Lisa Zamosky - Healthcare, Insurance, and You: The Savvy Consumer’s Guide

HEALTHCARE, INSURANCE, AND YOU

THE SAVVY CONSUMERS GUIDE

_____________

Lisa Zamosky

Healthcare, Insurance, and You: The Savvy Consumers Guide

Copyright 2013 by Lisa Zamosky

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ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4302-4953-5

ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4302-4954-2

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Contents

About the Author

Lisa Zamosky is a healthcare journalist who has been writing about how to access and pay for healthcare for more than 10 years. She is a consumer health columnist for the Los Angeles Times, a health reform expert for WebMD, and a correspondent for two news services of the California Healthcare Foundation. Her work has also been published in Reuters, USA Today, MSNBC, Health.com , Chicago Tribune, and The Baltimore Sun, among other publications. Zamosky previously spent a decade working in the healthcare industry, during which time she developed benefit plans for Fortune 500 companies and state governments and oversaw provider network operations for several states throughout the Northeast for one of the countrys largest health insurance companies.

Acknowledgments

Id like to thank the following people for encouraging me to undertake and complete this book. To start, it was Apress Jeff Olson, who suggested I take on this project and gave me the opportunity to do so. He, along with Rita Fernando and her team of editors, provided me with much-needed support along the way.

A note of great appreciation goes out to colleagues who read parts of this manuscript at various stages and provided valuable feedback: Valarie Basheda, Douglas Dalrymple, Ross Blair, Linda Blumberg, and Salynn Boyles.

Special thanks to Sande Drew, who connected me with needed resources, provided ideas and inspiration, and who through this process has been a constant reminder that there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

Im always grateful to my dear neighbor and friend Adam Reingold, who probably forgets it was he who got me started as a professional writer, and whose encouragement throughout the years has helped to keep me moving toward my goals.