How To Save Money On Health Insurance

Archie Mathys is an insurance research writer on current events affecting American life. He studies investments, productivity, personal finance & the Wall St. news updates.

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Next time a family member falls down and needs stitches, take the time to shop for price. As health care costs continue to skyrocket, it would be advantageous of us to do just that.

In this competitive environment, fortunately, studies in various states have shown wildly different prices for the same procedure.

What if you live in southern New Hampshire and you’re having laparoscopic knee surgery? Comparisons show you could go to Dartmouth South and pay about 5,300 USD or to St. Joseph’s Hospital and pay about 10,500 USD.

Price comparisons of colonoscopy show you could go to Southern New Hampshire Medical Center and pay nearly 5,000 USD or to Concord Ambulatory Surgery Center and pay about 2,800 USD.

If you’re having surgery to repair a hernia, you could go to St. Joseph’s Hospital and pay about 13,400 USD or to Elliot Hospital and pay about 4,500 USD. The price differences are huge.

And get this, these are prices for people with no insurance, and even people with health insurance will see very different prices for the same procedure at different facilities.

It’s no surprise by now that Americans are spending more and more money out of their own pockets for medical care. As a matter of course, insurance companies do not necessarily pick up the whole tab.

According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, from 2002 to 2008, consumer out-of-pocket spending has gone up from $682 to $912 per person. And that doesn’t include your premium. And expect those premiums to continue rising as health care costs continue to rise.

Your portion also comes in other forms. Most health insurance plans have a deductible, which is the amount you pay before your insurance kicks in.

Some hospitals require coinsurance, which is a percentage that you have to pay of the total bill. Let’s say your coinsurance is 20 percent. If you need a procedure that costs $10,000 at one hospital, and $5,000 at another, you could save a $1,000 by going to the less expensive hospital.

Some hospitals are helping

Sometimes hospitals will do the savings for you. For example, Intermountain Healthcare in Utah has managed to keep costs down by using certain changes, such as doing fewer Caesarean sections.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, about one out of every three babies born in the United States is delivered via Caesarean section. At Intermountain, it was decided that 1 out of every 5 babies is born by C-section. C-sections are significantly more expensive than vaginal births: $4,500 instead of $2,600, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research And Quality.

Intermountainalso saves on cost by cutting down on the number of unnecessary imaging procedures it does, such as CT scans and MRIs.

When a patient arrives to have an imaging exam, Intermountain now checks its own 23 hospitals and other large hospitals in the area to make sure it hasn’t been done already. By cutting down on repeat exams, the hospital has saved “tens of millions of dollars,” according to Dr. Brent James, the chief quality officer at Intermountain.

So how to save money on health care?

As health care costs continue rising, here are some ways to save money.

1. Compare costs online. Few states, such as New Hampshire and Massachusetts, have cost comparison sites. Visit your state department of health site to find out whether your state offers cost comparisons. These sites give prices for specific procedures at specific facilities. Find links for the health departments of all 50 states at this U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention page.

2. Insurance companies often can compare costs for you at different branches. Go to your insurance company’s Web site.

3. Benefits departments, especially at large employers, can sometimes help compare costs. They hate to pay too much.

4. Ask other people. Ask other people who’ve had your procedure how much they paid for it. The most efficient way to do this is to go to online forums where people talk about their medical experiences, such as Steadyhealth.com and Chatterhead.net’s health chat.

5. Do it yourself. Call around. Call hospitals and doctors’ offices and ask what they’ll charge for a certain kind of procedure. This can be very frustrating and hard to do because the office can’t always give you a straightforward answer, but it’s worth a try because it can save you thousands of dollars.

You may also like to see the following articles:

• Health Care or Sick Care
• Will Continue To In The Future?
• Obama Pushes Health Care Reform Toward Possible Conclusion
• Medical Assistants: More Jobs Available Than Ever
• Why It’s So Important for Doctors Not to Fall Behind on Their Continuing Medical Education

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