Know Your Insurance Coverage and Save Big!
The following is a guest post by my wife, Mary. My comments are in bold.
Health Insurance is a privilege, something that shouldn’t be taken for granted, but also something that is earned by many as a benefit of being employed by a company that shells out thousands of dollars per employee to subsidize the insurance and ensure that their employees are taken care of. Despite whatever plan an individual chooses the basic concept remains the same; pay co-pay up front to obtain services from your doctor of choice (either in-network or out-of-network).
I consider myself to be a healthy person who exercises, maintains a good weight, eats well balanced meals, and listens to my body. But along with these habits comes another money saving and sometimes even life-saving choice to have annual physicals with my primary care doctor. In physicals the doctor runs blood work, checks for cancer and overall health. Being in my twenties, my health is something I want to stay on top of in order to treat any possibly issues now before they could become a huge roadblock. Aside from that any early sign of cancer could save my life, let alone $$. Unfortunately, this is something that many Americans opt out of to cut costs but something relatively inexpensive considering the potential health complications that could spiral out of control if not caught sooner rather than later. Preventative Healthcare is not something that should be taken lightly, even if you think you are healthy.
At my most recent physical this past December I paid my $25 co-pay and left as usual. Surprisingly this past week I received a bill from my doctor’s office for 2 lab tests totaling to $160. I was about to call their office with my Flex spending card in hand when I thought that maybe I should speak to my insurance company about why they didn’t cover these 2 tests. They didn’t seem out of the ordinary to me and I was “in-network.”
After spending a total of 30 minutes between talking with my doctor’s billing office and then my insurance company, the insurance company finally admitted their “mistake” and I was able to save myself $160. I was furious that my insurance company was “cherry picking” my health bills. When challenged the operator from the insurance company actually agreed that if I had not called to dispute the charges I would end up flipping their bill because of a “mistake.” So although having health insurance is a privilege, just realize your health care provider might try to cut corners any way they can and it is up to you to clean up their mess.
Mary’s story exemplifies being “On The Ball,” one of The 7 Effective Habits of Highly Frugal People . By knowing what our insurance covers, she successfully challenged a charge and ended up saving us $160!
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March 5th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Mary, thanks for covering this topic. A similar thing happened to me this week. My eye-care provider’s EOB and my eye doctor’s bill charges did not match. It turned out to be a mistake by my eye doctor, but it never would have been corrected if I didn’t make a few phone calls. $40 for 30 minutes of coordination works for me!
Medical billing can be so complex and filled with jargon. Just another reason why consumers of health care need to be actively engaged with their treatment, billing and benefits. Just yesterday, I found out my dental insurance covers orthodontics… Sometimes docs and insurance admins make mistakes, but there still are “golden” benefits out there and really sharp ways to make the most of your FSA/HSA money.
Would love to see you guys cover more on health management – being smart, getting the most bang for your buck!
March 19th, 2009 at 6:12 am
This kind of things happened to me also. My doctor billed me $200 but mismatched with the insurance cover bill. After so many visits and clarifications I got over this problem. Better if there is a insurance management system in place so as to make everything online based!