Save money on your hospital bills just by asking
Medical bills are sooo expensive
My wife and I just went through an extremely expensive medical emergency in the past month where we ended up having to pay quite a bit of money to two different hospitals. Luckily we had insurance (see yesterday’s post), and our liability was capped at $1800. Our emergency fund and tax rebate covered all of our costs. We realize that some people aren’t nearly as blessed as we were, and end up facing huge mountains of hospital debt.
What can you do to reduce your medical bills if you aren’t covered as well as we were, or if you have a procedure that isn’t covered by your insurance?
Pay Cash and ask for a discount!
Just ask for a discount! That’s right - ask for a discount. Often times hospitals are willing to work with you on your medical bills, often times offering discounts of 10-20% or more off of your total bill.
We have some good friends who recently had a baby at a local hospital. After being alerted to the fact that you can often negotiate your hospital bills, they called the billing department number found on their bill. After telling the operator that they wanted to pay their bill in cash, and that they would like a discount, the hospital gave them a 15% discount! They saved several hundred dollars, just by asking!
Smart Money Magazine talked about this in a recent post:
When it comes to getting paid, hospitals have their work cut out for them. Medical bills are a major cause of bankruptcy in the U.S., and when collectors are put on the case, they take up to 25% of what is reclaimed, according to Mark Friedman, founder of billing consultant Premium Healthcare Services. That leaves room for some bargaining.Take Logan Roberts. The 26-year-old had started work as a business analyst near Atlanta but had no insurance when he was rushed to the ER for an appendectomy. The uninsured can pay three times more for procedures, says Nora Johnson, senior director of Medical Billing Advocates of America; Roberts was billed $21,000. “I was like, holy cow!” he says. “That’s four times my net worth.”
After advice from advocacy group The Access Project, Roberts spoke with hospital administrators, telling them he couldn’t pay in full. Hospitals frequently work with patients, offering payment plans or discounts. It paid off for Roberts, whose bill was sliced to $4,100 — 20% of the original.
Ask for a discount everywhere you shop
This tip will not only work at your hospital, but when you’re buying a car, buying new furniture, buying clearance items at your local store or when booking a hotel room. Businesses like getting paid up front, and it saves them the credit card charges when you pay cash. So, it doesn’t hurt to ask!
So there we have it, it’s a simple three step process.
1. Ask for a discount.
2. Pay in cash.
3. Save big money.
LINKS:
Smart Money - 10 things hospitals won’t tell you
Free Money Finance - Ask for a discount and pay cash
Five Cent Nickel - Don’t be afraid to ask for a discount
Personal Finance Bible Verse of the Day: Get Rich Quick?
Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow. Proverbs 13:11
These days get rich quick schemes are a dime a dozen. You are told that you can buy and sell foreclosed houses and get rich quick! Try the newest currency trading exchange and get rich quick! Invest in this new company - and get rich quick!
As this verse tells us, the best way to make good in your financial life is “little by little”. Working hard and saving your resources over time, investing and making wise decisions are how you can “make it grow”.
Does that mean that there will never be anyone who strikes it rich overnight? No, of course not. But I do believe that someone who grows their wealth little by little over time will tend to appreciate it more.
So - don’t count on getting rich quick. Make wise decisions and make your money grow, little by little.
How to find cheap gas where you live
Gas prices are going up
At the end of last week I posted about gas prices, how they’re steadily rising, and ways you can cut back on your gas consumption. I’ve been starting to use some of those tips myself, and I have to admit - it isn’t as easy as I was hoping. I am hopeless when it comes to gunning it at a green light and speeding up to red lights. I’ve noticed myself doing this every time I drive this past week.
Having some things to do to cut back your consumption is helpful, but regardless, you’re still going to need to get gas. So I decided to find some ways you can pay less for the gas that you’re buying.
Find the cheapest prices in your area
Probably one of the easiest things you can do to pay less is just to find the gas stations in your area that are charging the least for gas. Now don’t go to the extreme and drive 25 miles just to save 3 cents on gas, but if you have 5 stations within a couple of miles of your home, and one of them is charging less, why not go and fill up there?
Online gas price tools
I found a ton of tools online that you can use to find the cheapest gas prices. Here are some of the better ones:
- Automotive.com Gas Price Tool: I found this tool through PTMoney.com. To use the tool just type in your zip code and it will come back with the local gas prices in your area. Easy as pie! The site also has an assortment of gas prices widgets that you can place on your desktop, website, blog, facebook account or google homepage. Very cool!
- GasBuddy.com: GasBuddy.com is similar to the above tool, although I’ve found that sometimes the information is updated sooner. Gas prices are submitted by users in the local area along with the time/date they saw the price. I’ve found it to be pretty accurate, and they have a variety of other tools available as well like a gas price heat map, fuel logbook and more. Definitely worth a look.
- MSN Autos Gas Prices: MSN Autos has a gas prices tool as well. I haven’t used it as much, but it seems to be pretty accurate.
- Mapquest Gas Prices: Yet another gas price tool, this time from Mapquest. Seems to work just fine.
There are other tools on the web to find your gas prices, but those are the ones I found most helpful.
Other ways to save
- Buy gas at a warehouse club: Another easy way for some people to save gas is by buying their gas at their local warehouse club (Sam’s Club, Costco, etc). Many of these membership shopping clubs have gas as well, usually 4-5 cents cheaper than everywhere else. Granted, you usually have to be a member to take advantage of their prices, but if you are, buy your gas there. When searching for cheap gas at the website above, the cheapest gas was consistently at the Sam’s club right down the road from us.
- Use a connected GPS with local gas prices: Many GPS systems that you can buy nowadays can connect and download local gas prices. Garmin Nuvi 780 and Garmin Nuvi 680 use MSN Direct to search for gas stations and lists the price of regular gas. The downside is that there is a subscription to this service of $50 a year and comes through the FM airwaves. Tom Tom Plus GO 920/920T uses Bluetooth to funnel gas prices to users, but once again, there is a $20 per year subscription. The information comes through a Bluetooth-compatible phone. Dash Express Connected GPS uses a built-in cellular radio to search for gas prices.
- Text Message with GasBuddy.com: Don’t have a connected GPS? You can still get gas prices from Gas Buddy on your mobile phone. Just text your zip code to gas@gasbuddy.com.
So those are a few ways you can save on the gas that you’re paying for anyway. What are some tips you’d like to share? Let me know in the comments and if its a tip I like I’ll add you to the bottom of the post with a link!
LINKS:
GasBuddy.com
Automotive.com Gas Price Tool (hat tip PTMoney.com)
Mapquest Gas Prices
MSN Autos Gas Prices
Why is it important to have health coverage, even if you’re healthy?
Are the health insurance premiums worth it?
A question that I’ve struggled with over the past few years is whether the money my wife and I pay every month for health insurance premiums are really worth it. We’re paying thousands of dollars every year for coverage, and we could never really see much benefit. We’re young and healthy and we don’t have any major medical costs. We don’t have any family history of problems, so we thought that maybe we should just discontinue the coverage and invest the saved money?
Our thinking is apparently shared by a large number of people in this country. According to the Census Bureau Nearly 47 million Americans, or 16 percent of the population, were without health insurance in 2005, the latest government data available. The number of uninsured rose 2.2 million between 2005 and 2006 and has increased by almost 9 million people since 2000. That is a lot of uninsured people. Granted, a majority of those people probably just can’t afford health insurance because of rising costs, but a large number of them are also choosing not to pay for it because they feel the money can be better spent elsewhere.
We decided to pay for our coverage anyway. We’re glad we did.
Despite the fact that we weren’t sure we were getting any real value from our health insurance, we continued our coverage through my employer, and swallowed the bitter pill that is monthly premiums.
This past month my view on the whole subject of health insurance changed dramatically due to a health crisis that my wife experienced.
Our health crisis
Maria went to the chiropractor last month because of some back pain she was experiencing. She was adjusted by the doctor, and went home, only to experience pain in her leg. The next day she went back in to be adjusted again. The chiropractor told her that he thought she had a pulled muscle, or was having discomfort from being adjusted the previous day. He adjusted her again, but the pain was now 10 times worse than before.
After talking with her mother about the pain my wife decided to go into the local clinic. The doctor we met with also thought it might just be a pulled muscle or something relatively benign. After my mother-in-law insisted, they did a CT scan. They discovered that my wife had a very serious blood clot in her groin area. If they hadn’t discovered it, it was pretty likely that she would have died. She was admitted to the hospital immediately.
After being checked into the hospital that afternoon my wife underwent a series of tests which told us that her leg was completely clotted and there was little to no blood flow. The doctors put her on blood thinners immediately, hoping to reverse the tide and remove the blockage in her veins.
After being in the hospital for 4 nights Maria’s leg wasn’t getting any better. In fact, it was getting worse. Her leg had swollen to 5 times its normal size, and she was in extreme pain. The doctors suggested that we move my wife to a bigger hospital in Minneapolis that would be able to perform a procedure to unblock her veins.
We moved her to the new hospital and had 4 procedures done over the next week and a half. She was in intensive care for a good part of the time, and was constantly on an IV drip of blood thinners. After being in the hospital for 3 weeks she was finally well enough to go home.
Health Insurance - is it worth it?
What’s the point of my story? My wife is 27 years old, has never had a history of health issues, and never had any symptoms until her blood clot happened. Sometimes even seemingly healthy people have health issues just lying below the surface, just waiting to rear their ugly heads.
In our case we weren’t happy with having to pay large premiums every month for insurance coverage, but now that we’ve had a major health crisis, we’re very thankful we had that coverage. Without it we would now be paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for all of the medical costs we incurred in the last month. With no coverage we would soon be bankrupt.
I have an acquaintance who had a similar situation a couple of years ago. His wife was in a major car accident and ended up having to be in the hospital for several weeks. His family didn’t have insurance, and they paid the price. They’ve since filed for bankruptcy, and have never been the same financially since. From the NCHC:
According to one study, over a third of the uninsured have problems paying medical bills. The unpaid bills were substantial enough that many had been turned over to collection agencies - and nearly a quarter of the uninsured adults said they had changed their way of life significantly to pay medical bills.
You’ll need to decide whether or not you think health insurance is right for your family, but please consider. All it takes is one slip, one unknown health issue, one car accident - and your life will be turned upside down like ours was. If you have decided against getting health insurance because of the costs, please remember, those extra dollars you have to pay now may mean the difference between bankruptcy and good financial health down the road.
LINKS:
National Coalition on Health Care Fast Facts
Health Insurance Resource Center
Carnivals, Link and More!
Another week another bunch of blog carnival submissions!
Carnivals this week
Bible Money Matters was included in several carnivals this week.
- The 14th Money Hacks Carnival - Weird Golf Facts Edition @ PTMoney.com: Prime Time Money hosts the Money Hacks Carnival (one of may faves), and includes my post Drive Free Cars and Retire Rich!
- Christian Carnival CCXXVI: Bounded Irrationality hosts the Christian Carnival and includes my post You’ve been given so much, now what will you do with it?
- Carnival of Personal Finance #154: Hosted by Big Uncle Dave this week, the carnival gave a link to my post 7 Tips for a Frugal Wedding.
- Festival of Frugality: Funny about Money hosts, and keeps it simple. Simple theme, good posts.
Please check out the carnivals, and don’t forget to check out the rest of the great articles included by the hosts in the carnivals!
Favorites
Some of my favorite posts from those carnivals this week:
- FIRE Finance presents How to Turn $5000 into $22 Million
- Saving Advice presents Falling Off the Dave Ramsey Diet (i don’t really agree with this one, but appreciate that Ramsey isn’t for everyone)
- Mighty Bargain Hunter presents Pay $15 for Gas Now
- Free Money Finance tells us how Costs Limit Your Investment Returns
Money Life Network Faves
And finally, check out some great articles from my brothers in arms over at the Money Life Network:
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Money Life Network
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