Health care can get real expensive, real fast, even when you have insurance.
But you can save money on medical care without harming your health, experts say. Follow these tips to trim your health care expenses by hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars.
1. Ask Questions
"Doctor, is this test really necessary?"
It's not always easy to question your doctor. But if money is tight, and you're worried about the added cost of an exam, it's important to speak up, says Davis Liu, MD. Liu is a family doctor with the Permanente Medical Group in California. He's the author of The Thrifty Patient: Vital Insider Tips for Saving Money and Staying Healthy.
"The best way to save money if a doctor does recommend a test is to ask, 'Why?'" Liu says. Is the test necessary for the doctor to make a diagnosis? Can it safely be postponed while you wait to see if your symptoms improve?
"Most diagnoses can be determined by doctors listening and taking a good patient history and then a physical exam," Liu says. "The testing is helpful if the diagnosis isn't clear and more than one possibility remains."
2. Compare Prices
With the rising cost of health care it pays to shop around, says Jeffrey Rice, MD.
Rice is chief executive officer of Healthcare Blue Book. Healthcare Blue Book is a free online consumer guide that helps people determine fair prices in their area for health care products and services.
"The most important thing is that patients understand the cost of their care before they get their care," Rice says. "Most people who have insurance think that if they stay in-network they're going to get the network discount and it doesn't matter where they go" for their care. "It absolutely matters."
"In-network" refers to a list of health care providers who have reached agreements with your insurance company on how much they'll charge for their services. You generally will pay less for providers on that list.
But it still pays to compare prices within the list. For example, insurers often pay an allowed amount of between $500 and $3,000 for the same MRI, Rice says. "There are huge price variations, and you really need to be careful to not be overcharged."
