How to take charge of your health care:

Many today assume that all of their medical records are safe with their PCP. Guess again. When I switched to my current PCP I signed the usual medical transfer forms and later learned my new PCP had not much of any of my records. I had mentioned my IgAN as part of an early visit and she told me its not in my records. I was surprised. I was told that as (this was pre-Affordable Healthcare Act starting) the new Healthcare starts and doctors, hospitals etc scan in documents that if a person has not seen them in 15 years their files could be destroyed.
I hit the ground running. I wrote letters with a release to every doctor I had ever been to since I was born in 1967. Some of my records were stored in an old minute man missile bunker in Kansas, others in attics. In the end I found all my kidney records in the attic of a doctors office in a very small town. Hospitals and doctors across the nation were happy to help if they still had my records. In the end I may have gotten only 70%. I then scanned them and organized them into folders by topic, year and doctor. I have them backed up in 3's and keep them on my Tab. It is ironic that in at least 6 or more cases a doctor or hospital has failed to transfer the correct records and I was able to pull them up on my Tab. On 3 occasions the doctor used my tablet as his medical reference to treat me.
It has also helped with blood work. Blood work only needs to be done every 3 to 6 months for routine, in some cases my blood work did not follow me to the referral doctor. They suggested doing it again. When I mentioned I had it on my Tab the doctor was delighted. I do the same for my wife and it came in need for her blood work and her hearing test. She has to have one every 6 months as she is loosing her hearing.
Although most doctors charge for medical records I was grateful no one charged me. I am waiting for one more set, it has over 200 pages, that will then be all I am able to collect all across the nation.
So how do I keep them up to date?
Well on each doctors visit my doctor always gives me a copy. With new doctors I explain what I do and no one has ever denied me. In fact 100% of all doctors have been impressed with my file system and the detail and vastness of my records. I have been told many times by doctors that they wish all their patients did this. Although it took me a lot of work in the beginning it takes little to keep it up to date and it has saved me from having blood test repeated or a scan. I have avoided many many test by having copies on my tablet and in so doing saved a lot of money. Americans have become dependent on ALL their medical care being taken care of by their doctor. But in reality your medical records are your responsibility not all the different doctors you see. Think about it. Your PCP sends you to a specialist and you expect that doctor to send ALL your records back to your PCP. Or you go in to hospital and again expect all records to be sent to your PCP. In fact very little of what you may need later is sent. If you secure those records then you have them.
Also every doctor has a whole lot of clients you are 1 in hundreds. You are NOT unique or special. In some cases you may have a good relationship with your PCP but it is still a doctor/patient relationship and you should take charge of your medical health. If every person took charge of their medical records and kept up with test done to them think of how many millions in dollars would be saved.

Well I got another email from the BBB. They have opened the case agianst Community Health Alliance. As I said I got my wife back on BCBS as wel as my son and the two friends I helped are also back on BCBS. I don't believe legally I can assist anyone on Community Health Alliance make the switch to BCBS that I did not help in the first place. The Marketplace told me to help only those I helped the first time. I also do not think I can post how to do it. I must consider law suites. In the end posting the facts on my blog may cause others to talk, ask questiins and tell yet others. My biggest piece of advice, call the Marketplace, explain the facts to the about Community Health Alliance and ask questions until they walk you through making the change. My biggest fear is someone needing to use Community Health Alliance insurance in a life or death emergency and they don't pay. It took nearly 2 weeks to get them to pay for my wifes medication.
Its your health care take charge of it.

Recently a friend of mine wanted to read the book "Faith on the March". I had read it years ago and told him about it and he thought it would be an interesting read. I searched the Internet and the cheapest copy I found was $35.00, the price went as high as $300.00. At that point I grew disappointed and sick at the profit margin being made. Since I have published three books I know that even at $35.00 that seller was making a considerable profit. Now there is nothing wrong with making a profit in America, but considering the nature and subject matter of the book....it turned my stomach. I did some research and learned that the copyright had expired and was now public domain, so that means an even larger profit margin. I also learned that both of Marley Cole's books were in the same state, copyright expired and public domain. I then set out to find the PDF versions of all three, which I did. Now I was ready to republish them and set the price as low as the printer would allow.
"Faith on the March" was to be the test book. I created a beautiful cover and uploaded the PDF file. BAM! Rejected. Not due to copyright but alas due to font. The book had been scanned as jpg files then converted into a PDF, the very very old style font was not in the catalog of fonts used by my printer. ARG! What to do. I dare not retype it, way too big of a chance for errors. I gave it some thought and tried to export the PDF as a text file, nnnoooooo. Again the font. Turns out the book uses 4 different fonts, and my computer and Tab don't have 3. Looked on the Internet, not all fonts found.
Again I went to my thinking room in my mind. In the end here is what I am doing.
1) I am using a 6x4 book layout (the original was standard size) and already have an ISBN issued.
2) I recreated the title page, copyright page and content pages nearly 100% in the exact same layout.
3) Now for chapters. This is proving a more timely act. In order to capture the same layout I have to do it paragraph x paragraph. I highlight a paragraph, copy it, paste it into notepad to remove the formatting & font. Highlight again cut and paste into the Word book document. However not all words make it normal. Because of missing font information some words come out like " the hvoiise stoudd" well you get it. So then I do a line x line word x word comparison to ensure the exact same wording is transferred.
4) Then after each chapter I have to read each chapter again to ensure it all came out okay.
Time consuming but very enjoyable project.
My only problem so far, Word is flagging the messed up words. Okay not a problem you say. Well in writing a book even A.H. MacMillan made typos. Word is flagging them and I am correcting them. So this copy of "Faith on the March" will have corrected Mac's typo's.
I intend to do the same to Cole's books, not sure how long entire project will take. I hope that by doing this that if someone wants to buy them as history books they can find copies they can afford and not have to pay up to $300.00 for them.

I would like to report, after 8 days, about 9 phone calls, from me, my wife and Walgreens, hours and hours on the phone, 4 emails, posting on Facebook 2 accounts, Twitter, my blog, sending to BBB and press that Community Health Alliance did pay for my wifes meds. However as Community Health Alliance explained to me, this is currently an on going problem and we would have to do this with all her meds. But as I said in another post, she is back to BCBS.