Insurance Basics: Your Costs
Flexible spending plans let you set aside money from your paycheck. You can use it to pay for care before meeting your deductible, and for copays and coinsurance afterward.
Your health insurance ID card is your proof of insurance. You use it when you visit the doctor, hospital or other provider.
Your plan may contract with doctors, dentists and other healthcare practitioners; hospitals; labs; radiology facilities; pharmacies and other types of providers. These are the providers in your “network”.
Preventive services, such as vaccines and screenings, can help you avoid certain diseases and catch others in their early stages, to limit the harm they can cause.
Since providers are able to decide how much to charge for out-of-network care, sometimes that charge might be higher than you expected.
If you´ve been diagnosed with a chronic condition, this article will give you some guidelines to help manage your care and costs. In it you will learn how you can get help to:
We often rely on our doctors to tell us what care we need. But to get the best care, you and your doctor should make decisions together. This process is called “shared decision making”.
Are you caring long-term for a sick or disabled family member or friend? If so, you may sometimes feel alone and overwhelmed. Luckily, there are resources to help you.
Receiving care from a provider in your health plan´s network usually costs you much less than going to an out-of-network provider.
Most health plans have a “network”, a group of doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers who agree to take your insurer´s rate.
If you or someone close to you has opioid use disorder, also called opioid addiction, you aren’t
alone. The United States is in the middle of an opioid crisis. Find out about how you can afford treatment—no matter
what your income level is—and about resources for support.
If you’re planning a trip, the last thing you may want to think of is healthcare. But accidents and
illnesses can happen on the road as well as at home. Here are the basics on using health insurance while
traveling.
Acupuncture, chiropractic care and massage therapy have one thing in common: They may not be covered by insurance. That’s because they may be looked at as alternative treatments, not part of conventional medical care.