Adviser LeadingAge New York Summer 2015 July 2015 | Page 27

Health What

Health Literacy Matters
It will:

(Continued from page 25)

affluent professionals living in a
geriatric retirement community
found that 30 percent scored
poorly on a test of functional
literacy in healthcare situations.
These patients may be the most
difficult to identify, as they
generally have developed a range
of coping skills to hide their
difficulties from family, business
colleagues and their healthcare
providers”

...lower
emergency
room trips and
hospitalizations...

...help

...prevent
illness...

...allow for

Learning to prevent illness,
control
proper use of
lowering emergency room
health care
medication...
trips and hospitalizations,
costs...
using medication properly and
learning to recognize the dying
...provide the best care possible
process are keys to controlling
for every senior
health care costs as well as
helping people reach the end of
their life by sliding into home
plate and cheering loudly! Communication and prevention are the keys to
excellent medical care in most of the world. The United State historically
put little emphasis on prevention. In fact, for many years Americans carried
hospitalization only policies driven by the fear of big hospital bills for medical
emergencies. They didn’t think about, nor take advantage of, the future
savings that can be afforded through the preventative care that insurers will
cover. In the long term, this is a costly mistake.
(See Health What on page 27)

National MedTrans Network & IPA

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