Practical & Easy Tips For Buying Health Insurance
Health insurance is a necessity. Anything can happen to anyone at anytime. You could be doing a simple rearrangement of furniture and end up with a hernia in one breath. Sometimes, finding the right policy is difficult, but this article will offer some advice on how to sift through all of the options.
Your first step in acquiring a new health insurance package should be crunching the numbers and coming up with a rough estimate of the total costs involved. All the different parts to a policy like co-pays, premiums and deductibles can be confusing, so make sure that you understand it all before you purchase anything.
When considering a health care insurance plan from your employer, be sure to always plan for the future. This will be beneficial to you in case of possible health issues that prevent you from holding a job, or getting laid off. Always be prepared, and know what your health coverage options are if you do not retain your job.
Providing your family with dental insurance, not only helps to promote the health of their teeth and gums, but their bodies, as well. Research has linked periodontal disease with strokes and heart disease. In fact, a staggering number of systemic diseases cause oral complications, such as ulcers and inflamed gums, so early detection of these problems by a qualified dentist, could alert you that the underlying cause is a serious disease, such as diabetes, cancer or leukemia. Left unchecked, oral infections could also spread throughout the body, causing inflammation of organs or heart valves and resulting in complications of the digestive system. Nearly 50% of Americans do not have dental insurance and as a result, many of them do not receive adequate dental care. Don't let your family be a part of this statistic.
Medical insurance is a must have today. With premiums so high, it can seem like it is impossible to get a good rate. It is not hard if you stay as healthy as possible and reduce your risks to serious injury and disease. The fewer pre-existing conditions that you have and quitting dangerous habits can lower what you will pay in total costs towards your medical insurance.
Deducting your health insurance premiums on your taxes can help save you a lot of money. If you're self-employed, you can deduct the cost of your premiums on your taxes. This reduces your adjusted gross income so that your tax liability will probably be lower. You can do this whether you itemize deductions or not.
If you find yourself without medical insurance, you can still get medical care, but you will be paying for all click here of it yourself. To keep costs in line, use walk-in clinics, county health services and talk to your personal physician. Many will charge a bit less or work with you to set up a payment plan.
When choosing between catastrophic and comprehensive health insurance, remember that comprehensive health insurance costs more and covers everyday health care requirements, and preventative health care. Catastrophic health insurance is much cheaper, but it only covers catastrophes, as the name indicates. If you have an ongoing medical condition that requires frequent attention, choose comprehensive insurance. If you are generally healthy but want a safety net, choose catastrophic insurance.
In case you do have an emergency medical situation, you need to know exactly where to go. Check the wording of your insurance policy. They might be charging you exponentially more for visiting a hospital or doctor that's not on their predefined list of approved hospitals and doctors. The insurance company will not make an exception for emergencies.
You can find valuable information by reading your insurance policy. This is the best way to get a clear idea of everything covered by your policy and find out more about the advantages linked to it. While it may seem tedious, the information is very important and is worth knowing.
If an insurance rate is too good to be true, look at customer reviews of the company to ensure you're paying for good service. If insurance is cheap, it's likely to be because they have a low number of staff, meaning claims could take forever to go through. You get what you pay for.
One obvious way to save money on health insurance is to dial your deductible up or down to meet your needs. For example, if you are healthy and have no dependents, you may prefer a high-deductible plan with lower premiums. Families and/or people who need more regular health care may prefer a lower-deductible plan since their annual health care costs will be higher.
When comparing individual and group life insurance, you will probably find that group is cheaper, but you will get more choices with an individual policy. The main thing to remember about health insurance is that you must have something in place. Being uninsured could cause severe financial hardship at a moment's notice. An unforeseen event that could yield you penniless could happen at any time. Be smart, and research all of the health insurance choices available today.
The Real Costs of Seeking Care for COVID-19 Vary Across and Within Major U.S. Cities
Castlight Health's COVID-19 Cost Analysis Finds Outpatient Evaluation Costs Vary Widely Depending on Severity of Symptoms, Geography, and Provider Type"While the test for COVID-19 may be made available at no cost, individuals seeking care for suspected COVID-19 may be faced with other significant out-of-pocket costs for that care. Sadly, those bills may be coming right as many Americans are losing their paychecks, creating real affordability of care issues," said Maeve O'Meara, CEO of Castlight Health. "Costs vary widely across cities in the U.S., within cities, and depending on the site of care. During this public health emergency, it is more important than ever that people have the tools they need to find high quality care in a timely and affordable manner."
Although the coronavirus relief measures signed by the President in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act have directed private health plans to waive the cost of the specific coronavirus test and visit associated with it, people who are symptomatic and seek care may be responsible for other costs required for an evaluation for COVID-19. These could include influenza testing, chest x-rays, and bacterial, viral, or blood culture tests. These costs can add up quickly, particularly for the 27.5 million people with no insurance or those who have high-deductible health plans and will pay for services out-of-pocket.
The severity of COVID-19 varies widely, from mild cough and fever, to chest pains and shortness of breath, which can drastically affect the necessary treatment, need for hospitalization, and associated costs.
Most notably, the analysis found that:
Within a given U.S. city, average prices vary greatly for patients exhibiting standard COVID-19 symptoms including fever, cough, and shortness of breath:
In Los Angeles, the cost for a primary care visit and standard lab testing ranges from $304 to $4447—roughly a 14-fold difference.
In Dallas, the cost for the same services ranges from $193 to $4308—a 22-fold difference.
Similarly, in Miami, these services range in cost from $354 to $5729—a 16-fold difference.
Costs also vary widely depending on the provider type or site of care:
Even without symptoms severe enough to warrant further imaging or lab testing, a visit to evaluate respiratory symptoms can cost someone living in the New York metro area an average of $79 for a telehealth visit, $235 for a primary care visit, $352 for an urgent care visit, and $2,321 for an ER visit.
In Miami, patients can expect costs for evaluating symptoms to average $79 for using telehealth as their entry point, $189 for visits through a primary care provider, $483 for visits through an urgent care provider, and $1,524 if they enter the system through the ER.
"During this incredibly stressful pandemic outbreak, it is critical that people have a clear understanding of the care they need, and how much that care is likely to cost," said Dena Bravata, MD, MS, Castlight Advisor and former Senior Scholar at the Stanford Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research. "Castlight's COVID-19 Cost Analysis sheds light on the vastly different costs patients seeking care associated with COVID-19 will see depending on where they live, and where they choose to receive care."
Methodology
The primary source of data used for this analysis is a subset of 2.5 billion de-identified medical claims for primary care, urgent care, emergency room, lab tests, and x-ray supplemented with:
Provider directory data (e.g., which doctors provide which type of care).
Provider rate sheets.
Publicly available data.
The costs provided are for a member in their deductible phase seeing in-network providers. The ranges provided are for the 5th to the 95th percentile of costs in that metropolitan region.
The components of an evaluation for a patient seeking care associated with COVID-19 depend on their symptom severity and site of care. The procedures and services we included are:
Site of care: telehealth visit, primary care visit, urgent care visit, ER visit.
Care for moderate COVID-19 symptoms: initial cost of a provider visit, influenza test, sputum culture and sensitivity, blood culture and sensitivity, complete blood count, and comprehensive metabolic panel.
Care for severe COVID-19 symptoms: initial cost of a provider visit, all lab tests listed above, and a chest x-ray.
Click here to download the full report.
About Castlight Health
Castlight is on a mission to make it as easy as humanly possible for its users to navigate the healthcare system and live happier, healthier, more productive lives. Our health navigation platform connects hundreds of health vendors, benefits resources, and plan designs into one comprehensive health and wellbeing experience. We guide individuals—based on their unique profile—to the best resources available to them, whether they are healthy, chronically ill, or actively seeking medical care. Castlight transforms the employee benefit experience into a deeply personalized, yet simple, guided one, empowering better-informed patient decisions to unlock better healthcare outcomes and maximizing return on healthcare investments.
For more information visit www.castlighthealth.com. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn and Like us on Facebook.
https://edition.cnn.com/business/newsfeeds/prnewswire/202003200600PR_NEWS_USPR_____SF57329.html
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1epF3asROLV-VbQsc3q4D-KoTPNFSY6wW-ygZRY4xrAo/edit#slide=id.gb305dd1d5e_0_6