Reply to High Deductible Health Insurance Plan

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Something to watch out for is that certain hospitals (especially teaching hospitals that serve a lot of highly needy patients) really squeeze insured patients to make up for all the free care they provide. If you have a standard insurance, it can be totally fine—the hospital is in network and so I don’t pay any more than I would anywhere else. But if you have a HDHP, you are going to be paying a lot more of the jacked up prices.

I agree that HDHP can be cost effective if you keep in mind the premium savings. But you do have to be cognizant of healthcare prices with them (which is by design). [/quote]

If the hospital is in network with your insurance, you still get to pay the same “agreed to rate” that your insurance pays. You don’t pay more. If a procedure/test is $1200, but your insurer agrees to pay $800, you would only pay the $800 on an HDHP as long as you stay in network.[/quote]

The funny joke is that if you ask what discounted cash price is for the test/procedure it can cost you less than what you pay towards your deductible based on the "negotiated" discount of your insurance plan.  If it costs more, it's only a little bit more which is still not going to justify paying expensive premiums.  It's basically a very expensive catastrophic insurance plan.

Overinflated prices shown on your bill are complete racket and not what they would charge to a cash patient.  This happened to me personally and there are many social media videos on this with people going through their medical bills and comparing discounts provided by insurance with the cash patient discounts medical providers give you.  
[/quote]

Yes, this year I’m hoping we wouldn’t reach our deductible and I’m going to be asking for cash prices for urgent care visits (stitches etc). I already know from past experience that they’re cheaper. Once I had to pay 600 for stitches and follow up to get them removed (300x2)… when it would have been 150 for cash pay with free stitches removal!! I had to complain for hours about that because they had originally told me it would be free to get them removed but the person telling me that didn’t realize my insurance. Very annoying.

It’s basically catastrophic coverage like someone said.[/quote]

It is, which means you have to really weigh how you are getting your care and ask for prices beforehand and also learn some hacks to cheaper out of pocket expenses.  It's just a piece of mind really for you to have full coverage in case of anything terrible happening, but for regular care high deductible plans aren't economical or easy to use, putting extra stress on people having to ration.

My advice is to get a list of urgent cares that provide services like xrays, stiches for deep cuts, splints for fractures (before you go to the ortho), etc.  Basically, do everything you can to avoid going to the ER because hospital bills are truly atrocious and a minor visit to the ER will get you well on your way to meeting your deductible.  What costs 300-500 in urgent care can easily cost a few thousand in a hospital ER, I kid you not, plus the wait.

Strategy is this: If your kid gets a minor ortho injury, go to urgent care with an xray machine, call beforehand to make sure they have people who can take care of it and if needed do the temp splint.  Then make an appt to the regular ortho the next day (keep calling the list of providers, should be many if you have a PPO plan), and it will get charged a lot less than ER ortho.  Of course, in many cases ER is the best solution if it's something serious but make sure it's in your network, and [b]avoid ambulance by all means!!![/b] That's the biggest rip off.  Use your car to drive your kid to the ER.  If you get a deep cut, the same, find an urgent care that can do stiches, then make an appt with a plastic surgeon to fix it if unsightly.  If your kid is coughing too much after a flu, get an urgent care with xray and make sure it's not pneumonia.

When you go to the doctors, go to specialists right away, don't waste time on GP appts, which aren't free and where you won't get the right type of tests.  Seek second opinions if you are unhappy with the current provider, because switching providers with PPO is easy.  Ask for prices before hand because sometimes they do tests or procedures in the office.  My ENT clinic uses 2 types of scopes and one is much cheaper than another and has the same result.

Welcome to the life of sh** healthcare, my friends. [/quote]

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