How to Get the Best Healthcare

By Abigail L. Cuffey and Jodi Helmer

Having excellent health coverage will get you the treatment you need. But it doesn't guarantee the service will be top-notch. To help ensure you have access to the best care, learn how to take matters into your own hands with these essential tips.

1. Understand Your Card

Knowing what these common terms and abbreviations on insurance cards mean can help you speed through the forms you have to fill out at the doctor's office.

Member Number or ID Number: Identifies you, the insured. If your whole family is covered on one plan, this applies to all of you.

Group Number: Identifies your employer (assuming your coverage comes through your job).

Plan Number: Health insurance companies have many plan options; this tells which one you're on.


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PCP: Primary care physician; the amount next to it indicates the copay fee per visit. You may also see a different copay listed for seeing a specialist, like a cardiologist or an orthopedist.

Payer ID: Tells your doctor's billing department which insurance company to route your claims to. (You shouldn't have to write this on any forms.) Photo: Shutterstock


2. Scope Out Your MD's Office

Bad bedside manner and impossible-to-get appointments are obvious reasons to consider ditching your current doctor, but did you know that the office itself can provide red flags? "Check out the waiting room furniture," says Steven Kussin, MD, author of Doctor, Your Patient Will See You Now. "It should be made of materials that can be easily cleaned and wiped down to reduce the spread of germs and sickness; upholstered chairs or couches are less than ideal." Once you're in the exam room, make sure there's a soap dispenser by the sink instead of a bar of soap. "Bars of soap are less sanitary because they sit out on the counter, exposed to airborne germs, and sometimes sit in stale water with soap scum," says Dr. Kussin. Not happy with what you see? Time to get a new doc. Photo: Getty


3. Prevent Medication Mishaps

Use a regular spoon to measure liquid medicines. If you head to the silverware drawer instead of grabbing an oral dosing syringe (available at drugstores) or the special cap that comes with your bottle, you could be taking up to 12% more than the right dose, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. "Spoons come in different sizes, so it's hard to tell how much medication you're getting," says Heather Free, PharmD, spokeswoman for the American Pharmacists Association.


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Wash down pills with juice. Taking pills with grapefruit, apple or orange juice could reduce their effectiveness or make them more potent, especially if they're blood pressure or allergy meds, according to research in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. The acidity impacts absorption, so go with water instead.

Take pills on an empty stomach. If you don't pay attention to the "take with food" label on your prescription bottle, you could end up with an upset stomach or the drug might not be absorbed the right way, explains Michael DeCoske, PharmD, associate chief pharmacy officer at Duke University Hospital.

Store meds in the bathroom medicine cabinet. "The heat and moisture can break down medications," says Dr. DeCoske. Keep them in a cool, dry place like the pantry or a dresser drawer. Photo: Shutterstock

Article originally appeared on WomansDay.com.

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