes will be better. While not a sure-fire guarantee of a positive result, when you are invested in an outcome chances are better that your outcome will be a positive one.

Whether by design or not, the passage of HIPAA and the Patient’s Bill of Rights at the turn of the Century kicked off a series of events that has begun to cause a shift in the level of responsibility many of us are taking for our own healthcare. Continued support for HIPAA and HIPAA-like laws and regulations will likely continue this trend. HIPAA clearly spells out certain patient rights in their health information. Among them are your rights to obtain and inspect a copy of your medical records and to request a correction of inaccurate health information. Among a patient’s rights as spelled out in the Medicare Patients’ Bill of Rights are the right to choose your healthcare provider (remember when your Primary Care Physician used to be assigned by some healthcare plans?) and the right to fully participate in all decisions related to your healthcare.

Hospitals have taken these concepts a step further and have created their own Patients’ Bill of Rights that give patients the right to know if your providers are in training, request a second opinion or change physicians, receive a copy of your bill and have it explained to you, and the right to financial counseling as well as others.

In the legal profession, we have seen a shift in the concerns and claims brought to us by clients. For example, in the past year alone, we have counseled several clients who had complaints about the content of their medical record. In two of the cases, the patients had brought their records to the providers and asked for clarification and some type of change since they disagreed with factual statements in the record. When the providers refused, the patients sought legal counsel. While we don’t see this as a growing area for legal services, we do see it as a way to educate and inform both patients and providers. More importantly, we see this as a positive sign that patients are paying attention to the details of the law that impact them and are acting on it.

Exercising greater responsibility in healthcare planning and decision making not only benefits the patient, but also makes the provider more accountable. The end result is higher quality of care and lower costs – something we can always use more of!

Related posts:

1. Broken incentives for patients, providers, and health plan administrators
2. Turning our healthcare rights into reality
3. Don’t Wait for the EHR, Take Steps Now to Create a PHR
4. A HIT LIST for the HIT Generation: Meaningful Use for Patients
5. Health Reform: Patient Rights, Patient Reponsibilities

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 25th, 2008 at 6:00 am and is filed under Patients' Rights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.