20 Ways To Save On Health Care

From maximizing insurance benefits to shopping for discounts to funding tax-advantaged accounts, these tips will lower your costs no matter how you get your care.

- By Lisa Gerstner

Even after employers pick up a substantial amount of the cost, Americans spend thousands of dollars on health care annually. Workers who use employer health insurance plans pay an average of $1,243 a year in premiums for single coverage or $5,588 for family coverage, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The average annual deductible is $1,644 for single coverage, and those with family coverage often have an overall deductible of at least $2,000. Annual out-of-pocket maximums may run several thousand dollars. To help relieve the pain of high health care costs, check out these 20 money savers.

MAXIMIZE YOUR BENEFITS

1 Stay in your health insurer’s network. If you visit a provider that doesn’t fall within your plan’s network, you’ll pay more for care. If you have a preferred provider organization (PPO) plan, you may receive some level of coverage for out-of-network care. But with a health maintenance organization (HMO) plan, you’ll likely pay the full cost. Use your insurer’s online tools to search for in-network providers.

Starting in 2022, by federal law insurers must cover at in-network rates “surprise” medical bills, which result when patients unknowingly get care from out-of-network providers in emergencies. You may also get a surprise bill if you visit an in-network facility and see a provider (say, a physician or anesthesiologist) who is not in-network. In the interim, you can appeal with your insurer any surprise bills that you receive. And many states have their own laws that provide some protection against surprise medical bills.