Kith Kin

When we pack for a trip, we often focus on essentials like clothes, toiletries, and travel documents. But there's one crucial thing many overlook: their health information. Here’s why taking your health information with you on your travels is so important: 🏥 Emergency Preparedness: Accidents and illnesses can happen anywhere. Having your medical history, current medications, allergies, and emergency contacts readily available can be lifesaving in urgent situations. 👨⚕️ Continuity of Care: If you need medical attention while away from home, healthcare providers can offer better care when they have access to your health information. This ensures they understand your medical background and current treatment plans. 💊 Medication Management: Keeping a list of your medications, including dosages and schedules, helps avoid any confusion or missed doses, ensuring you stay on track with your health regimen. 👩⚕️ Chronic Conditions: If you have chronic conditions like diabetes, asthma, or heart disease, carrying your health information helps manage these effectively during your travels, reducing the risk of complications. 🗃 Health Insurance Details: Ensure you have your health insurance information and understand what coverage you have while traveling. This can ease the process of receiving care and handling any financial aspects. 😌 Peace of Mind: Knowing that you have all your vital health information at hand provides peace of mind, allowing you to enjoy your trip without unnecessary worry. Take 5 minutes before your next trip to check your Kith Kin KinKeeper app for your essential health information. Your health and safety are worth it – Future You will thank you! 🌍✨ #TravelSmart #HealthFirst #TravelPrepared #SafetyFirst #HealthInformation #TravelTips #WellnessOnTheGo #Healthcare #TravelSafety #PeaceOfMind #ContinuityOfCare

Hoping you're all off to somewhere fun this summer - here's a quick tip to make sure you're "fully" packed for your travels . . .

We're thrilled to part of Beanstalk Benefits' innovative solution that puts the employee in control of developing their suite of benefits. We know that all the KinKeepers out there have unique needs for themselves and their loved ones and we're excited they have a solution that puts them back in control (you know how much we care about that!!) #EmployeeBenefits #WorkplaceWellness #EmployeePerks #HealthBenefits #WorkLifeBalance #EmployeeEngagement #HR #HumanResources #EmployeeWellbeing #TotalRewards #EmployeeSatisfaction #BenefitsManagement #TalentRetention

Calling all KinKeepers . . .

If you're the KinKeeper in your circle, one or more of these may sound familiar . . . 👨⚕️ Your spouse: What’s the name of Tyler’s pediatrician again and which location does he usually go to? What did you want me to ask the doctor? 💊 Your mom: I have a hand-written medication list (started in 1987 🙂) in my “pocketbook” - can you change the dosage of my blood pressure pills and add that new iron supplement?   💗 Your siblings: Where are the results from Dad’s last EKG…where did he get it done? What else do we need to take to meet with his new cardiologist? Getting information in the hands of the right people at the right place and time isn’t easy. At Kith Kin, we believe you should be able to choose what you share and who you share it with, whether that’s family or “framily” (friends that are like family). So here’s this week’s tip: Do a very quick map of the 5 (or so) people in your inner circle (or chat with Glenna Crooks, Ph.D. to help you deeper dive) . Figure out who needs to know what “stuff” (meds, conditions, doctors, etc.). Save that list for next week’s tip so we can start to make it easier for you to share that information…and share the load.  Take 5 minutes…Future You (even next week’s you) will thank you. #familycaregiving #kinkeeping #familyhealth #consumerhealth #employerbenefits #patientengagement 

A startling 53 million Americans are caring for a disabled adult or child, and this “silent army” goes largely unnoticed and unsupported. We’re thrilled to see that people are starting to pay attention to these caregivers and working to help support them, and it certainly helps to have some star power behind it! Produced by Bradley Cooper, who himself became a caregiver to his father after his cancer diagnosis, The Caregiving Project aims to explore issues around the burden of caregiving and the challenges we’ll need to face as the number of people needing care increases in the coming years. It's coming to PBS in 2025 and we can’t wait to see it!  #caregiversupport #caregiverspotlight

How many times have you arrived at the groomer without the vaccination records? Or can’t remember when you last did the flea and tick treatment? Or need vet records for travel or obtaining pet insurance? And then there’s the dog with cruciate ligament surgery or the cat with feline leukemia. Or maybe you’re just conveying information to pet sitters about how to care for your furry or feathered loved ones.  Here’s this week’s tip: Create a profile for your pet in KinKeeper. Keep it simple and add as you go, but here are some things you may want to start with: 🐕 Add the name and contact information for the vet. 💉 Snap a pic of whatever records you have (including vaccinations) and upload it to the app - you can request copies at the end of each visit. 💊 Track current medications or treatments and when they were given. (Quick tip: Making a note of where you purchased them at the lowest cost is really helpful when you need to buy it again.) 📒 Create a topic with information for the pet sitter to avoid repeating it each time. Then you’ll have all the information you need at your fingertips next time you visit the vet, groomer, pet sitter, etc. Take 5 minutes…Future You will thank you! 🐶 #pethealth #vetrecords #petparents

Is family caregiving putting a strain on your relationship with your siblings?  There’s usually one “KinKeeper” who holds it all together, making sure everyone does what they need to do and knows what they need to know. They have all the stuff and know all the stuff, so they end up being in charge of all the stuff.  It can be exhausting and isolating, and it’s all too often a source of conflict among family members. If you’re reading this, you may very well be that KinKeeper in your family, so this week’s tip is for you. A common refrain (sometimes excuse) among family members is that they can’t help because they don’t have the information they need. So KinKeepers spend a lot of time helping people help them. So here’s a recommendation as to how to share information so you can share the load. Create a profile in your KinKeeper app for your aging parent (if you haven’t already) and share it with your siblings. Make them contributors when you set permissions so that they can add information but not edit (or screw up 🙂) the information you’ve gathered and organized. Start with the following basic information: ✔ Copy of their drivers license (you’d be amazed at how often you’ll need this) ✔ Copy of their Medicare and/or other insurance card ✔ Current Medication list ✔ Current (most important) Doctors ✔ Serious Allergies ✔ Active Conditions And please don’t add to your personal workload by feeling like you need to put everything in for everyone. Instead, next time someone asks you for something, instead of texting or emailing it to them, put it in KinKeeper so they and others who may need that again can “self-serve” in the future. It reduces the excuses…and the family friction.  Take 5 minutes - Future You will thank you!      

Are you dealing with the Black Hole of Health Information for kids between the ages of 13-18 when your access to their online health information seems to simply vanish? At 18, your child becomes a legal adult, which means they’re required to have their own patient portal and become the only person a practitioner will share information with (unless you have a HIPAA Consent Form or Healthcare Power of Attorney.)  Privacy regulations vary from state to state regarding when that minor’s right to privacy begins and what information cannot be shared with a parent or guardian without consent (information like mental health, reproductive health, etc.). Many patient portals do not have the capability to identify which information falls into the category of being protected at an age earlier than 18 and also cannot determine which state’s laws apply to your treatment depending on your current or past addresses and the location(s) of your practitioner(s). As a result, most portals simply eliminate all access during roughly ages 13-18 to avoid the risk of violating a minor’s privacy in the eyes of the law.  So…how do you fill the void? Add appointments to KinKeeper so you remember where you went and the topic of the visit. And request copies of test results or other documentation before you leave each visit. Snap pics or scan them into KinKeeper so you can find them when you need them.  Take 5 minutes after each visit - Future You Will Thank You (and maybe even your kids in the future…you know, when they finally figure out they should have been thanking you for stuff all along!!)   #teenagers #consumerhealth #healthtech #patientportals