CNN has posted 6 ways to save money on drugs and doctors and change:healthcare and My Healthcare Is Killing Me are included!!!  Check out the short list below, or the full 6 tips on their site.

1. Discount Dental Care

2. Cheaper Contact Lenses

3. Discount Drugs

4. Lower Hospital Bills

5. Even Lower Hospital Bills - “Whether your bill is big or small, it pays to negotiate, negotiate, negotiate with doctors and hospitals. Click here for a free PDF version of the new book “My Healthcare is Killing Me,” which offers tips on negotiating as well as other hints on saving money on health expenses.”

6. A Great Tax Deduction - www.changehealthcare.com can help you “keep track of your expenses, and when they get big enough, the site automatically gives you a report ready for submission to the IRS.”

Download a PDF of the CNN article.

George Sibble has been named director of finance and strategy for change:healthcare inc.

“George brings both experience and exuberance to the change:healthcare table,” Parks said in making the appointment.  “As we continue to grow and our opportunities broaden, we’ll lean on his financial expertise to help us further strengthen the bottom line.  And that will allow Robert and me to continue focusing on other aspects of our company’s development.  George’s entrepreneurial experiences will definitely benefit both us and our customers.”

Sibble graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in August 2006 and is currently completing an MBA at the Owen Graduate School of Management.  During his collegiate career, he served Owen as a Systems Analyst and the School of Engineering as an Information Technology Analyst, successfully tackling large scale IT-related projects for both schools.

He is currently President of the Max Adler Student Investment Fund at Vanderbilt and was Chief Executive Officer of a Boston, MA-based company, Paintball Guru, before selling his interest in the web-based business.  Sibble is currently working at change:healthcare in an interim capacity and is expected to join permanently in January.

Download the complete press release here.

Or check out coverage by the Tennessean.

My Healthcare Is Killing Me has been getting a little bit of buzz lately, and it’s good to hear that people are finding the content useful.

Bernard Farrell from the Diabetes Technology Blog says, “While I’m talking about reading, here’s a free book that may be really useful if you’re dealing with the US healthcare system. I just started reading My Healthcare is Killing Me! earlier today and I’ve already got some ideas for better handling myself within our (sometimes challenging) system.”

Thanks Bernard!! We are happy to hear you are finding some useful tips. We would love to hear from other readers (like you), suggestions and criticism are always welcomed as well.

You can find the FREE PDF download at www.myhealthcareiskillingme.com under the heading “Read it”

Employee Benefit Adviser says change:healthcare has “made good” on the long-promised healthcare consumerism tools slated to accompany consumer directed health plan and healthcare savings accounts.

EBA Raw Bar says “Good tools and data have long been promised to America’s new breed of health care consumer. Parks is making good on that promise with his health care consumerism index. Listen in as he talks about how it works and how simple consumption changes can save companies thousands of dollars.”

Check out the full article here.  Or download the PDF.

In recent months, as the days pass and the election approaches, the future of our healthcare systems seems less and less stable.

In researching new developments in healthcare reform and activism, I came across a “haunting” video while exploring a new site geared toward engaging individuals in sustainable solutions to the impending healthcare crisis - SHOUTAmerica.

By haunting, I mean honest and accurate in that is paints the dark picture of our healthcare future.  Check it out.

The point of the video is not to be haunting but rather motivational.  I walked away from it thinking… if we do not start to consider our personal healthcare decisions (at the very least) we are allowing healthcare to control our country’s economic path and future. [Scary thought.]

On top of the video, SHOUTAmerica has a lot to offer. Community, awareness, action, education. In the first blog post Times are Changing, So Should Healthcare the author says “My interest in our cause runs especially deep… Upon my graduation from a top 20 university, I found myself too old to remain under the insurance of my parents and too easy to ignore the gravity of not having it… I have come across countless stories detailing the difficulties healthcare expenses bring to bear on millions of Americans and their families. But while it is important to sympathize with their plight, we must now also turn our focus to action… The long-term interest of this country is dependent upon comprehensive healthcare reform that has remained elusive now for decades, usually dying on the table on Capitol Hill.”

The more we can share and spread this type of sentiment, the sooner we will see change.  Unfortunately, this type of passion (displayed above) is not wide spread or at least those that feel this passionately have yet to unite.

To those that feel passionately about healthcare reform - Get involved!  I think that SHOUTAmerica will provide the much needed platform for unity.

BNET “the place to-go for management” briefs the Healthcare Consumerism Index.  Check out the link here.

Recently we have published our healthcare consumer “survival guide” titled My Healthcare Is Killing Me. Though we have only recently received the hands on printed version… the PDF has been available (for FREE) online for about a week or so now. We have not really spoken of it much - we were waiting till we had real copies - but it looks like the cat is out of the bag thanks to Christopher!

So without further ado: Check out My Healthcare Is Killing Me at www.myhealthcareiskillingme.com. As I mentioned above, you can download a free PDF, read it online, or (if you like the real deal - as I do) you can purchase it through this site as well.

And - lets give some love to those individuals that have taken early note of the book…

Thanks to Zane Safrit (check out his post - make sure to scroll down) for writing such nice words.

He says, ” My Health Care is Killing Me is…a well-written resource for those like me, a consumer of our health care system, who look for help and hope as we navigate the maze of players who provide the services and the billing and the restrictions and yes, sometimes, quite often, the excellent care (if you can afford it, find it, negotiate with it…) that make up our health care system.”

Thanks to Frank Hone at the Why Healtcare Matter Blog for taking the time to check out change:healthcare, the Healthcare Consumerism Index and giving My Healthcare Is Killing Me a shout out!

Last but not least, to JenMcCabeGorman for Twittering about MHIKM. I think she may have started something

Check out the PDF here cdhc-solutions.

Or sign-up for a free subscription to CDHC Solutions and read it on the web here.

“New consumer index analyzes care costs

Nashville-based change:healthcare inc. has started a Healthcare Consumerism Index, a product to help companies and consumers judge the cost-effectiveness of their health-care purchases.

The index analyzes a company’s inpatient and outpatient care and prescriptions to identify the highest and lowest prices paid for comparable products and services within an employee population.”

See the article on the Tennessean website.

Good thing I have health insurance… cause I’m not ready to be married!!! Seems in a recent article by the New York Times “Health Benefits Inspire Rush to the Alter” that 7% of adults say that someone in their household had married in the past year to gain access to health insurance (according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study).

Now at first glance that doesn’t seem like a large number, however I think it is important to not consider the actual amount of individuals who have married for insurance, but rather that they are willing to make a life changing decision in order to obtain health insurance coverage (the Foundation also cautions not to take the number literally).

I find this to be so interesting, and admittedly it could be due to my young age (23). But I simply cannot decide if it is better to be without health insurance coverage for myself (I am sure many of these decisions involve children) and suffer the burden of a system that shuns individuals without coverage, piling on bill after bill, or to get married. To marry or not to marry - for health benefits???

Ok lets get back to the basics - money and marriage are undeniably linked. The government provides tax “incentives” to married couples, some people simply marry for money, and dowries existed for centuries. But I feel pretty good in assuming “marrying for health insurance” is something that has recently taken flight due to the consistent increase in insurance premiums and healthcare costs.

The distress caused by these issues makes me nervous.. first for the upcoming election, and the next presidents willingness to address and hopefully solve these problems. Second, because I do not feel like we (American citizens) have a tangible grasp on a solution to rising healthcare costs. And third, not everyone is feeling the pain. This means that some people are struggling with their healthcare costs daily, while others are still frivolously accessing the system, paying their $20 copay, and having no idea of the real cost of their care.

Here’s an example of the other extreme. Mr. Moulton and his wife, who has liver damage, considered divorce. This was the only way she could qualify for affordable health insurance coverage which would have been provided and subsidized by the state. She said, “Nobody should have to make a choice like that. What happened to our country? I don’t remember growing up like this.”

Scary… gives me chills. Core family values are hard to maintain when you are broke, sick and uninsured. It makes me wonder what will happen to my generation if we do not get involved, control our costs, find a solution - but most importantly try to make a difference. I mean we are already marrying for health benefits… what’s next?