4 Steps for Taking Control of Your Health Care

4 Steps for Taking Control of Your Health Care

Your doctor and your health insurance company are not the people in charge of your healthcare. In reality they are only there to help you receive the important medical care and medical supplies you need. The real master of your health and well-being, is you. With the recent decline in health care coverage and the increase in costs, it has become incredibly important for all of us to be more proactive with our healthcare, and not just a helpless bystander. Below are some simply steps to help you be more proactive about controlling your healthcare.

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301 – HCPCS Billing Codes for Oxygen Concentrators and Oxygen Equipment

HCPCS Codes for Portable Oxygen Concentrators – How Insurance Companies are Billed

There are many many different medical products and services. As of 2010, there were over 25,000 different codes in the ICD-10. The ICD-9 is a huge book filled with all of the medical orders that can be billed.

These codes are also getting updated pretty frequently, but in 2013, there was a huge addition to the new medical coding and billing codes, which updated it to the ICD-10. There are now six times as many codes as there were before.

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How Medicare and Insurance Works for Oxygen Therapy

How Medicare and Insurance Works for Oxygen Therapy

Many people with COPD and other chronic medical conditions need to use oxygen therapy on a daily basis. In some cases, medicare will cover a portion of the costs of oxygen therapy equipment, as long as the requirements are met. Private health insurance plans work the same way, but it depends on the company, and which medical supply companies accept policies with which companies.

With all of the requirements and variables involved in getting your oxygen therapy equipment covered, you might have plenty of questions. In this mini online guide, we will try to answer as many of your potential questions as possible. We would be happy to answer any questions in our custom service department.

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Medicare’s New Rules for Paying for Oxygen Equipment

Medicare's New Rules for Paying for Oxygen Equipment

Just like with most laws for how medical coverage works, these laws are subject to change. The newest set of medicare rules started on January 1, 2009. Don’t worry – you will still be able to get your oxygen equipment covered, and the rules that changed have only resulted in minor changes.

Changes in How Medicare Pays for Oxygen Equipment

The old law used to state that after the first 36 months of your medicare coverage, you would own your oxygen equipment. That would mean that if medicare helped you pay for a stationary oxygen concentrator, after 36 months you would be the owner of that oxygen concentrator. Once you no longer require the concentrator, or if you get a different one, you would need to return it to the medical supplier.

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May is Older Americans Month

May is Older Americans Month

In 1963, The Administration for Community Living (ACL), through the Department of Health and Human Services, named May Older Americans Month, so we can both honor and learn about better ways to care for our seniors. That year, only 17 million Americans were still living over the age of 65. According to the Census Bureau report in 2010, there were 40.3 million living well into their golden years.

Many seniors dealt with poverty in decades past, when many of the programs that aide them today didn’t exist yet. We know a lot more now about health and medical sciences, as well. Even though living conditions have gotten better over the years, it’s still important to keep learning about new ways for Americans to live long and happy lives.

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Portable Oxygen Therapy Options in 2015

Portable Oxygen Therapy Options in 2015

If you need oxygen therapy, and you can’t be bothered with sitting still for extended periods of time, you have a few different options for portable oxygen therapy. Which type of portable oxygen you choose depends on your lifestyle, your dosage needs, and what you can afford.

In 2015, you have more great options than you would have had in the past, as well as great deals and medical coverage on the things you’ll need. Below is a list of the types of portable oxygen therapy equipment available right now. There is also a description of each one and how one might be more suitable for you than another.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Oxygen Therapy for 2015

Frequently Asked Questions about Oxygen Therapy for 2015

If you’ve just been diagnosed with a severe chronic illness, your doctor might find it necessary to prescribe oxygen therapy. Chronic illnesses like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) can make it much harder to bring in enough oxygen through the lungs and distribute it to the rest of the body through the blood stream. If you can breathe a high purity of oxygen for a certain amount of time each day, it will help maintain your health.

You probably have some questions about your new prescription, or your oxygen therapy equipment. Although you should ask your doctor or your oxygen therapy technician, here are some of the answers to the most common questions that oxygen therapy patients ask.

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Tips for Sticking to Your New Year’s Resolutions

Tips for Sticking to Your New Year’s Resolutions

This is a great time of year to break old bad habits, or start new, healthy habits. The prospect of a new year makes many people feel like it would be easier to make a fresh start and is a lot like a “clean slate”. It’s a great time to reassess what you’ve been doing, and get rid of what is bad, or what doesn’t serve you. These are often referred to as “New Year’s resolutions”.

Many people think they are silly because they ask the question: “Why wait for the new year to make an improvement?” or they think: “I’ll just fall off the wagon by February, anyway.” Both of these thoughts are true. You don’t have to wait until January 1st to make life changes, and only about 8% of people who make New Year’s resolutions actually see them through. Luckily, there are many different ways to make sure you can stick to them.

The most common of the New Year’s resolutions are to quit smoking, or to get in shape. There are many others, such as to quit drinking alcohol, or to just stop eating junk food and make healthier food choices. The common denominator to these things is to start living a healthier lifestyle.

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Flu Season – Time to Get Vaccinated

Time to Get Vaccinated - Flu Season in 2014 and 2015

Flu season generally runs from October and even as late as May, with a peak in January and February. The flu can be more dangerous for certain groups of people, including the very young, the elderly, and those with chronic lung diseases like asthma and COPD. Since we are already a month into flu season, hopefully you will get yours soon if you haven’t already!

The flu shot takes around 2 weeks to go into effect, to protect you from the common strains that will be most likely to go around this season. It doesn’t protect against every strain, because that would be virtually impossible. There are many strains that will be less common that the flu shot for a given year will not guard against. However, once you’ve gone 2 weeks after your flu shot, you will be vaccinated against the most common strains for that flu season, and it’s recommended by health professionals that you get one.

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