Simple Tips to Save Money on Health Care

Welcome back to NTV Good Morning. I'm Carrie Dunst. For many families, even those with decent health insurance, medical bills can be costly and confusing. Joining us with helpful tips and tricks is Lawrence Sprung. He's the founder of Mitland Financial. He's also the author of Financial Planning Made Personal. Lawrence, great to see you. You're advising your clients to treat a medical or a dental bill more like a first draft than set in stone. Why is that? Yeah, because uh many times they're wrong or inaccurate and you're being overcharged and uh maybe insurance should have come in and paid part of it. So, use it as a first draft. Make sure you're uh you know, checking it against what you're getting from the insurance company that they match up and uh you know, take your time in paying them. Pay them on time. Don't pay them late necessarily, but make sure that they're right before you make that payment. And Lawrence, why is it important to have a fully itemized bill when you get one of these bills from, you know, either the insurance company or the healthcare provider? >> Yeah, I think the important thing is you want to have the details to help you look for duplicates, wrong days, or for even charges you didn't receive. So, um, you know, you want to make sure that if you're getting build, you're getting build properly. And many times, you know, because this is a coding game for the health insurer or health insurer and your provider, sometimes things get miscoded and you want to make sure that they're right on the final bill. >> Yeah. I think that um many people have experienced the frustration you're describing. I read one yesterday where someone was dealing with um you know a challenging health prognosis and they felt like they were fighting two battles. One with the insurance company and then a second one for their actual survival and health. One frequent point of confusion in all this is that you do get two statements from your insurance provider and from the medical provider. So what tips do you have along these lines? >> Yeah, I will tell you this personally growing up. You know, I I talk uh very openly about my mom's battle with cancer. Uh she died at a very early age at the age of 47 and I remember I I was a kid back then and I remember my dad half his time was spent at work and a lot of his time was fighting the insurance company. So you want to look for things, you know, if you can do this on your own, great. And sometimes you have to. You have no other choice. But look at your employer and any benefits that you might have. For example, through our benefit package at our firm, we have a thing called health advocate. So, you can send them the bills, they'll review them, and if something's out of whack, they will contact the provider and basically lobby on your behalf. They like you to reach out the first time on your own. But ultimately, if you need a third party to step in, they're there for you. So, there are a lot of employers that offer benefits like this. So hopefully if your employer has it, take advantage of it because many times it's unknown and it could save you a lot of time and headache. It saved me and my family quite a bit of uh headache with regards to getting certain medications approved that were denied, procedures, etc. And they take the lead on that. Uh unfortunately, if you don't have those kind of services, then it's going to be up to you. But you can be your own voice and it's okay to question the charges and the details on the bills, especially if there's a mismatch. >> Yeah. I think one of the worst terms that people hear from insurance companies is not medically necessary, which can be frustrating if you know the doctor is advising it, then why would it be not medically necessary? And I think another area where this can uh come out in bills swinging widely is this concept of in and out of network. Can you offer any tips on that? Yeah. So many times, you know, sometimes we have control over whether or not we're going in network or out of network, but sometimes when we have these procedures done, doctors will bring in out of network potentially providers like an anesthesiologist or something like that for a specific procedure. It's important that if you have something going on and you're already at an in-et network doctor, that's great. Make sure if you're doing something else where the doctor is going to have to bring in other physicians for your care, make sure that those people are in network. If they're not in network, that's fine. If you still want to use that provider and you understand what the ultimate cost or outcome's going to be, that that's perfectly fine. But at least upfront you'll know whether you're dealing in network or out of network. Now, these prices often feel exorbitantly high and somewhat arbitrary as well. Is there anything that you can do when you get sticker shock? When you receive one of those bills in the mail, ask for a discount. It's okay, especially if you're going to pay it in full. Uh my family, we've had hospital bills where it was our responsibility. Insurance wasn't going to be stepping in. And I literally called the hospital when I got the bill and I said, "Hey, if I pay this today, is there any kind of full payment or early pay discount and I've gotten anywhere between 30 to 50% off the bill as a result of that?" Uh, just recently also, I will share with you, my son needed a piece of medical equipment. They sent us a bill. It was $1,500. I don't believe the piece of medical equipment was anywhere near that cost. We questioned it and ultimately the insurance company came back to us and said,"Well, does your son who's 19, so he's an adult. Does he have any income?" And we're like, "Not really." Because he's uh he's actually playing junior hockey right now. So, they asked us to fill out a form about his financial well-being. And ultimately, they ended up waving the bill as a result, saying he didn't have the financial ability to make the payment. So, ask questions, ask for a discount before you pay that final bill. And Lawrence, just in our last 30 seconds, what if you get a bill and it's just too big and you need to, you know, maybe put it on a credit card? What what do you do in that situation? >> Try not to put it on the credit card because you're going to pay exorbitant percentages uh of interest for that. You know, ask the the provider for a payment plan. Many times they have that available. They deal with it every day. They'd rather get the payment plan than no payment at all. And many times they're at no interest or zero interest. So it's almost always safer and cheaper than putting a medical bill on a credit card. Ask for a payment plan. >> Well, hopefully in the future our health care system will become a lot simpler and and more effective. But until then, these tips are gold. We appreciate you sharing them with us, Larry. >> Thank you. Good to see it.