How to Reduce Rising Health Care Costs

Rising healthcare costs are a major issue, not just in the political arena but also for everyday people with bills to pay and lives to lead. On the larger level, political squabbling often drowns out any agreement on sensible measures that might help reduce costs throughout the healthcare system. On a personal and family level, however, reducing rising healthcare costs is all about preventing costs before they are incurred and becoming a knowledgeable healthcare consumer. Be aggressive in working to decrease your healthcare costs, and pressure your elected leaders to do the same with the system.

Part 1 - Practicing Prevention

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→ Eat healthy and exercise regularly. The most effective way to reduce your medical costs is to reduce your need for medical care. You should not avoid regular checkups and necessary care, of course, and many injuries, illnesses, and conditions are beyond your control. That said, many chronic medical conditions that incur significant expenses — diabetes, heart disease, some cancers — are often heavily influenced by lifestyle choices.

→ One estimate indicated that if the U.S. population reduced its average body mass index (BMI) by five percent, healthcare spending would reduce by eight percent.

→ There are many good WikiHow articles on topics like improving your cardiovascular health, eating healthy, and exercising effectively. Seek out articles with references to legitimate scientific and medical sources.

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→ Utilize preventative services and health screenings. Regular screenings and health assessments cost money, but they are almost always far less expensive than dealing with a chronic or serious condition that could have been prevented or controlled. Excessive screening and testing is a problem in the healthcare system, but its impact is dwarfed by the cost and damage done by inadequate prevention.

→ In the U.S., insurance plans are generally required by law to cover many common preventative services, such as mammograms, immunizations, and well-baby visits. Always take advantage of these.

→ Keep an eye out for free community health screening programs in your area. You can often find free blood pressure, blood sugar, or other screenings offered by insurers or healthcare providers.

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→ Seek the appropriate type of medical treatment. One of the quickest ways to rack up an unnecessarily large medical bill is to visit the emergency room for a non-emergency reason. When you think you may need emergency care, seek it, but otherwise look into lower-cost alternatives. Likewise, don’t avoid legitimate visits to your physician’s office, but also consider options like email, phone, or video consultations that may be offered.

→ For colds, the flu, and minor injuries, walk-in / express clinics can often be a cost-effective option. Shop around for the best service and price. Make sure your primary care physician is notified of any treatment you receive, though.

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→ Help to coordinate your care. The continuing fragmentation and specialization of the medical field has impacted the cost of care in several ways. For instance, a lack of coordination of care can lead to repeat or unnecessary treatments due to insufficient information. Take an active role in facilitating communication and coordination among your healthcare providers, and you are likely to both improve your care and reduce your costs.

→ For instance, get copies of all your medical tests and records, and bring them with you to visits. This simple step can prevent unnecessary tests and treatments, not to mention the benefits it can offer to your overall quality of care.

Part 2 - Being an Informed Consumer

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→ Shop around. You already shop around for the best quality for the best price when looking for a house, a car, a repairman, or a pair of shoes. Treat healthcare, from insurance to hospitals to procedures, in a similar manner. You are a consumer, and you should seek out the best quality and value for your dollar.

→ Unfortunately, healthcare usually doesn’t come with a simple, straightforward price tag. Weaving through the web of deductibles, co-pays, and exclusions in insurance plans, or the maze of charges for a medical procedure, can be a challenge. You need to do your homework and be persistent to get the information you need to make the best value choices.

→ Medical procedure costs can vary by thousands of dollars from one provider to another. Shop around before settling on a hospital or clinic. Similarly, always comparison shop with pharmacies for your prescriptions. Prices for the same medications can vary widely, and many chains offer different groupings of low-cost generic drugs.

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→ Ask questions. While it is important to be able to trust the judgment of your medical providers, that does not mean you should accept every recommendation without question or clarification. You should never be too disinterested or too intimidated to ask “why.” It is your health and your healthcare dollar, and you owe it to yourself to make sure you have the information you need to make the best decisions for both.

→ While many healthcare providers are attuned to issues of cost, others may give little consideration to this factor when recommending treatments. Never be afraid to ask if a particular test, treatment, or medication is necessary, or if there are equivalent (and possibly cheaper) alternatives available — for instance, taking a “wait-and-see” approach or trying to make lifestyle changes before resorting to a medication.

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→ Negotiate your costs. If you’ve haggled over a car, bounced house offers and counteroffers back and forth, or even scored some great deals at a yard sale of flea market, you already have experience with the art of price negotiation as a consumer. When faced with a substantial medical bill, always look for ways to reduce it. Health insurers and providers want to get their money from you, and are often willing to “cut a deal” or make payment arrangements to get what they can from you instead of risking a dragged-out collection process.

→ When you get a large medical bill, immediately contact the hospital, doctor, insurer, etc. Act before the unpaid bill gets sent to the collections department or agency, and your odds of being able to work out a deal will be much improved.

Part 3 - Improving the System

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→ See past the politics. Especially in recent years, healthcare has become one of those politicized topics that you probably don’t want to bring up at a party. Even if politicians seem unable or unwilling to work together to find solutions to reduce rising healthcare costs on a systemic level, that doesn’t mean there aren’t solutions out there.

→ When it comes to rising healthcare costs, your first priority is — rightly — to save money for yourself and your family. That does not mean you cannot be an informed advocate for changes in the system that can benefit you and everyone else.

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→ Advocate for improved preventative services. You’ve probably heard the old saying “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Well, in almost every scenario, money invested in preventative care results in lower overall healthcare costs by decreasing costly procedures and ongoing care for chronic conditions. Whether you believe the government or the free market should be at the forefront, we should all be able to agree that efforts to increase access and usage of preventative services is good for our health and the bottom line.

→ In the U.S., ten percent of the population incurs some seventy percent of all healthcare expenditures. While not always the case, many people in this tenth of the populace suffer from chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease, which can require ongoing and costly care. Preventative screenings and treatments that may spur changes in diet, exercise, and lifestyle can help reduce the incidence of many such chronic conditions, and thus overall costs.

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→ Seek more efficient coordination of care. Perhaps more so than any other medically-advanced nation, the United States has an especially fragmented delivery system for medical care. Complex webs of insurers, providers, records, regulations, and healthcare sites can lead to unnecessary or repeated treatments, duplication of services, and errors. All of these, of course, are not only detrimental to people’s health, they cost more money.

→ For instance, unnecessary hospital re-admissions often happen because discharged patients “fall through the cracks” and fail to receive adequate follow-up care.

→ While technological advances and electronic medical records have created many new opportunities for better coordination of care, there is still much room for improvement. Patients, however, have to be encouraged and empowered to be their own advocates in ensuring such coordination. They need to have the tools and information to take a leading role in the process.