I recently received a bill from the hospital for an outpatient procedure I had done in April. The hospital billed my insurance, which is a group policy through a company plan. After determining what my insurance covered, I was sent a bill for the difference. My bill was for 30%. That’s right, 30%. Due immediately.

As I mentioned previously, I am insured through a company plan who switched insurance companies in January. The previous insurance would have covered most of the bill. I decided to call our current insurance company to look into this. They proceeded to ask if I read the policy (I have not since I never saw one).

In a nutshell, it was explained to me that for the company to continue to offer affordable insurance the deductible was raised. In addition, there is a 30% out of pocket payment to a non-network-PPO. A PPO (which is what I have) is the type of insurance where you can select your own doctor, but if they are not in the “network”, insurance only covers 70%. If you use a doctor in the “network”, insurance would cover more of the visit and your out of pocket expense would be less.

I asked how I was supposed to know if the outpatient center was in or out of the “network” and was shocked when this was explained that it I had better check first.

In light of this and what is happening over all in the rise of medical costs, here are 6 strategies to help you cut cost and gain more control of your health care.

1. Read your insurance policy. Know what and what is not covered before you get a procedure done. Also, if you have a “network” with your plan, find out if the doctor and/or hospital are in it so there are no surprises.
2. Compare the costs before having a procedure done. There are two hospitals in my area where I live and believe or not they are not priced the same!
3. Make sure the doctors, surgeons, anesthesiologist, etc. are a part of your network. Otherwise factor in these additional costs.
4. Review your bills. I found two mistakes on my bill that saved me several hundred dollars.
5. Go with Generic prescriptions, they are (most of the time) cheaper.
6. Focus on taking care of yourself everyday and relieving stress. When we are run down, we get sick easier. Change your diet, exercise, stop smoking, etc. It will improve your health and might just help you keep your insurance costs down.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 12:04 am and is filed under General Interests. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.