I don't understand Health Insurance Deductibles?
I'm shopping for health insurance and I kinda understand deductibles, then I don't. I understand that the deductible is the amount you have to pay out of pocket before the insurance "kicks in". What about this example: I usually go to a therapist about 2-4 times a month (nothing crazy, just talking about stuff). Those appointments cost about $75 w/o insurance and a $30 copay under my old insurance. If I bought insurance with, say, a $1,000 deductible, does that mean I have to pay for (let's see $1000 divided by $75....) 13.3 of those appointments before it's covered by the insurance? I just don't get it.
How do health insurance deductibles work?
I'm looking at individual health insurance plans. All of them say they have a deductable of $500 - $5000. I'm reading the plan overview and it's explaining what the plan covers. It says prescriptions are covered after deductible, office visits are covered after deductible, and so on. Does this mean if a plan has a $5000 deductible that the health insurance company will not cover anything until after I've paid $5000 out of pocket on healthcare? Does that mean that if I had to go to the emergency room i'd have to pay for it myself until I've paid up to $5000? I'm really confused. I want to get temporary health coverage, but I don't see what the point is if I'm going to have to pay out of pocket anyways. Does anyone know how this deductible stuff works? I'd appreciate the help. Thanks
Should I know my health insurance deductible status?
When you need a health procedure it’s important to know how much you are going to pay out of your pocket. Deductibles and copays have more than doubled. From a simple colonoscopy, to a knee arthroscopy or a spinal laminectomy it's important to know the cost.Patients with insurance can call their insurance company and ask1. What is my deductible?2. If I have a $5,000 surgery how much will I have to pay?3. Can I see the doctor I want?With a direct pay network patients can find the doctor they want and know the price of the procedure. #HealthIsSimple #NoSurprisesDownTheRoad
How do I make good use of the health insurance after deductible is met?
Take control of your health care. Along with your family, your health is the most important thing in your life.1. Don’t wait until a condition becomes serious before going to the doctor. Visit your doctor when you don’t feel well for more than a few days, have significant pain even for just 1 or 2 days, or discover something like a lesion that you suspect may be cancerous or indicative of another very serious illness.2. Emphasize preventative medicine. Many health insurance policies stress prevention and may even pay at 100% for preventative annual or biannual exams. Get periodic checkups when you are advised, consistent with your age and risk factors, such as eye exams every 2 years.3. Chose your doctors carefully. If you don’t know any primary care doctors or specialists, get references from people you trust. There are certain Web sites which give doctor ratings and patient feedback. Look at these, but only as one source of information about doctor capabilities.4. Plan your visits to the doctor. If necessary write down your questions and try to get all of your questions answered by your doctor or his or her assistant. You want your doctors to practice patient-centric medicine.5. Insist that your doctor spend adequate time with you. If he or she doesn’t, consider changing doctors.6, Read up on health care, including conditions, treatments, symptoms and drugs. But do not try to diagnose yourself. Leave that to your doctor.7. Keep track of your use of meds.8. If every health care visit is paid by your insurance at 100% the rest of the year, this is further reason to get treatment sooner rather than later.
Can my health insurance deductible be paid for by my drug manufacturer?
That's a great question and I'm glad you are asking it! For many drugs (especially expensive drugs) pharma companies often offer financial assistance. Some of assistance programs are assistance based, some are not. Call the drug manufacturer or go to their website to find out. Often the prescribing doc will know about assistance programs and have contact info to get you started.
What are some sneaky ways to pay off health insurance deductibles?
One question is what is the company paying? Insurance prices are soaring. Much of this is because of the ACA wherein the government expected young healthy adults to buy insurance at several hundred dollars a month with a significant deductible in cases where they see perhaps a physician 1–2 times per year and often take no medicines. These individuals were expected to balance the unhealthy patients. This didn’t happen. So premiums rose drastically and deductibles rose.Now the result is that many people with insurance have seen insurance prices soar and deductibles soar (with maximum out of pocket rising) but no maximum payment limits.So that is the system now.There is no way to get out of the way of the deductible without creating a debt. Any system to do that would probably be fraudulent. A physician cannot legally bill any government payer with an agreement to write off co-pays or deductibles. On any particular patient a physician can write off what he wants if he owns the practice.Most physicians are not individual practitioners however.So what happens? You have insurance, but feel you cannot afford the deductible. Your premiums have effectively been raised in every year you use your insurance. You no longer have “from zero dollar up” insurance. It means that you have to save to pay your deductible. If your employer has HSA accounts that means you should save in an account to potentially pay for your families medical care. This means that you can use pre-tax income. If not they become tax deductible expenses.Unfortunately, your access to medical care has diminished or just became more expensive. You must save to pay a deductible. You may choose to “group” medical care into every other or third year or whenever you meet your deductible. That is the only “trick” I know. This has health risks however yet many policies have zero dollar deductibles for screenings.Your healthcare is just more expensive now.
What does "deductible" in health insurance services mean?
Some health insurance plans or prescription drug plans have an amount set that the patient is responsible to pay before the insurance will start picing up costs. So if you have a $1000 deductible, you are responsible for paying out $1000 from your pocket before the insurance will start paying for your health services.