My first blog! Who would’ve thunk it? When my friend Eric told me I needed to have a blog my question to him was, “what’s a blog”. Then my education began. So, I’ve gone from last week, not knowing what a blog was to this week, posting my first one. It kind of feels like being Peter on Family Guy when he gets that job where he has his own broadcast called “Do you know what grinds my gears?” Well, I will tell you what “Grinds my gears” is the cost of healthcare in this country.
My husband and I are both self-employed so we have to pay for our own healthcare coverage and it is not cheap! We chose a highly deductible HSA plan which we love; however, it has its drawbacks. We have a $5000 deductible. Because of this, we “shop” our healthcare a lot. We find that many of the physicians will offer a lower price to you if you tell them you have to pay for the service out of pocket. It has made us very conscience of how much we are spending on prescriptions too. We found that our credit card company, Capital One, has a prescription plan. When we go to Kroger’s now to get our prescriptions filled, what used to cost me my $45 co-pay, is now only $11 with my Capital One prescription card.
My friend David owns a company called “Dreaming with Entrepreneurs”. He has had some health issues lately. He does not have insurance and has been fighting with his healthcare providers to negotiate a payment plan at a discount. One thing that he discovered is that he is possibly being billed twice for the same service from two separate entities. I’m telling you, don’t trust what is on your bill from your healthcare provider. Make sure you scrutinize everything! Ask questions! Get answers!
My son had a sore throat that wouldn’t go away so we took him to the doctor. They swabbed his throat right there in the office for strep and made a determination that it was negative. Several months later we received a bill where they sent the specimen to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to be tested again. The bill was over $200 and we were not informed that it was going to be sent out for a “confirmation” test. The healthcare provider doesn’t ask you if you have insurance to cover services, they just provide it and bill you for it later. As a consumer, we have to be a lot more savvy about what we ask when we go to the doctor. What I used to take for granted, I no longer do and unfortunately, I am learning to ask the questions ahead of time only after being stuck with a huge bill. So, as Peter would say “and that’s what Grinds My Gears!”
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