Jeanne Pinder , CONTRIBUTOR
Psst: You might pay less for health care if you put away your insurance card.
Like most of us, you probably think your insurance policy gives you access to better prices. But that’s not always true.
How do you find out? It takes a little bit of work. But when you’re done, you’ll know more about health care and insurance – whether you’re an individual looking for a simple blood test or a sore-throat visit, or whether you’re an employer trying to beat back health costs.
And with the confusion in Washington over the future of health care in this country, we will all need to take ownership of issues we previously left to the insurer and the doctor.
Here’s an example: A person in California was asked to pay $1,850 for an MRI. Because he has a high deductible, he asked the office manager and she said if he agreed not to report the transaction to his insurance company, he could have the MRI for $580.