Ways to Reduce Medical Costs
If you’ve recently been seen for medical treatment at a hospital or an emergency room, you may be concerned about an impending medical bill. Medical costs can be pricy, but that doesn’t mean that you can avoid them altogether. After all, there are some times that you need surgery or treatment for a life-threatening condition and it’s not possible to forego treatment altogether.
That said, there are still ways that you can reduce your medical costs over the course of your lifetime or following a recent treatment.
Get Good Health Insurance
When it comes to paying less for medical treatment, having the right insurer and health plan can be a major boon. By picking a health plan that offers a low deductible and low out-of-pocket maximum, you can limit the amount of money you ultimately spend on medical treatment on a yearly basis.
When you buy medical insurance online, you can find a health insurer that offers health coverage with the right premium and coinsurance to cover your costs. Comparing health insurance plans using an online quote provider is one of the best ways to prepare for your special enrollment period since it allows you to determine whether Medicare, PPO, or HMO coverage is best for you and your family.
Visit Your General Practitioner Annually
Preventive care can go a long way in reducing the costs that you end up paying over the course of your life. This is because, during an annual checkup, you can catch potential health concerns early on before things end up developing into a worse condition which ultimately requires more money and specialized care or prescription drugs.
In actuality, Obamacare relies on preventive care to lower the overall cost of people being covered by the ACA by decreasing hospital visits. This ends up lowering overall health costs and making it less expensive to deal with medical costs in the long run.
Grow Medicinal Herbs and Vegetables
One way to boost your health year-round is to take vitamins, supplements, or medicinal herbs on a regular basis. The benefit of getting your vitamins from medicinal herbs and vegetables is that you can grow them yourself which significantly reduces your overall costs.
Purpleflower.com is a great resource for anyone new to gardening as well as green thumbs who’re looking for the latest tips and tricks about setting up your garden or growing food. Growing kale and spinach can be a simple way to increase the level of antioxidants in your diet. You may also want to grow herbs like lavender, chamomile, or mint if you’re interested in creating your own teas.
Negotiate with the Hospital
Did you realize that you can negotiate with a hospital even after they’ve given you a bill? Especially for outrageously expensive medical bills, negotiating can be a great way to cut your costs. When it comes to battling a medical bill, the first thing you need to do is get the right information. Armed with the appropriate details, especially an itemized bill, can be particularly helpful if you want to determine whether or not there’s a duplicate charge or a fee for a service you never received.
Another way to spend less on your out of pocket expenses is to ask for something called a prompt-pay discount. These sorts of deals are struck when you offer to pay a reduced cost right away. Many times, hospitals run a risk of medical bills never being paid, so if you offer to pay promptly, they may be interested in negotiating a lower fee.
As you can see, there are several different strategies you can use to reduce the cost of medical services. Whether it’s finding an insurance plan that helps cover the cost of treatment as well as prescriptions or attending appointments with your doctor on an annual basis as a form of preventive care, there are plenty of ways to reduce the out of pocket costs of a hospital visit.