Terms
Explain what this symbol means: ℞, or Rx.
What is a prescription? A prescription is a formal instruction from a healthcare provider that authorizes a patient to be approved for a medicine or treatment?
This is the medical service that you access if have a high fever of 103°F and cannot stop vomiting.
What is the emergency room (ER)?
Name an example of essential information to communicate to your PCP.
What is (any of the below):
Hypothetically, in order to schedule an appointment with a rheumatologist, your health insurance plan requires that your primary care doctor send out a communication to a rheumatology center and the health plan before coverage is approved. State the word for this process by which you request a specialist appointment.
What is a referral?
Name a means of scheduling an appointment as a current patient.
What is (either):
This contract—often offered as an employment benefit—is between a company and consumer (who is usually called a subscriber or member), in which the company agrees to pay some or all the consumer’s healthcare costs in return for the payment of a monthly premium payment.
What is health insurance?
This medical service is your go-to option if you are experiencing acute ear pain on a Sunday morning.
What is an Urgent Care center?
The majority of providers’ offices are closed on Sundays. If the problem is severe enough to warrant a trip to the ER, the Urgent Care will send you.
State an example of a source of essential information that is recommended to always be on your person for your health safety.
What is (any of the below):
For iPhone users, you can set up a medical ID using the Apple “Health” app to record all this information for emergency access and your own reference in medical situations. There are comparable applications on other devices.
A healthcare provider who is ___ with your medical insurance has agreed to accept a negotiated discount rate for their services in exchange for the patient volume they will receive by having a contract with the insurance company. Some insurance plans require you to have this kind of provider to offer coverage.
a.) in-system
b.) in-network
c.) in cahoots
d.) in-connection
This is the frequency with which you are encouraged to visit your doctor.
When is annually?
Define the healthcare term “PCP.”
Who is a primary care provider/physician? A PCP is a healthcare provider who practices general medicine. They will typically be listed as part of a medical office’s internal medicine department. PCPs are usually the “first stop” for medical care and treat a broad range of issues and will coordinate treatment if a specialist is needed.
This healthcare provider is relied on when you need expert care within a specific area of medicine (e.g., allergist, cardiologist, dermatologist, gastroenterologist, ophthalmologist, podiatrist).
What is a specialist?
Sometimes, what a healthcare provider is trying to explain—or the way they are trying to explain it—is confusing. List a question to ask a provider that can help with your health literacy (i.e., the ability to obtain, read, comprehend, and use healthcare information in order to form appropriate health decisions and follow treatment instructions).
What is (any of the below):
View this image of an insurance card (print-out provided). Name a way in which you can use your card.
What is (any of the below):
This age is the marker of when you will be legally responsible for setting up your own medical, including dental, appointments, and your parents/guardians cannot schedule appointments for you.
When is age 18?
This term refers to a fixed amount that you pay out of pocket for insurance-covered healthcare services.
What is a “copayment” (also abbreviated as “copay”)?
This is the medical office that you should go to if you need a physical exam prior to playing a new sport.
What is your PCP’s practice?
Urgent Care providers are qualified to perform sports physicals. However, your PCP has greater insight into your health status and needs, and therefore would be able to provide the best medical advice related to participating in sports.
This age is when individuals may consent to their own admission at a mental health treatment center.
When is age 16 (or sometimes—rarely—17)?
If (neither of) your parent(s)/guardian(s) have insurance, you have the possibility to access this form of insurance.
What is government insurance or Medicaid?
This is the frequency with which you are encouraged to visit your dentist for cleanings (on average).
When is every six months?
This term refers to the amount of money a person must pay for medical services before their insurance plan is responsible for the cost.
What is a deductible?
This is the medical service that you should access prior to traveling outside of the United States to a low- and/or middle-income country (LMIC). Hint: It’s a type of specialist.
What is a travel clinic and/or a travel medicine specialist?
This age marks the turning point when you can ask your parents/guardians to wait outside the exam room during doctor’s appointments and your conversations within appointments become confidential from parents.
When is age 12?
From this point forward, you can have conversations with your provider that will predominantly remain private from parents, such as to request STI or pregnancy testing, discuss birth control options, disclose substance use, or address any other questions/concerns that could feel uncomfortable/awkward to mention in front of parents/guardians. Your provider cannot share this information outside of your appointments, even with parents/guardians, without reasonable concern for your safety and/or the safety of others, or without your permission to share. It’s important to keep in mind, though, that your parents/guardians can still access your medical records until you turn 18. (Parents/guardians cannot read confidential information that their consent was not needed for, however.) Besides their access to medical records, parents/guardians are also privy to any charges issued through their insurance, if you are on their plan, such as tests and screenings ordered. Parents/guardians can access this information from the “Explanation of Benefits” (EOB) sent out by your insurance company, which explains what services were used, how much the insurance company will pay, and how much you are responsible for.
Try to self-advocate to your parents/guardians, as well as your provider, about wanting/needing to meet with a provider alone and why. Utilize skills/other resources—like your in-home team/(family) therapist (if applicable)—to communicate with your parents/guardians about your healthcare, so you have agency over how information is being relayed since they are hearing it from you rather than a piece of paper.
This is the age at which your ability to be listed as a dependent on a parent’s insurance plan is discontinued.
When is age 26?
What is an important task to complete after your appointment, such as at the Check-Out desk (or elsewhere in the medical building), that is not just scheduling your next appointment?
What is (any of the below):