Issues Patients Face After Visiting a Provider

Book excerpt: Most patients face issues regarding bill payments, their care or documents after visiting a provider. Payment concerns include disputes about bills and coverage issues. Care-related issues include high prescription prices, medical errors and adverse drug events including false positives and false negative test results. In addition, foreign objects are sometimes left in patients after surgeries, resulting in inflammation, infection and abscess. Equipment issues include faulty devices and equipment such as defibrillators and stents. The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the need for infection control and effective personal protective equipment. Document issues include disputes about getting medical records, itemized statements and claim documents. Security breaches such as hacking and theft often expose patient information to unauthorized use and increase the risk of identity theft and bad credit reports. Solutions include providers adopting strategies to effectively capture data and analyzing them in a holistic manner. Patients should also resolve disputes with the provider instead of ignoring them. Some providers in turn offer financial assistance and payment incentives to patients. Finally, patients should influence local and national health policies and get involved in their state's legislative process.