Met Your Deductible? 7 Ways to Use Your Insurance Before the End of the Year
Deductibles. It’s hard to get away from them: almost every insurance plan has one (in fact, only about 7% don’t). They can be low, or they can be high, depending on your plan, but in most cases they are a significant amount. According to the International Foundation of Employee Benefits Plans, the average family deductible for people enrolled in employer-sponsored plans is close to $2,000. And that’s only the average – 23% have deductibles of $5,000 or more.
Your deductible resets every year; some years you may not reach it at all, and others you might end up seeking more medical care and reaching it well before the end of the year. If this happens, look at it as an opportunity: you can receive all kinds of covered services and your insurance company will pick up the tab. Don’t miss your chance! We’ve got 7 great ways to use your insurance if you meet your deductible before the end of the year.
Here’s an example of how it all works:
You have a procedure done on your knee, and the bill is $4,000. If you have that $1,000 deductible, then you’re completely on the hook for the first $1,000 of the bill, leaving $3,000.
Your plan has 80/20 coinsurance, meaning that your insurance pays 80% of costs after you’ve met your deductible, and you pay the remaining 20%. In this case, your insurance would pay 80% of $3,000 ($2,400) and you would pay the remaining 20% ($600).
So far, you’ve paid $1,600 out-of-pocket. If you have an out-of-pocket maximum of $5,000 for the year, you’d have to spend $3,400 more in order to hit your maximum – your insurance company would then cover all of the rest of your bills in full.
In the above situation, you’d have more than met your deductible. So what now? It’s time to prioritize some of that medical care you’ve been putting off! But first, remember to always check with your insurance company to make sure that a service is covered. Just because you’ve met your deductible, doesn’t mean that your insurance will start covering things it didn’t cover before.
Here are some ideas of services to schedule before your deductible resets in January:
