The cost of health care for some of the more health illiterate patients in the United States is almost 50 percent higher than necessary, according to research reported Wednesday.
Unnecessary hospitalizations, delays in treatment and problems with prescriptions are among the costly problems that crop up when people do not understand their care and doctors fail to reach out to their patients, the research showed. The numbers add up to between 3 percent and 5 percent of personal health care costs nationwide, said Robert B. Friedland, Ph.D., of Georgetown University, who estimated that $50 billion to $73 billion could be saved each year by improving health literacy.
From Health Behavior News Service:HEALTH ILLITERACY ADDS BILLIONS TO HEALTH CARE COSTS
By Becky Ham, Staff Writer
Health Behavior News Service
WASHINGTON — The cost of health care for some of the more health illiterate patients in the United States is almost 50 percent higher than necessary, according to research reported Wednesday.
Unnecessary hospitalizations, delays in treatment and problems with prescriptions are among the costly problems that crop up when people do not understand their care and doctors fail to reach out to their patients, the research showed.
The numbers add up to between 3 percent and 5 percent of personal health care costs nationwide, said Robert B. Friedland, Ph.D., of Georgetown University, who estimated that $50 billion to $73 billion could be saved each year by improving health literacy.
Average health care costs for health illiterate Medicaid patients are 47 percent higher than those for all other patients, he said at an American Medical Association conference on health literacy and communication. Costs for Medicare patients are 12 percent higher, and those with private insurance and poor literacy skills pay almost 10 percent more than other patients.
But for 40 million health-illiterate Americans, the problem goes beyond reading a prescription bottle or understanding a doctor?s orders. Even the most educated patients can find themselves confused by the complicated information that goes along with modern medicine, he said.
?Earning a college degree in 1925 tells us little about gathering and using information today,? said Friedland.
For Ann and Charlie Martin of Louisiana, making sense of their health care is almost a full-time job. The couple, married for 47 years, takes 19 pills between them to manage high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes. On top of that, they make all the health care arrangements for Ann Martin?s 94-year-old mother and 65-year-old brother.
Ann Martin showed off her checkbook calendar, which she calls her ?bible,? with its daily reminders to pick up pills and schedule appointments with the family?s 11 different doctors.
?She is the one who keeps all of us in this book. If we ever lose this book, we?re gone,? Charlie Martin said.
Betty Walker, a lupus and rheumatoid arthritis patient with dyslexia, said she hid her problems with filling out forms and reading pamphlets about her diseases by pretending to forget her glasses or waiting until she was home where her children could read to her.
?I was afraid, you know, I was ashamed. And I was angry. Angry! I had all these emotions at one time. It was just hurtful to me that everyone I knew was different from me, everybody I knew could read well,? she said.
But Walker said that she is no longer afraid to ask for help.
?We?ve got to get past the shame of it all. Personally, I?ve worked past that, but I know that there?s a lot of people that haven?t,? she said.