The Start of It All

Hello, and welcome to my first blog post!  Throughout my blog, I will be trying to compare what is going in the Health Care world, to my personal life, as well as my goals and aspirations for my future career. A little bit of background about myself: my ultimate career goal is to become a Radiation Therapist.  In the fall of my Freshman year of college, I attended Suffolk University in Boston. I had explored many majors upon attending, however, nothing really stuck out to me.  I was very nervous and confused, because I was going into a brand new chapter of my life with no idea on what I wanted to pursue.  Until one day, with the help of my extremely productive mother, I found the program for me.  Suffolk has a very unique program strictly for radiation therapy. Since my mother is in the health care field, she always has pushed me in that direction. I soon realized, one of the best fields to be in is the health care field.  I have always been interested in the cancer aspect of health.  Since I was younger, I always said I wanted to “help people” when I get older.  That is a very broad statement, I know, but knowing multiple people close to me suffering from cancer, this major just seemed fitting.  Although I enjoyed being in the major and taking the core classes, after first semester, I decided Suffolk was not the all-around right fit for me.  That is when I decided to transfer to UNH in the Spring.  Since there was no program here specified for radiation therapy, I chose a new major that would keep me involved in health care still, Health Management and Policy.  And now, I am here. 

I have learned so much about health care since I transferred into the HMP major.  Even though I am looking to do more of a clinical career, all the information that I am learning in these classes will help me benefit and excel in any program.  I will need to know this information about health care for any future jobs, as well for my own knowledge about how the world stays healthy.  I am mainly focused on how health care and cancer intertwine with each other.      

In this specific blog post, I briefly focused on a few facts about the relationship between the health care system and radiation therapy. More specifically, the health care or insurance background to what all cancer patients deal with on day-to-day basis; on top of feeling extremely sick.  On the mdicare.gov website, I found the first facts I have read about the coverage for patients receiving radiation therapy specifically. I read that “Medicare Part A (Hospital Insurance) covers radiation therapy for hospital inpatients. Medicare Part B (Medical Insurance) covers this therapy for outpatients or patients in freestanding clinics” “All people with Medicare Part A and/or Part B are covered”. (The Official U.S. Government Site for Medicare-Radiation Therapy).   This information is what I assumed would be the insurance coverage plan for patients receiving this type of therapy.  In certain cases, doctors may require the patient to get more services than Medicare covers, and that is when the patient will pay some or most of the costs. These are just small facts about other things cancer patients have to worry about, other than the main goal; them becoming cancer free! 

https://www.medicare.gov/coverage/radiation-therapy.html