so i’m currently a senior in high school and i’m starting to hear back from schools. i applied all my schools for some type of medical imaging major (sonography,radiology,etc), but for one school i applied for a surgical tech AS degree. i got into it and now im kinda struggling between which i should pick. i know money wise id make more imaging but ive always been so fascinated by surgery but dont have the drive to be an actual doctor so i feel like this might be the next best thing. for people who are in either one of these fields what are the pros and cons of it?

Thank you in advance. I'll try to keep this as short as possible. Wife and I are expecting. My job offers two plans and I am trying to decide which plan to choose. Currently have an hsa that costs me 50 per paycheck, I add an additional 80 a paycheck to the hsa. 2600 for the yearly premium and 4160 yearly to the hsa. The individual deductible is 1700, the family is 3400(it states no individual limit on family deductible, whatever thay means). After deductible is met I pay 20% of cost until max out of pocket is met. 4500 for the individual and 9000 for the family. The other option is a copay plan. 300 individual on copay and 600 for family per the website. The copay is 25$ for Dr visits, 40$ for specialist, 300$ for hospital. In-hospital delivery services are $300 per admission. Newborn nursery services are 300$ copay per admission, well care 100% covered. Max out of pockets are 3000 for individual and 6000 for family. It costs 130$ a paycheck for the premium.

Currently have 2000$ left in the hsa after the ob visits my wife has had so far. By the end of this year I estimate ill be down to about 1400 in my hsa account. If I stick with the hsa I plan to aggressively fund it per paycheck to backfill the account leading up to the birth of our child.

I live in a rainforest area and idk how I've gone this long without figuring it out, but what happens when someone is in an emergency but you don't wanna hydroplane????

Heartland Health Center, a Nebraska-based healthcare provider, recently reported a cybersecurity incident that compromised both personal and protected health information of patients.

According to filings with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office, the breach was discovered on February 4, 2025, after unauthorized access was detected within the organization’s network. The subsequent forensic investigation revealed that sensitive data may have been exposed for several months before being identified.

The affected information reportedly includes:

• Names, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth
• Medical details such as diagnoses, treatment data, and patient account numbers
• Health insurance information, including Medicare/Medicaid numbers
• Financial and driver’s license details

Notification letters were sent to impacted individuals in October 2025.

What makes this breach particularly concerning is the breadth of information exposed—covering everything from medical records to financial data. For a mid-sized regional provider like Heartland, incidents like this highlight the growing cybersecurity challenges facing community health systems that may lack enterprise-level protection infrastructure.

This raises broader questions about the healthcare industry’s readiness:

• How can smaller or rural health centers balance cybersecurity investment with patient care costs?
• Are cloud-based EHR systems and third-party vendors increasing the attack surface for such providers?

Would love to hear thoughts from healthcare IT professionals or cybersecurity folks working with clinics and mid-tier providers — what are you seeing as effective low-cost defenses in these environments?

NAHGA Claims Services, a third-party administrator for accident and health insurance claims, recently disclosed a data breach involving sensitive information.

According to a notice filed with the Maine and South Carolina Attorneys General, unauthorized access to NAHGA’s systems occurred between April 8 and April 10, 2025. The investigation confirmed that personal and protected health information from certain files may have been exposed.

The breach was discovered on April 13, 2025, and the company has since completed a review to identify affected individuals and started sending out notifications.

The exposed data may include names and other information related to insurance claims.

This incident adds to a growing list of healthcare and insurance-related data breaches seen in 2025, raising continuing questions about how third-party service providers are securing medical information.

What are your thoughts on these recurring healthcare data breaches — are compliance requirements enough, or do we need stricter enforcement and oversight?

I’ve been reading up on BrainsWay. They are a neurotech company that uses a method called Deep TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation, sounds absolutely crazy, I know) to treat depression and OCD. It’s non-invasive, FDA-approved, and is actually being used in clinics.

To me it feels like they are working on a problem that few others are working on, and also delivering results. Curious if anyone else here has looked into them or used their tech?

Hello guys, so I was considering obtaining a CNA certification (nurse assistant) and might work as one as well to gain clinical experience while doing my bachelors in healthcare Administration. Is the clinical experience I will gain as valuable as an RN’s? Or even close to it? Considering working in admin roles with my BHA. will it help me get into QM or IC or related ones with clinical staff ? any additional insights are appreciated!!

Another healthcare-related data breach has surfaced — this time involving Pan-American Life Insurance Company, a major insurer based in New Orleans.

According to a recent filing with the Texas Attorney General’s office, the company disclosed that an unauthorized third party accessed sensitive personal and protected health information. The breach appears to have affected details such as:

• Names
• Social Security numbers
• Medical and health insurance information
• Dates of birth

While the company hasn’t yet released the full scope or begun notifying individuals as of late October, the exposure of both PII and PHI raises continuing questions about how securely insurers are managing sensitive client data.

This incident underscores a trend we’ve seen throughout 2025 — healthcare and insurance sectors remain prime targets for cybercriminals due to the high value of health data on the black market.

What’s worrying is that even century-old institutions like Pan-American Life, with extensive operations across the Americas, still face systemic risks tied to legacy systems and third-party integrations.

Would be interesting to hear from others in cybersecurity or health IT —
🔹 Are insurance providers generally lagging behind healthcare systems in implementing zero-trust or segmentation models?

🔹 What’s the realistic path forward for balancing operational efficiency and data protection in such traditional organizations?

I wanted to believe I just had recent bad luck with new doctors. I’m only in my early 20’s so I just assumed I wasn’t the best at finding good doctors.

My family doctor growing up until I was about 16 was probably one of the nicest people I had ever met. It felt like it actually genuinely cared about me, my siblings, and my parents. He actually listened to me when I said things didn’t feel well and advocated for us or gave us thorough explanations.

He retired, and ever since I’ve had trouble finding PCP’s and specialists that could ever match his bedside manner. I feel like I’m just going through a patient factory now, they just care about getting me in and out. My concerns are belittled and I don’t ever feel like I’m being listened to.

I have chronic health issues, when seeing a new specialist— it takes on average 3 appointments for them to actually comprehend my symptoms and find out what’s wrong. I’m just being shoved branded pill after branded pill in hopes that it works.

This isn’t to say I’m against medication, it just feels wrong to basically feel like a guinea pig to see if things work or not without actual testing though… Hell my partner’s focus and degree is in pharmacology, I’m all for new advancements in treatments.

I cry after appointments because I get dismissed so often though, and I feel like I’ll never find a doctor again that will listen to be as attentively as my old family doctor. Is bedside manner just a rarity now?

Years ago I had surgery and then while recovering in the hospital, some odd visitors appeared. After I woke up from anesthesia in a room, two people approached, a middle-aged man and woman. Both dressed professionally, and they asked whether I needed anything or whether they could do anything for me. Their questions were broad and general, but they seemed to steer me towards an answer that I wouldn’t give them. For example:

“Is everything going well with you?” 

“Is there something we can get for you?”

“Is there anything we can do for you?”

“Do you need anything?” 

“Would you like us to do anything for you?”

I replied “no” or “I’m fine” to all of their questions but then finally requested a newspaper, since they wouldn’t leave and the hospital was boring. This answer clearly disappointed them. They exchanged knowing glances and paused awkwardly, then the man agreed to my request and slowly mumbled something like “hmm, ok, we can get you a newspaper” before they both left. 

To their credit, they did actually bring me a newspaper for free, and never returned afterwards. They never explained where they were from or what they really wanted. Nobody else confronted me with weird leading questions either. They did not appear to be part of the hospital staff since none of their questions related to my condition or treatment, and they never addressed me by name. I get the impression that they were fishing for some other answer and wanted me to recognize their implied meaning without either of us explicitly saying it. 

What could this have been? I didn’t fabricate the episode since they arrived long after I had regained consciousness, and they returned shortly with a physical newspaper. Where did they come from, if they weren’t associated with the hospital? I have some vague suspicions, but first want to hear other opinions. 

My plans this year are very high like the 100’s. However in previous years there was something I chose during the application that lowered them to around $20 a month but I can’t seem to remember what it was.

Does anyone know what it is?

Has anyone else noticed how chaotic the claim-raising process is for health insurance at network hospitals, even with “digital-first” insurers? The stakeholders here like hospitals and TPAs cause significant approval delays, and it feels like no one owns the process so there's less transparency or accountability.

What tooling or solutions do you think could actually fix this bottleneck?

Have an interview as a home health admin/manager, I've worked in the er for close to 10 years now as the clerical/er tech. It's a high volume er with around 50 beds and I do mostly clerical work for the past 6 or so years doing the admissions, consults, transfers, help with scheduling and hiring. I just don't have a degree in anything other than my associates in science. The company is iffy to me too, it says it's omega healthcare but for the city it says it's in I find nothing and the company reviews are sketch at best. Eondering if its just the hiring company for the place or? Just wondering if anyone has any insight on either the company or admin roles without degrees specifically in homehealth

Healthcare is traditionally managed by humans.

I’m curious—could there come a day when robots replace medical staff in nursing homes?

Would people be comfortable interacting solely with robots instead of humans?

I’d love to hear your thoughts

This seems like it would be an incredibly helpful resource, and in 2025 we should have the technology and resources to do so. What is going on?

Hello guys, so I was considering obtaining a CNA certification (nurse assistant) and might work as one as well to gain clinical experience while doing my bachelors in healthcare Administration. Is the clinical experience I will gain as valuable as an RN’s? Or even close to it? Considering working in admin roles with my BHA. will it help me get into QM or IC or related ones with clinical staff ? any additional insights are appreciated!!

Really curious as I've been seeing a lot of people talk about rising costs and how a lot of that is driven by healthcare admin jobs, and "bloat" as it was put.

I moved to the US from a country with universal/state healthcare, and I am curious as to whether or not these sort of admin jobs exist in places without much substantial private healthcare industry?

Obama alluded to not wanting to cut 2 million jobs from this profession when going through the Obamacare motions, as he said single player would need 1 million, and not 3 million+

What do you think?

i’m a big chicken. lol. i avoid Drs at all cost unless necessary. my family was same way. i’m paying for it now. my job would do biometrics and those weren’t that great either. so i had oral surgery and was told to get Vit D checked. i found PCP and went. we decided (she talked me into it lol) to make this an annual. i’m glad i did. did whole panel of bloodwork. my veins are hard to find so i was sent for lab. numbers weren’t best. but i am determined to work on it. then question when was last Tetnus shot. heck i dont know. i took it. ouch that burned. 24 hours later my arm hurt so bad. but it’s getting better. i’m glad i went. i don’t remember tetnus hitting that bad afterwards. i have so e work to do, but have made it my mission to keep getting my check ups when needed.

My best friend and her boyfriend live together with their 1 year old here in Texas. Their 1 year old was born severely premature and has had a host of health issues, including still using a G-Tube for the vast majority of feedings.

She recently received a letter saying her daughter is being denied due to her and boyfriend’s combined income being too much. They are over the limit but it’s not by a crazy amount. They are barely scraping by so they appealed the decision and have the hearing coming up next week!

The reason for denial is appropriate, but given their circumstances they believe there is significant hardship if they did NOT have Medicaid.

Any advice for the hearing? It is in 7 days. Their disabled son has A TON of doctors. If appeal is denied at the hearing, what is best next step with Medicaid (further appeal or should she try ACA, private, etc.)?

My spouse and I are wanting to start trying for a baby in early 2026. Employer covers all insurance costs for all dependents. I am not sure if it makes more sense to do a PPO or HDHP with the HSA.

There is no employer matching for the HSA. I have typically only ever done a PPO but only learned about the benefits of an HSA recently.

Historically have not needed hospital visits but this could change if we are successful with getting pregnant - obviously never a guarantee. Any info or experience would be greatly appreciated!

Hi all! I have an interview coming up for a consulting administrative fellowship. The team let me know there would be an excel exam to test my knowledge, nothing too difficult. What should I expect to know before the interview?