What can you do about the huge amounts of health insurance "out of pocket expenses" you incur at the hospital or with Utah doctors?

First of all lets define what "out of pocket" expenses means.  Now, that you clicked through our insurance terminology definitions lets look at an example.  I have a close friend that seems to spend most of his time in the hospital.  He meets his deductible usually in the first three weeks of January.  Than he spends the next few months paying his 20% of remaining bills because he is on a traditional utah health insurance 80/20 coverage.  Because he is very ill he has allot of miscellaneous minor insurance expenses not covered because they are considered "elective".  That is another article we intend to write.

Before long his medical bills amount to nearly $150,000 or which he is responsible for around $10,000 (he has a high deductible).  Well....what does one do when you owe that much?  Collections begin calling and it quickly becomes a nightmare.

Suggestions

• First suggestion would be to apply for "hardship relief" with the hospital where the facility charges are tied to.  I call it "hardship relief" in general terms because everyone calls it something different.  Basically you disclose income tax and complete a questionnaire to determine if you are eligible for discounts.  Most hospitals are JACO certified and provide this accordingly.  They are federally funded according to legit losses.

• Second suggestion would be to set up a payment program with your medical doctor.  Many will accept this and not charge a interest fee.  A few doctors may not because they hire a billing service.  The typical billing service is not friendly.  So what I suggest is to send monthly payments back to them when they send a statement.  About all they can do at this point is call and question when you are going to pay the balance off.

• The third suggestion I would make is to set up a Health Savings Account.  You can pay for these expenses through this account and benefit from tax savings.  It is not difficult to do and many local banks can accommodate you.  To read more about this visit www.healthsavingsaccount.bz.