Health care planning is the process of navigating the medical care system while optimizing your health care benefits to ensure you are receiving the quality of care and benefits that you deserve. Medical care providers, health insurers, Medicare, Medicaid, and state agencies each have rules and procedures for you to follow. Interactions between medical care providers and patients can be confusing due to the complexity of medicine. Understanding benefits can be as equally difficult. You must not only understand what medical care you need, but whether or not your care is covered by health care providers. It is imperative that you are able to effectively navigate through this system in order to ensure that you are receiving the care and benefits that you deserve.

Take for example an elderly parent who needs a surgery that requires a stay in rehabilitation. Due to the health of the parent and nature of the surgery, the child will need to assist the parent before, during and after the surgery. The following are possible issues arising out of the surgery and rehabilitation. Is the child authorized to act on behalf of the parent? Does the parent have a Health Care Proxy and is the child named the health care agent? If not, what do you do? If the child is the authorized agent, should the child have an independent discussion with the primary care physician, the specialist, and the surgeon? Should the child obtain approval for the surgery from Medicare or the supplementary health insurance carrier? What steps do you take if the surgery is approved by the insurance carrier, but your surgeon or hospital is not authorized to do the surgery? Do you have all the documents you need to be admitted at the hospital? What is the procedure in the event that the parent needs additional surgeries and treatment which have yet to be approved by Medicare or the health insurance carrier? Does Medicare cover the parents stay in the rehabilitation hospital? What happens if parent ceases to qualify or runs out of rehabilitation benefits under Medicare? Does the parent have long term care insurance or identified assets to pay for skilled nursing care? Is the parent entitled to any benefits for home care?

The Health Care category addresses various elderly health care issues and provides strategies which will assist you dealing with Medicare, Medicaid, supplemental health insurance carriers, hospitals, and other health care professionals.