Health Insurance Potholes To Watch Out For

Each insurance company is different so first thing figure out coverage restrictions.

• Do they cover routine visits or only sick visits?
• What's your deductible and how much do they cover before and after you meet it?
• How are inpatient hospitalizations covered?
• What about surgeries (major v. minor, inpatient v. outpatient)?

The first two are important to know from the get-go, but for the rest its good to just have the benefits and coverage guidelines printed out or bookmarked somewhere for reference purposes.

Few other things you'll come across after going to the doctor are prescriptions, labs, and image results.

• Does your insurer have a discounted formulary for prescriptions or pharmacies they contract with? (HUGE savings here)
  
• Does your doctor send your labs out to a company that's covered by your insurer? If not, you could owe a lot of money for processing your lab results. Worth checking both with your doctor and insurance company on this one!
• Who reads and interprets your images (MRIs, X-rays, CT scans, etc.)? Same as labs, if the diagnostic imaging company or the doctor interpreting your image results is not covered under your plan, you'll get a separate fee.

Whoa!...I know. I've lost $750 and several brain cells dealing with the issues above. Now I annoy secretaries, nurses and insurance representatives to no end BEFORE and DURING my doctor's visit so I can avoid major money and time headaches AFTER the fact. Its like the law. You don't realize how powerful it is until it impacts you personally. No wonder 59% of doctors support a single-payer national health insurance system!