- Shop around for procedures – As a matter of fact, shopping around for medical procedures can save you a lot of time and money. Alright, maybe not time, but definitely money. This goes even more for major procedures, as the difference in cost among providers might cost thousands of dollars. Many people who have private health insurance don’t think about researching prices before deciding to do a major procedure. It’s best not to assume that the facility your doctor is recommending has the best prices. Pick up your phone and call providers in your nearby area that will accept your insurance and offer the medical procedure you want. Also, you can go online and use a free price transparency tool, so you can estimate your costs easily. You can try on Healthcare Bluebook, New Choice Health, and Fair Health.
- Negotiate – If you have to look for a service that your insurance won’t cover, don’t rush into offering to pay the cost in full. Medical providers might accept a lower payment for a service if they don’t have to go through an insurance company. Tell the medical office that you will pay cash for a certain service and ask for a discount. Besides getting a lower bill, you might be able to negotiate a no-interest payment plan, so your pay over a few months.
- Sign up for a flexible spending account (FSA) – Even if you have already paid insurance, your health care costs might add up. But if you decide to pay for your medical expenses with pretax dollars, which you would be able to do with flexible spending accounts (FSAs), you might get a nice discount on your medical expenses. If your employer is offering an FSA for medical expenses, you should consider signing up. For this year, you might contribute up to $2,750 a year in pretax income to an FSA and pay with it for prescriptions, doctor visit copays, and any medical procedures you might need.
- Sign up for a health savings account (HSA) – If you’re one of those people who have a high-deductible insurance plan, opening a health savings account, or HSA, might be the best option. It works similar to an FSA, as you can fund an HSA by using pretax dollars. Even so, HSAs might offer two advantages over FSAs! The first is that it has higher contribution limits and the second one is the ability to carry over your HSA balance from one year to another.
