10 Ways to Save Money on Your Healthcare Plan
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3. Ask for Cash Discounts
There is a kind-of loophole that you can try next time you visit the doctor, dentist, or eye doctor. Instead of offering up your insurance information when you go to pay, ask the surgery if they offer any type of cash discount. It’s actually more common than you might think, as these surgeries won’t need to deal with insurance companies or file excessive paperwork. It can save time for them, and money for you.
And, if they don’t offer a cash discount just present your insurance plan as usual. If you don’t ask, you don’t get, so it’s definitely worth a try.
4. Visit an Urgent Care Clinic First
Recently more and more Urgent Care Clinics are popping up across America. You might’ve even seen a few open in your town. If so, visiting one of these can be much cheaper than taking a trip to the doctor or emergency room every time you are ill or hurt.
You could actually save hundreds of dollars by choosing to visit an Urgent Care Clinic instead, as long as it’s a non-life-threatening illness or emergency that you are having. Another perk is the waiting times, on average patients only wait around 15 minutes to be seen. Whereas at emergency rooms, critical patients are attended to first, which results in long waiting times for those who aren’t critically injured.
5. Talk to an Online Medical Professional
Don’t simply type your symptoms into Google, that never works for anybody. But one way that the internet can help you is that you can video conference with an online doctor or nurse. These types of online consultations are great for lesser illnesses and injuries. If for example, your child has caught a cold you can get expert advice online or via telephone instead of spending half of your morning (and a lot of money) at the doctors.
Staying at home is a good way to avoid spreading germs or picking up new ones from the local clinic. Not to mention the time and money you’ll save. Usually, you can get online or phone consolations for free or at a discount with your health plan.
