Healthcare Career Guide and Counseling

Question: Healthcare? Other than being a doctor what are the other positions in today's healthcare industry that post good pay and revnue throughout the years. I am trying to decide a course of action or employment in the healthcare field and trying to find information on incomes related to such field. Anyone have any ideas??? I'm lost!!

Answer: If you are business saavy you may consider being on the administrative side of healthcare. Physicians are required to bill with special codes called CPT-4 codes that describe services that they provide to patients. There are also codes to describe every diagnosis. In order for the physicians to obtain payment for services these codes must be submitted in a timely fashion to insurance companies and they must be within the scope of usual practices. Insurance companies also deny payment to the physicians more often than not and they need people to fight for their money. Administrators allow physicians to concentrate of helping patients without the nagging concern of redtape and paperwork. There are also budgeting, managerial and operational issues in healthcare offices or other settings that are handled by these professionals. You may consider obtaining a masters in heatlh administration. Please refer to www.ache.org.

Question: Healthcare becomes universal then what happens to people like me that work in healthcare? If healthcare gets revamped will I get CUT IN PAY? I am a X-ray tech. When everybody can afford healthcare, will I loose money? I am confused if revamping healthcare is bad or good for me. I am for everybody getting great healthcare, but not for a pay cut that I worked hard for!

Answer: First, I doubt that healthcare will become universal. Second, I see no reason why you as a X-ray technician should lose pay...ompare it to salaries in France & other places where they have universal health care.

Question: How does universal healthcare in Europe work? My professor today mentioned that most European countries have universal healthcare. This means that everyones healthcare is provided by the state, correct? How much more money do people pay in taxes in Europe than in the U.S.? It would have to be more since their healthcare is covered, right?

Answer: I am English and now live in California. Like most people I thought that there was a huge tax burden in Britain, but after coming here I now think that's not the case.We pay two forms of tax from our wages:Income tax and National insurance. Your income tax is tax like everywhere else, national insurance pays for your pension and healthcare. I have lived in England all my life up till now and I will fiercely defend our healthcare system, the NHS (national health service). In thanks largely to the effort of our heroic doctors and nurses (and all other staff) the NHS survives....the healthcare is nothing like as bad as people make out, and there are no long waiting lists anymore (now if you're waiting more than six months for routine surgery they'll send you abroad to have it done, paid for of course). No-one pays anything for medical care and the one reason it's under stress (As a healthcare proffesional I know this from experience) is the fact that something built as a national health service is used as a world health service. People come to the UK from all over Europe to take advantage of the NHS and from all over the world. I would like to see treatment restricted to citizens/people who have paid at least 5 years national insurance contributions but at the same time I would never ever want to see anyone, citizen or not, turned away or denied medical care because of money. I'm fortunate enough to be able to afford health insurance in the US but the amount hospitals/doctors charge is disgusting and I don't really understand why people are so opposed to universal health care, can you really put a price on life? By the way income tax is 20% of anything you earn over about 5 and a half thouse pounds ($11k) and national insurance is 11% of anything you earn over 84pounds a week ($160) And people have the option of private healthcare in england too if they want to pay for it

Question: How would Universal Healthcare impact the advacement of medicine? I think that unversal healthcare would be detrimental to the advancement of human medicine. Drug companies would tirelessly to develop a breakthrough drug or a cure for a disease because they know it would be a huge payout. Would they have such a large incentive if the government would be paying them? Also, I heard that universal healthcare would result in everyone getting healthcare, but it would involve long lines. Everyone would get treated for cancer and not worry about the bill but they would have to wait 6 months for treatment. What are your thoughts?

Answer: Since the drug companies became privatized, there have been far, far less cures than when it was government controlled. Drug companies only want symptom relievers, since they will be reused over and over, whereas cures are not needed once the problem is gone. No money in cures. Drug companies are more interested in Marketing. Obscene amounts go into marketing. At least thousands if not millions are spent on just pens, clocks, notepads, lunches, clipboards, and a ton of little practically useless stuff they give away for the sole purpose of having the name all around the dr. You should go in a dr's office and just look at the amount of stuff with a drug name on it. That is only a small fraction. The government should really take back the pharmaceutical industry, that would definitely lower regular health insurance prices. If universal health care is brought in, it doesn't mean you can't get regular health insurance. Considering how very little the health insurances pay out ($0.67 on a $10 charge) I highly doubt that the doctors income would be impacted negatively. I think universal health care would be a great thing. And this is coming from someone who would probably have to find a new job. You don't see the people who come in who don't have to money to get seen. People who are already sick, dying, and still getting harassed about payments. There are already tons of people who die because they just didn't have the money for a doctor. What is a couple of days wait to that? 6 months is quite far fetched. I was in the military, and the same type of system ran. Health care was FREE and there were no massive wait times. The only valid complaint that I have heard is that you would not always be able to see the same doctor. Not exactly a big deal. It could very well be that some doctors could choose to take more regular health insurance patients, and then you could have one of those for your regular doctor. As atrocious as regular health insurance is, most doctors take most of them. Why? To boost the number of patients. Universal health care could work the same way. Universal health care will certainly not stop the advancement of medicine. With a little less fear involved, it may even enhance it. Besides, that sounds an awful lot like you want to believe the US is the only place in the world who has helped medicine. Nope. Would you give up your career to keep universal health care from coming? That's how strongly I support it.

Question: What is a conservative solution to healthcare? 47 million Americans dont have healthcare. I know about 60% of that number is illegal immigrants and many more are people that make $75,000 per year and choose not to get it. That still leaves millions of americans that dont have healthcare. The liberals say universal healthcare is the solution. What is a conservative solution to the problem?

Answer: Don't get sick!

Question: What are differences healthcare funding around the world? I am most interested in a good detailed resource for healtcare funding around the world (England, France, Germany, US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina) I mostly need to know how Healthcare if funded. For example in Japan, private employers of over 700 employees, healthcare is funded through payroll taxes. Though I do not know if the tax is 100% paid by employees or the Employer pays something, too.

Answer: I am from Canada where medical coverage is free for everyone,regardless of whether you work or not.

Question: What healthcare job is least likely to risk a lawsuit? I know Doctors pay a hefty sum for malpractice insurance, but are nurses likely to get sued as well? What job in the healthcare industry is least likey to get sued for malpractice? Please no desk jobs like medical transcriptions or coding.

Answer: Hospitals carry liability insurance for their nurses. It is unlikely that a nurse will get sued unless she/he does something very deliberate and intentional to harm a patient.

Question: What are some websites that healthcare payors use? I'm trying to look into the healthcare industry as a possible career. I was just wondering what kind of sites healthcare payors use to see how their day to day is and what kind of information they look at. Thanks.

Answer: That would probably be private information. HMO's have fee schedules that list what they allow for certain procedures, but that's probably not available except to providers. They don't "look at information" - they have set schedules, for the most part. Why would that be important to you in looking for a possible career??

Question: How long does it take you to reach your healthcare provider? Is it difficult for you to reach a healthcare provider? How long does it take you to reach a healthcare provider? What state do you live in? How long does it take to reach a healthcare provider? Do you neglect to see your doctor as often as you should due to the amount of time it takes for you to reach him/ her? Also do your friends and relatives have trouble reaching a healthcare provider? Is it inconvenient?

Answer: Maybe 5 or 10 minutes on the phone to make an appointment and in the same day if it's an emergency. If it's not an emergency then about a week.

Question: What's the difference between healthcare and health insurance? and What's the difference between healthcare reform and universal healthcare?

Answer: Health care is the actual supplying of medical treatment to patients--tests, diagnoses, prescriptions, nursing care, and so forth. Health insurance is a means of paying for it over time--we pay into a fund even while we are well so that when we get sick there is money to pay for our care. The difference between national health insurance and private health insurance is that the private insurer's primary goal is to deliver a dividend check to its shareholders, whereas the national insurer is interested in a healthier and more productive population. Private insurers deliver about 65 cents of care per dollar collected in premiums; national insurers closer to 95 cents per dollar. Health care reform means changing the inefficient system we currently have--universal healthcare (everybody has national insurance) is one method that many countries have chosen to keep their people healthy and competitive. The only two industrial countries without national health care are the USA and South Africa. The US spends nearly twice as much per capita as the citizens of any other nation, and our medical outcomes are 37th best in the world.