10 Ways to Reduce Your Medical Costs with Personal Bills Tracking
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To anyone who just completed “year end enrollment” in their employer’s health insurance plan, and anyone who’s paying for their own medical insurance, it’s clear that costs are only going up. According to the National Coalition on Health Care, Americans spend $6,700 per person annually on health care.
So it makes sense to try to cut costs wherever you can without putting your health at risk. Here are 10 ways to reduce your medical costs while keeping yourself healthy.
At the Doctor’s Office
- Ask for generic drugs. Generic drugs are cheaper than name brands. Busy doctors forget about alternatives, so don’t hesitate to ask. Check out Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s list of top prescription drugs and their generic equivalents. For pain medicine, find out if there’s an over-the-counter instead.
- Avoid unnecessary tests and visits. If you move or change doctors, take copies of test results with you. Always talk to your doctor first, but some follow-up visits and tests are unnecessary-like annual EKGs. Call instead.
- Barter for services. You could trade plumbing, legal advice, or tax preparation, etc. in exchange for medical services. A hospital in Brooklyn has a program that barters for medical care. Craigslist also has ads offering bartered medical services.
- Get free samples. Doctors, dentists, and optometrists get tons of samples from manufacturers hoping to increase brand awareness. Ask your doctor for some instead of paying for prescriptions.
- Negotiate. Some hospitals waive or reduce certain fees. Others will reduce the bill in exchange for cash upfront. Be sure you ask for explanations of costs if you don’t understand them. You wouldn’t overpay for something at Target, so don’t do it at the doctor’s office.
At Home
- Outsource common tests. Independent labs can screen for cancer, run drug tests, and analyze blood and urine. Some even offer secure online access to your medical information. Check out myMedLab, PrivateMD, and PrivateLabTesting.
- Personal Bills Tracking You can deduct expenses if the itemized total is more than 7.5% of your adjusted gross income. This includes expenses from acupuncture, artificial teeth, hearing aids, eye surgery, psychiatric care, and even weight-loss programs. Read the IRS’s Publication 502 for more information on tax breaks and which medical expenses are deductible.
- Fill prescriptions online. This is the cheapest option for people who take drugs daily. Make sure any company you use is FDA approved, has a physical address, privacy policy, and a secure Web site. They should also be a fully-licensed pharmacy or should fulfill orders from a fully-licensed pharmacy. Check out FrugalMed, MedBasket, and DrugsPark.
You can use Mint.com to easily for your personal bills tracking and medical expenses incurred at all your health care providers, pharmacies, online services, etc, across all the accounts you have added to Mint.com. Mint automatically categorizes some expenses as Medical, and you can recategorize and/or label transactions to get an full and accurate picture of your total spending and to see if you qualify for tax breaks.
In the Future
- Review your insurance plan. Meet with a professional if necessary. Don’t focus solely on the monthly premium-consider the total cost, including out-of-pocket expenses. If you can afford a higher deductible, lowering premiums will offer immediate savings. A younger person in good health might consider switching to a Health Savings Account (HSA). HSAs allow you to pay for current health expenses while saving for future medical expenses, tax-free.
- Live a healthier lifestyle. Ok, we had to say it. Fulfill your new year’s resolutions to exercise more, eliminate stress, stop smoking, get plenty of sleep, get regular check-ups, drink 8 glasses of water per day, avoid red meat, and eat lots of organic fruits, vegetables and fish. You’ll lower your health care costs, and possibly your life insurance costs. So, it’s a smart financial decision to invest in good health.
Have you found a smart way to save on health care costs? We’d like to hear about it. Comments welcome.
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8 Comments so far
leave a comment“exercise more, eliminate stress, stop smoking, get plenty of sleep, get regular check-ups, drink 8 glasses of water per day, avoid red meat, and eat lots of organic fruits, vegetables and fish.”
Enough cannot be said about the importance of your common sense suggestions at the end of this great post.
We considered adding Medical Tourism to this list, but were concerned about the risks vs. the potential savings. Anyone have a strong point of view or experience with this practice (e.g. traveling to India for lower cost surgery)?
I have no health insurance, and desperatly needed some blood tests. I saw the links that you had under “outsource common tests” and checked out their websites. I chose the last one private lab testing. All my tests were WAY less then going through a hospital or doctor. It was really easy. I spoke with a nurse, went to the lab, and got my results all in 24 hours! I will never go anywhere else again! This new service is awesome!!
Kelly: I am so glad you were able to get the tests you needed at a cheaper price! It really is difficult when you don’t have health insurance. Good luck.
Please be very cautious when ordering tests and labs from third parties. Medical professionals are trained to know what to look for and what samples are needed when they suspect disease; if you are concerned that you may have an illness, please consider seeing a health care professional rather than trying to self-diagnose by outsourcing lab work.
Great advice! I especially like the part about generic drugs. Stocking your medicine cabinet with generic instead of brand name will save you more money than you might think. The active ingredients are usually close to the same, if not exactly the same, and the price difference can be as much as $2.oo. The reason they can do this is because they don’t have the huge advertising budgets of their counterparts. I just wrote an article about this on my site The Hungry Dollar.
Medical Tourism: Thats the answer. I am originally from India. I had sticker shock when I saw the estimate given by a dentist for my crowded teeth that were cavity prone (no matter how much I brushed/flossed). So I went to India (to marry my dear American wife) and got all my dental work done by a top dentist and paid a ungodly price of $480. Compare that to $5700 here in the U.S!… My air ticket = $1500, food = $200, boarding = $500. Total = $2680.
Moreover, there are insurance companies out there today that will work with you and with reputable hospitals/chains in India and pay for 80% of the charges. It does work out cheaper!
Part of avoiding unnecessary tests is to go over your statements carefully after a visit. In the past 3 years, my wife and I have saved over $400 by disputing mistakes AFTER we get the bill. It is very easy for doctors to order tests that they do not know the cost for. When you get the bill for a blood test that screened your DNA for $600 it may be worth arguing that you never authorized such a test for a “routine exam”. Without getting into the details of our specific examples there a couple keys to understand.
Medical coding reveals very little about the procedure your paying for. I usually had to request further documentation and explanation from the billing department, who then had to confirm with the doctor, who then had to recode the procedure correctly. For example, If you see a bill for code LABxyz $345.00 what does that say your paying for? request more info until you understand what it’s for.
It is important to dispute the debt before it comes due. Unfortunately you will not have necessary answers in time for a due date because of the delay in recieving additional info, but dispute anyway. According to my Business Law texbook it is very difficult to pay less than the amount due for a debt after the due date is past. (see liquidated debt vs non-liquidated debt). Though it is difficult to get a person on the phone that is authorized to reduce the amount owed, you at least would have the right to offer a lesser amount if you previously disputed it.