Using Health-Minder

The SETUP menu is used to enter new information about:

For doctors or hospitals, you may also wish to select one or more specialties from Health-Minder’s extensive list, or add a specialty if you don’t find it there. A specialty is the field of medicine practiced by the provider, such as Psychiatry or Geriatrics. Knowing the specialty may help you decide whom to call when you have a new problem. If you are entering a new provider, be sure to push the button named QUALITY CHECKLIST to see a brief checklist of some things to look for in a health care proivder of that type. For example, doctors should be Board Certified in their specialties. Not all types of providers have quality checklists; these lists were made of of items published in various medical journals and articles in the general press. You might also wish to use PHONE|Resources and look for a professional organization for that specialty and call them for advice. There are also many support and referral groups listed by disease under the PHONE|Resources menu. Some of the "numbers" found in this directory are actually Internet addresses you can use on your computer to find health information and support groups.

In addition to doctors, surgeons, hospitals, veterinarians, psychiatrists, and dentists, Health-Minder’s types of Health Care Providers also include medical testing laboratories, pharmacies, ambulance services, visiting nurses, home health aids, optometrists, and alternative medical care givers such as acupuncturists and midwives. It does not include Insurance Companies or other health care plans; for these, use the menu item SETUP|Insurance|Policy or HMO. Please note that you may enter another type of provider if you don’t find the one you want in Health-Minder’s list. To do this, check OTHER in the Health Care Provider Type Window  and then enter the name of the type.

Similarly, to enter a specialty, check OTHER in the Health Care Provider Specialty Window, and then enter the name of the specialty. These new types or specialties will be stored with this one practitioner only, so if you use several practitioners of this new type of specialty, you must enter the new type or specialty for each one.

Whenever you are entering data about a health care event, such as an office visit or hospitalization, the type information is used by Health-Minder to select names of doctors for inclusion in the Health Care Provider lists for a Data Entry Pane. For example, when entering information in the Pet Medical History Summary, only those practitioners and pet hospitals or clinics who are given the VETERINARY CARE type will be in the list of Health Care Providers

If you are entering data, and you do not see the name of trhe Health Care Provider who provided the care for this particular event, you can use the ADD button next to the Health Care Providers’ name list to enter the name of the provider you want. This is much the same procedure as entering the hospital information from the SETUP|Providers menu. For example, if you are entering information about a hospitalization, and you do not see the hospital on the list, complete the following steps:

Health-Minder provides you with a way to keep track of all the insurance policies held by each member of the family. This information can be very helpful during a stressful time when a family member needs health care. There are two kinds of insurance for human members of your family: traditional fee for service insurance, and managed care or HMO plans. For pets, there is only the traditional insurance plan, and no managed care option. In this section, we will discuss how to enter information for the traditional insurance plan.  First, choose SETUP|Insurance|Policy from the SETUP menu. In the Insurance Policies Window that appears, you will see a list of all the policies that you have already entered, listed by policy number and policy holder’s name. To add a new one, press the ADD button. To remove a policy, select it from the list and press DELETE. To see or change the information about a policy you have already entered, double double click on that policy number in the list. Whether adding or changing a policy, the Insurance Policy Description Window will appear with a Data Entry Pane.

Fill in as much information as you can about each policy: the insuring company’s name, address, telephone number, and the telephone number you are to call to get approval for care (often called the "managed care" number). If you employer provides the insurance, you should also enter the employe’s name, address, and the telephone number of the office that handles insurance matters in your company. Check off the kind of coverage provided (HOSPITAL, DOCTOR, DENTAL, etc. Note that CHAMPUS and CHAMPVA are for military-related plans.). If this is an additional policy to work with your Medicare coverage, referred to as Medigap, check off one of the ten lettered types of coverage. Be sure to fill in the policy number (this is required by Health-Minder to keep track of this policy), and the date on which this policy’s coverage ends or needs to be renewed.

To enter any information you have about premium, deductibles, and coverage by type of care, press the PAYMENT DETAILS button. (The DETAILS feature is not available for pet insurance policies). When the button is pressed, the Coverage by Expense Type window will appear. To enter details by type of care, double click on the appropirate row, under the column Amount You Pay. Type in the amount you must pay for each type of care, either as a dollar amount or as a percentage.

Here are some examples of how to enter this information:

This information must be revised at the start of each "policy year". This is important because policies differ on how much coverage they provide on prescriptions, mental health treatment, medical devices, and so on. Knowing these differences, and what kinds of care your family is likely to need, is essential in selecting the best plan for your family. And these details may change from year to year. Health-Minder will automatically remind you at the end of each "policy year" to enter new information for the that year. After you complete the information for a new policy, it will be entered on the list of policies by policy number.

More and more people are joining managed care plans, such as Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), hoping to reduce health care expenses and to encourage more attention to preventive health care. Some employers offer HMO plans as an alternative to private insurance, and for many people it is the only option. If any member of the family is a member of an HMO or other managed care plan, be sure to fill in this information so that you have a readily accessible record of the name of the HMO, your health care record or file number, and details of co-payment requirements for you and, if applicable, your employer. (This option is not available for pets.)

Many managed care plans now have two options: an In-Plan option for when you elect to receive care from a provider who is a member of the plan, and an Out-of-Plan option for those occasions when you prefer to go to a provider who is not a plan member. The Out-of-Plan option (sometimes called "Point of Service" option), usually has deductibles for individuals and family, and coverage limits and perhaps deductibles and maximums for certain types of care. To enter the provisions of your managed care plan, press IN-PLAN DETAILS and/or OUT-OF-PLAN DETAILS buttons to bring up the Coverage by Expense Type Window (which is the same as for other insurance policies). Follow the same instructions as for insurance policies to enter the Amount You Pay, Annual or Lifetime Maxiums, and Deductibles for each expense type. Usually for the In-Plan option, the Amount You Pay will be some fixed dollar amount per occurrence, while the Amount You Pay for the Out-of-Plan option will be a percentage. If, for example, your plan covers 80% of a doctor's visit, double-click on the Office Visit row and enter ".20" as the Amount You Pay, and select "PERCENT". In-Plan options usually have no Personal or Family Deductibles, while Out-of-Plan options usually do. Be sure to read the provisions of your managed care plans carefully as you fill in these forms.

When you press the COST\CLAIM button to record a cost for a health care event, such as a doctor's visit, enter the fee for the service, and any payments you have made, including the required CoPayment amounts. If your HMO plan has an Out-of-Plan provision, which reimburses you for portions of fees to providers who are not members of the plan, enter any submissions, rejections, and refunds pertaining to this care event. When Health-Minder totals your health care costs for the year, your out-of-pocket amounts paid to the HMO, minus any refunds, will be shown as non-refunded amounts. This total may be useful in preparing tax information. Health-Minder keeps track of payments, submissions, rejections, and refunds for managed care plans just as it does for policies. You may press the PLAN STATUS button in the Health Maintenance Organizations Window to see the current totals of submissions and refunds as compared to Family Deductibles and Plan Maximums. Or press the COMPARE button to compare two plans or policies in terms of estimated out-of-pocket costs. Before you can do either of these things, you must fill out the required information about your managed care plan.

Before an emergency occurs, every one should take the time to prepare a history of their major illnesses, hospitalizations, and medications they have taken . Trying to remember these things under the stress of a sudden illness is difficult, and yet providing accurate information to your doctors is essential if you are to receive good medical care. To make entering this information as easy as possible, please enter these three kinds of information first:

Before entering information about prior illnesses, hospitalizations, medications, tests, and so on, it is a good idea to first enter the name and type of all the health care providers you can remember. As shown in the section called Entering Health Care Providers, enter the names of doctors, hospitals, surgeons, laboratories, pharmacies, therapists, and anyone else you can remember that have provided you, or any family member, with the health care you are about to record. If you forget someone, don't worry; you can do it at any time.

Now, take a moment to recall the illnesses or accidents that you want to record as part of your own, or a family member's, health history. First, select the person's name from the Family Member list in the Family Information Window. Then select the menu item SETUP|Member Illnesses. The Illnesses & Injuries History Window will appear.

In this window is a list of any of the selected person's illnesses that have already been entered, listed by date and name, with the most recent illness first. At first, this list will be empty until you have entered one or more illnesses. By "illness" we mean any diagnosis you have been given by a doctor, such as "tonsillitis" or "appendicitis", or any injury such as "broken arm" or "concussion". You need not enter information about every bout of flu or headache. Use your own judgment here. Was the illness one that has affected the person's life in some permanent way? Was it a chronic illness that required long-term treatment? Was it an injury, such as a broken hip, which required surgery or therapy? To see the information about any illness you have already entered, double click on the illness date. To add a new one, push the ADD button. If the very same illness recurs one or more times, you can indicate that fact by highlighting the name of the illness and pushing the RECUR button. Note that up at the top of the window is a pushbutton for selecting whether you want only the most recent occurrence of the illness, or all occurrences. This choice enables you to see just the most recent recurrence of an illness, if that is all you require.

To add an illness, push the ADD button to see the Data Entry Pane .

The first thing to do is to enter the Name of the illness. To help you with naming or spelling the name, Health-Minder  has provided a list of Examples of illness names. If the person whose medical history is being entered is female, be sure to indicate whether or not this is a GYNECOLOGICAL PROBLEM (one related to a female's reproductive system, such as a problem with her breasts or uterus or ovaries); this will change the examples from which to choose. Then, scroll down the list to see if the name of the illness is there, and select it. If it is not on the Examples list, type it in. Health-Minder can't check your spelling (there are too many disease names and variations of spellings), so try to enter it accurately. If you are not sure what the diagnosis is, give the illness or injury a name that best describes it (such as "shoulder pain"), and one that is different from other illnesses you have had; later, when a more accurate diagnosis is made, you can change the name. Health-Minder will update all the records associated with this particular illness to show the new name. The health care providers you have entered will show up in the Health Care Provider list. Select the one who made the diagnosis; if that provider is not on the list, push the ADD button next to the list and add it now. When you return from storing the new provider information in the Health Care Provider Window, that provider's name will now be on this list and you should select it now.

The next step is to indicate whether this was an injury or a sickness, and whether or not it was work-related, a car accident, and so on. This kind of information may be needed for disability claims, workmen's compensation, insurance, and so forth. You should also indicate how frequently this diagnosis recurs, especially if it is a chronic condition. Then press STORE to save all the information about this illness in the database. The names of these illnesses will be used in lists of Diagnosis names whenever you want to record a test or treatment or hospitalization, so it is a good idea to enter as many illness names in the person's history that you can remember.

Next, record the names of all important medications, the person has taken, either currently or in the past, by selecting the menu item SETUP|Member Medicines. You need not enter every kind of cough syrup or pain reliever; but be sure to enter any medication that caused an allergic reaction or had an unpleasant side-effect, any medication taken regularly for a significant period of time, or any drug that was experimental or could have possible long term effects. If a person is taking medicines now, and you are going to enter the prescription numbers and costs for this medicine, be sure to enter its name here and the health care provider who prescribed this medicine. This information is not the same as a prescriptionbecause you may have many prescriptions for the same medicine, each with a different prescription number, dosage, cost, date of purchase, and so on. To enter a prescription, you will need to choose MEDICAL CARE|Prescriptions.

For the medical history of a person, try to think of all the other significant health care events in the person's life up to now: pregnancies, vaccinations, hospitalizations, surgery, oral surgery, chemotherapy, breast biopsies, test results for HIV or tuberculosis or diabetes, and so on. Enter anything that may affect the person's health in the future, or that a doctor should know in order to diagnose a problem that might arise. Entering this information may seem tedious, but having knowledge of a person's complete health record can be of great help in saving time and costs of expensive tests when a new problem needs to be diagnosed. For each health care event, choose the MEDICAL CARE menu and the type of event, such as MEDICAL CARE|Vaccinations. Alternatively, you can chose MEDICAL CARE|Summary and then select the relevant medical history topics, one by one, to ADD/EDIT. In the Figure here,   the Tests topic was chosen. From this window, you may print a personal health history by pressing the REPORT button.

For the medical history of a pet, follow the same steps as for a person. Be sure you have entered the names of all veterinarians and veterinary hospitals you have used to care for your pets. Enter the names of major illnesses your pets have had, and the names of prescription medications they have taken. Then, try to think of all the other significant health care events in the pet's life up to now: pregnancies, vaccinations, hospitalizations, surgery, chemotherapy, biopsies, test results and so on. Enter anything that may affect the pet's health in the future, or that a doctor should know in order to diagnose a problem that might arise. Choose MEDICAL CARE|Summary to update the history and to see the most recent dates for tests, checkups, and so on.