Texas Health
Insurance
Options
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.
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