Heath Care Pricing Transparency and Consumer Rights: Asking about costs
Discussing costs during a visit
TIPS FOR SCHEDULING CARE...
- If the doctor wants to schedule a test or procedure, you could do any of the following:
- Ask the doctor for a good faith estimate. Then share it with other providers to find out their prices.
- See if the service is included in the provider's shoppable services site
- Check your health insurance cost estimator website to compare prices with other providers
- Search for the billing codes in the provider's machine-readable standard charges file
- Read this patient guide to surprise medical billing protections (source: PIRG)
- The government has passed laws allowing some preventative care services at no charge. Check your insurance policy coverage and additional details at CDC.gov. You can schedule a preventative care or "wellness" visit, but remember that if your discussion goes outside the boundaries of a wellness visit and you could be charged.
Additional resources
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Patient guide to surprise medical billing protectionsTip: ask "Are you part of my plan's network," not "Do you take my insurance?" The latter could get you billed at out-of-network rates. Source: PIRG.
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Be aware of facility feesDoctor offices, urgent cares, imaging centers and other such centers owned by hospitals may add an unexpected hospital "facility fee" to the bill. This article from PIRG tells more.
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What your doctor wants you to know to crush medical debt
by
Written in an accessible style by an internal medicine physician and former health insurance executive.
