Making healthcare decisions is hard, but making the right choices has never mattered more. Healthcare Choices: 5 Steps to Getting the Care You Want and Need gives you the tools you need to choose the best medical care—for you. Archelle Georgiou, MD, explains her CARES model, the formula she developed to help family, friends, and thousands of television viewers make smart healthcare decisions that balance the best medical options with individual preferences. Using more than 30 real-life stories and insider tips, she demonstrates how to use this step-by-step guide to access the medical information you need to evaluate your options and make well-informed choices. Whether you are addressing a life-threatening illness, self-managing a minor ailment, selecting a doctor, or buying insurance, Georgiou’s roadmap shows you how to be an active participant in your care. Her “go to” approach describes how to: ·Identify all treatment options for an illness, including those not mentioned by your doctor. ·Make treatment decisions that reflect your priorities and preferences. ·Find the best doctor to treat your condition. ·Communicate with your doctor and make shared treatment decisions. ·Choose the health insurance plan that’s right for you. Maintain a voice in your lifestyle as you age. Healthcare Choices will give you the confidence to advocate for the healthcare you want, need, and deserve.

"Georgiou, an M.D. who served as chief medical officer of United HealthCare, knows her subject matter. To help Americans make good medical choices, she recommends following her own CARES model. She presents its five sensible, empowering steps: understand your condition, know your alternatives, respect your preferences, evaluate your options, and start taking action. A compelling storyteller, Georgiou, who also reports on health news for a Twin Cities television station, includes questions from the public about everything from bad breath to toenail fungus along with her responses. She also uses the power of numbers effectively. Noting, for example, that 40 websites provide 'report cards' on physicians, but only 23 percent of Americans have used them. All doctors are not created equal, Georgiou reminds us, so check them out (HealthGrades.com is a good start). She also points out that only half of patients takes medications as prescribed, and she offers interesting, relevant trivia. The most common reason for an office visit? A cough. What’s the leading cause of bankruptcy? Unpaid medical bills. Georgiou provides readers with sound tools to be better-informed patients." - Booklist

"Archelle Georgiou, MD’s book is outstanding. . . . As a medical professional with 39 years of experience dealing with multiple family medical issues, I approached this review with a healthy dose of skepticism and doubt that any book intended for the public could actually help navigate the mess that our health care system has become. I was wrong. This book is an easy read for consumers and clinicians, offers excellent advice, and would make a wonderful textbook for an introductory course on effective health care decision making for a wide variety of audiences." - Family Medicine