Healthcare costs in the United States are currently so high that patients have to become more knowledgeable and creative about how to reduce their costs. In this article, we highlight ten very important tips to significantly lower your healthcare costs in 2020.
- Use prescription discount cards
- Research about medical practice fees before becoming their patient
- Ask about self-pay options before buying a drug with high deductible
- Always go for annual checkup
- Always ask your doctor and pharmacy about generic option
- Take your prescription drugs regularly
- Eat well
- Shop around for your DMEs
- Consider alternative medicine
- Try telehealth and stay updated
- Use prescription discount cards
If you live in states where the percentage of people without health insurance is high or where many people have high deductible costs for medication, this is the most important tip to save significant healthcare costs. You can consider using the #1 prescription discount card in ND, AR, NC, IN, MS, NV, SC, AZ, TN, MO if you live in any of these states to save up to 80% on high prescription deductibles.
People across the country are saving a lot. You can ask from your pharmacy anytime you are about to fill a prescription. Most of them have available cards but they will not offer it to you unless you ask. You can also seek advice from your doctors as some of them may have good suggestions for you. Alternatively, you can use the prescription discount card here.
If you are own a group medical practice, recently started a small solo practice, or you are about to start a new podiatry office, you can create an incentive for your prospective customers by offering them advice on prescription discount cards and other ways to save healthcare expense. Your patients will be happy and will stick with you.
I mentioned podiatry office as an example because it is a specialization that remains common among the independent medical practices in the United States. Many top podiatry billing companies in SD, ND, WY, IN, MN, IA, AL, AR, AK, MS, MA and RI help podiatrists in those states to focus on their core businesses by taking care of credentialing, medical billing service, as well as rejection and denial management. Some of these practices are making good progress by hiring digital marketing providers who can provide affordable Medical SEO for medical practices in TX, MN, SD, ND, IN, WI, MA, RI, MS, AR, AL, AK, IA, ID, WY, CT services to them.
- Research about medical practice fees before becoming their patient
Several patients complain about surprise medical billing from their doctor’s offices, which they receive several weeks or months after consultation. Surprise billing is basically the left-over payment required from the patients after the primary insurance or payer had already paid. It is often part of the patients’ deductibles or denied claims.
One thing that determines price range is whether the doctor is in-network with your insurance provider or not. This is something you can easily find out by making call to the insurance company ahead and double-checking with the doctor’s office just before you book an appointment.
If you have Medicaid as secondary insurance, you should call the medical practices and find out if they accept Medicaid or not. And if you are using Medicare as primary insurance, you should call the medical practices ahead to confirm.
When some doctors and I recently discussed the subject – how to grow your medical practice in 2020, we agreed it was important for those of them that had not been accepting Medicaid and Medicare or those of them who are not in-network with some private payers to consider getting credentialed with medicare, medicaid and more private payers. Because Medicare and Medicaid billing can sometimes be tricky, some medical practices tend to decline them. The lesson for patients here is that the credentialing status of medical practices change from time to time. So you should call the practices to find out about the insurance they accept and not rely on the information you get on the internet. This information can certainly help you save healthcare cost.
Finally, while coming up with the list of practices to consult, ask friends and family for recommendation and do not rely only on the practices that show up in your google search. For example, there are many doctors in the state of Massachusetts but many of the ones that show up in your google search are doctors who get top SEO service in Massachusetts.
- Ask about self-pay options before buying a drug with high deductible
Anytime you visit a local pharmacy and your deductible amount works out to be very high, you should immediately ask the pharmacy to give you the price for self-pay option. This might sound incredible, but the truth is that sometimes the self-pay price option works out cheaper than such high deductible especially when used with a prescription discount coupon described earlier.
I cannot explain how this happens but that is exactly what happens a lot nowadays. Before now, many pharmacies encourage their staff to offer prescription discount card options to patients but that has changed. Many pharmacists and support staff are no longer allowed to suggest the cards to customers. Patients or customers are now expected to bring their own prescription discount cards to the pharmacy or make the self-pay suggestion by themselves.
- Always go for annual checkup
Many insurance payers offer zero deductible for annual checkups. So take advantage of this service and don’t wait for your doctor to remind you about annual checkup. Regular annual checkup helps to keep us healthy because it helps doctors to pick up whatever may be wrong with us early enough. And like we all know, early detection of most diseases can save our lives. But aside the health benefits in doing regular annual checkups, it can also save us deductible expense and the expense of future high medical bills when a sickness is not detected early.
According to the #1 medical billing company in SD, ND, IA, AL, MS, AR, IA, ID, WI, AK, WY, IN, more than 60% patients that are eligible for free-deductible annual checkup are not aware of this service because they are not well informed by their insurance companies.
- Always ask your doctor and pharmacy about generic option
Doctors sometimes prescribe specific brand name drugs that can be pretty expensive. Patients often do not know until they get to the pharmacy. If you get to your pharmacy and the price is high, call your doctor to ask if you can get the generic option of same drug in place of the brand name. If your doctor agrees, let him or her send the revised prescription. Sometimes you may need to ask your pharmacist’s advice first so that you are proposing specific options to your doctor when calling her. If you tell your doctor that you spoke with your pharmacy and they offered you three alternative generic options X, Y, Z and you would like to know which of the options the doctor is most comfortable with, he or she will most likely agree.
- Take your prescription drugs regularly
When your doctors give you a prescription drug, be diligent to use them regularly as prescribed. This helps you stay healthy and ultimately helps to keep your healthcare expense low.
According to a medical billing service linkedin publication from a healthcare service company that provides mental health billing services in MA, TX, SD, ND, MS, AR, AL, AK, IA, ID, WY, MN, IN, WI, RI, CT, many mental health patients have a great tendency to stop using their medication as soon as they start feeling better. But the chances of relapsing is high when they doses are not complete or when the patient stops using a medication that is supposed to be perpetual. A relapse due to early stoppage of medication can lead to significantly health challenge that will ultimately cost more money to take care of.
- Eat well
Eating well seems perhaps too simple to include on this list, but food is like medicine. When you eat very well, you will stay healthier and this will help you keep healthcare costs down. Many people today give their tough jobs schedule as excuses for eating junk foods, but when we think about your health and costs of healthcare, we should be motivated to eat healthy.
The recent work-from-home and social distancing culture due to COVID-19 may encourage more people to eat healthy and benefit many people.
- Shop around for your DMEs
Durable medical equipment (DME) are costing patients, especially older people a lot of money in recent times. Some DMEs are reimbursable by government and private insurance, while some are always self-pay. Medical practices that are up-to-date with their DME credentialing are able to charge insurance payers on behalf of their patients but there are several DME providers that focus only on self-pay patients. Some of the ones that accepts insurance payments also depend on 3rd party companies offering DME billing services in MA, TX, GA, FL, OK, AK, ID, IA, WY, SD.
If you are a patient that requires DMEs that do not get reimbursed by insurance, you should always shop around at local and online stores to get the best deals. Setting up a DME store online is much cheaper than local setup, so the online stores tend to offer cheaper products than the brick-and-mortal stores. But you have to be careful with online stores. Check their customer reviews, ask about specific brands, and be sure the merchant accept returns.
In some other countries where patients usually buy DMEs only through self-pay methods, they can easily buy from popular local and foreign e-commerce websites, classified ads websites or online stores – Delon Market, Craigslist, etc. But in the United States, it is greatly advisable that patients buy from local online stores in the US to guarantee quality and returns.
The DME industry continues to grow in the United States due to increasing number of people that are living beyond 80 and 90 years, and many manufacturers have to strike a balance between manufacturing locally or outsourcing manufacturing to foreign countries in order to reduce cost. The disadvantage of manufacturing abroad is that we will be creating more jobs in Mexico, China, India, and other parts of Asia, or jobs in Nigeria.
- Consider alternative medicine
It is also a good idea to consider alternative medicine to stay healthy. Food is part of what I mean by alternative medicine, but this also includes supplements, acupuncture, etc. Many insurance payers have recently started paying for acupuncture services in the United States. Acupuncturists in several states are able to focus on their business as acupuncture billing in MA, IL, CA, NY, WA, TX, GA and FL is available through many third-party providers in those locations.
- Try telehealth and stay updated
Because of the coronavirus crisis, telehealth services have become a lot more common in recent months. Before now, insurance payers and government have only granted limited approvals for telehealth practice across the country. But there have been substantial approvals in recent months because of social distancing requirements. Therefore, many doctors in many states have been seeking reliable telehealth solutions in MA, TX, MS, RI, CT, MN, SD, ND, IN, WI, IA, AR, AL, AK, ID, IA, TX, and the industry has experienced tremendous growth in the last few months.
Finally, you should continue to read and stay updated with changes in healthcare policies in the United States. Our laws keep changing every year and new information becomes available on the internet daily. In order to save healthcare expense, we all have to continue to regularly learn the required tips. According to the #1 medical billing company in Massachusetts, healthcare costs in the United States will continue to fluctuate based on issues and imminent changes to the Affordable Care Act.
