From prescription drugs to x-rays--medical care is expensive. Financial expert Mark Lamkin from Lamkin Wealth Management gives the five ways you can spend less on health care.
Spend less on tests and x-rays
Different facilities charge vastly different prices for x-rays and tests. The average in-network cost of an MRI at a hospital tends to be twice the cost at an independent radiology facility. When doctors order a lab test or an x-ray, they write a requisition form, and just like a prescription, you're free to fill it at any facility. Many insurers offer Web tools that show costs for various facilities under your plan, and you can look up fair prices for medical tests at www.healthcarebluebook.com .
Spend less on emergency care
If you don't need to go to an emergency room, you can save hundreds of dollars by getting treatment at an urgent-care center or convenience-care clinic (such as Minute Clinic at CVS). Some insurers boost the coinsurance rate for non-emergency visits to the ER and waive the coinsurance payment entirely for convenience-care centers. Or you may be able to get free advice from your insurer's 24-hour nurse hotline.
Spend less on preventive care
Make the most of new laws that require insurers and Medicare to provide certain preventive procedures, such as blood-pressure and cholesterol tests, mammograms and colonoscopies, flu shots, routine vaccines and well-baby visits-without copays or deductibles (see www.healthcare.gov for the list). Plus, many employers offer incentives to participate in a healthy-living program -- for example, a discount on health premiums if you enroll in a tobacco-cessation program.
Health care spending accounts
Health care spending accounts let you designate the amount to be deducted from your salary each payday, starting at the begin-beginning of the year. For now, your employer sets the maximum amount you can contribute (in 2013, the maximum for all plans will be $2,500); your contributions avoid federal, state and local income tax as well as Social Se-Security and Medicare taxes. The money can be withdrawn as re-imbursement for qualified health ex-penses, such as co-payments, eyeglasses and contact lenses, and the cost of prescription drugs. (As of 2011, you can no longer use money in the account for nonprescription drugs.) If you don't use the money by the end of the plan year or, with some em-ployers, by March 15 of the following year, you lose what-ever's left in the account.
To learn more about saving on health care, click here.
Lamkin Wealth Management
5151 Jefferson Blvd., Suite 102
or
901 Lily Creek Drive Ste. 102
office: 502-961-6550 Office
toll free: 866-961-6550
www.lamkinwealth.com
"Securities Offered Through LPL Financial, Member FINRA/SIPC and an Investment Advisor"
