Help Desk → Insurance → Insurance Guide → What You Should Know About Health Insurance.
2.1. What You Should Know About Health Insurance.
What You Should Know About Health Insurance.
Guidelines for Persons with a Spinal Cord Injury.
Knowledge is power; it enables you to become more effective in daily living! Become an educated consumer of health insurance and your own best advocate. This information is compiled for persons with spinal cord injuries/diseases (SCI/D) and other disabilities and their families. It gives a basic overview of information that an individual needs to know to become a more enlightened consumer of health insurance. For people with SCI/D, achieving and maintaining optimal health and preventing secondary conditions is vital. Access to quality healthcare often requires an understanding of the following topics, all included on this website:
- Understanding your rights as a health consumer
- Guidelines for selecting an insurance policy and understanding its provisions
- Steps to negotiate the insurance maze
- Frequently asked questions
- General guidelines for the appeals process (if your claim is denied)
- Suggestions if you have been unable to obtain health insurance
- Appendices of Helpful Resources
- Where to find your State Insurance Commissioner
- Where to find information about changing Federal and State laws that affect health insurance coverage
c.
- Booklets, offices pertaining to health insurance.
As with any information dealing with this subject, it is impossible to include and address all concerns one may have about health insurance. This website is not intended to cover every situation or every nuance of insurance law. Highly technical questions that you may have should be directed to your insurance agent, personnel specialist, or your own lawyer. Hopefully, you will gain the basic knowledge that you need to exercise your rights regarding health insurance and your own plan.
by Charleene R. Frazier, R.N., M.S.
NSCIA Resource Center Associate, SCI Nurse Consultant
National Spinal Cord Injury Association wishes to thank Medtronic, Inc., who has generously provided a grant to underwrite the costs of the development of these guidelines and for their commitment to persons with spinal cord injury.
NSCIA acknowledges, with appreciation, the contributions of Bernadette and Robert Mauro in the early stages of the development of these guidelines.
