Business Insight presented by Arlington Dermatology Self-education, Part 2 Americans pay for lack of knowledge. They pay even more for misleading information. These are not my opinions or views, these are the facts. I hear the stories from my patients every day. I paid a high price myself, many times, for rushing to make decisions without verifying reliable information. Let me give you some examples, some of which might be similar to yours. I listened to anecdotal comments when purchasing my first EMR system, back in 2007. I added some comments from the sales people and my practice ended hating the system, not using it properly, and changing to another one five years later. Not only I paid for the system licenses but, most of all, wasted tons of time re-training the whole staff and slowing down operations. The second time, we made a choice after we tried and practiced more choices, and it is more and more difficult on the system, making sure it met our needs and compliance. It is almost September and very soon my patients will be making choices about their insurance plans. This year, they will be tempted expensive. Doctors do not control prices. We by many Medicare substitutes offered by private insurance companies. Watching their advertising, I wonder how it is even possible to offer insurance plans with no cost for premiums, no deductible, free prescriptions, patients cannot pay for the prescription. And I free glasses, free rides to the doctor, and so on. Who pays for all of it? And if so much is free, why my own insurance premiums are so high? Well, nothing is free in this world. If you receive one kind of benefit at no cost, more than likely you compromise some other benefit. Who knows what is better? So, before you make a decision, please, read everything, sources and is objective and non-biased. I including small print. Everyone has a different situation and different needs. It is impossible It might be good for an on-line conversation to judge what is good for you unless we know your very particular situation with details. But you can read the small print and ask someone with the medical insurance knowledge what means what. That person should not be the sales person but rather someone who has no interest in what decision you are making. I often get questions about medical decisions. What would you do, Doc? Sometimes, it is an easy answer, especially if the number of options is small. But, with today's medicine advances, there are more and to decide what is better for whom. Another example: there are many newer medications that work much better than the old ones. They are safer and work faster. But they might be do not even know prices. Prices of drugs differ from Walgreens to Walmart or Costco. I can write a prescription for what I think is the best but always must be ready to change it if my never know when it might happen. You need to call your insurance and several pharmacies to make sure you are receiving the optimal deal. My patients often ask where to get the best information from. The best information is not only reliable and but it is confirmed by reliable know that social media is not a reliable source. but not information. One of the best places on Internet is Wikipedia. It is huge in size, updated every hour, and it does not allow for opinions but rather enforces a policy of verified source of information. It uses facts rather than subjective views. As a child, I remember loving "big books' of paper encyclopedia. I learned a lot from them. Today, you can have it at a click. Use it. Michael Bukhalo, MD Arlington Dermatology 5301 Keystone Court Rolling Meadows, IL 60008 Tel. 847 392 5440 | www.arlingtondermatology.net Business Insight presented by Arlington Dermatology Self-education, Part 2 Americans pay for lack of knowledge. They pay even more for misleading information. These are not my opinions or views, these are the facts. I hear the stories from my patients every day. I paid a high price myself, many times, for rushing to make decisions without verifying reliable information. Let me give you some examples, some of which might be similar to yours. I listened to anecdotal comments when purchasing my first EMR system, back in 2007. I added some comments from the sales people and my practice ended hating the system, not using it properly, and changing to another one five years later. Not only I paid for the system licenses but, most of all, wasted tons of time re-training the whole staff and slowing down operations. The second time, we made a choice after we tried and practiced more choices, and it is more and more difficult on the system, making sure it met our needs and compliance. It is almost September and very soon my patients will be making choices about their insurance plans. This year, they will be tempted expensive. Doctors do not control prices. We by many Medicare substitutes offered by private insurance companies. Watching their advertising, I wonder how it is even possible to offer insurance plans with no cost for premiums, no deductible, free prescriptions, patients cannot pay for the prescription. And I free glasses, free rides to the doctor, and so on. Who pays for all of it? And if so much is free, why my own insurance premiums are so high? Well, nothing is free in this world. If you receive one kind of benefit at no cost, more than likely you compromise some other benefit. Who knows what is better? So, before you make a decision, please, read everything, sources and is objective and non-biased. I including small print. Everyone has a different situation and different needs. It is impossible It might be good for an on-line conversation to judge what is good for you unless we know your very particular situation with details. But you can read the small print and ask someone with the medical insurance knowledge what means what. That person should not be the sales person but rather someone who has no interest in what decision you are making. I often get questions about medical decisions. What would you do, Doc? Sometimes, it is an easy answer, especially if the number of options is small. But, with today's medicine advances, there are more and to decide what is better for whom. Another example: there are many newer medications that work much better than the old ones. They are safer and work faster. But they might be do not even know prices. Prices of drugs differ from Walgreens to Walmart or Costco. I can write a prescription for what I think is the best but always must be ready to change it if my never know when it might happen. You need to call your insurance and several pharmacies to make sure you are receiving the optimal deal. My patients often ask where to get the best information from. The best information is not only reliable and but it is confirmed by reliable know that social media is not a reliable source. but not information. One of the best places on Internet is Wikipedia. It is huge in size, updated every hour, and it does not allow for opinions but rather enforces a policy of verified source of information. It uses facts rather than subjective views. As a child, I remember loving "big books' of paper encyclopedia. I learned a lot from them. Today, you can have it at a click. Use it. Michael Bukhalo, MD Arlington Dermatology 5301 Keystone Court Rolling Meadows, IL 60008 Tel. 847 392 5440 | www.arlingtondermatology.net