My Top Five Health Insurance Savings Strategies
Having insured hundreds of individuals and employers over the last 29 years, I have identified my top five strategies for saving money on your health insurance dollars. 1) DO THE MATH â consumer-driven high deductible health plans offer the best premium savingsin the market, plus they provide tax-free reimbursements for out-of-pocket expenses. When you compare the annual cost of these plans to more traditional PPO plans with co-pays for prescriptions, office visits and emergency room care, you can usually fund most, if not all, of your HSA (Health Savings Account) or FSA (Flexible Spending Account) with the premium savings. Then you can enjoy lower fixed costs and tax savings on incurred expenses. 2) STOP BUYING BRAND MEDICATIONS â for nearly every FDA approved brand drug there are at least three generic equivalents. Ask your doctor to provide generic options and/or vitamin supplements for your medications. When we moved from a traditional PPO plan with a drug card to a HSA, I asked my doctor for alternatives to two popular brand medications I was on at the time. The difference was dramatic â we went from a quarterly cost of over $830 for two brand medications to less than $25 â a savings of over $3200 a year! 3) LOOK AT FUNDING ALTERNATIVES â for many employers implementing a higher deductible health plan and a HRA (Health Reimbursement Arrangement) that only reimburses the back-end of the deductible is a great way to reduce premiums and still maintain an affordable plan for your associates. For example, by moving from a $1,000 deductible plan to a $5,000 deductible you can save as much as 20% off the premium. Statistically, only 15% of a groups population is going to max out on their deductibles in a given year, so you can set up a deductible bridge to cover the second half of an employees exposure. It usually works out as a win-win, because the employer and the employee save on their monthly premiums and the employer saved enough premium to be able to reimburse the few that will incur the large deductible exposure. You can also fully insure the HRA through a program called Premium Saver, which saves premium and limits an employers potential exposure to self-funding a HRA plan. The Premium Saver, is very effective for groups of 5 or more employees. 4) BUY PRODUCTS THAT LOCK IN PREMIUMS â Voluntary indemnity plans through Aflac offer tax-free reimbursements for specific causes like accidents, hospitalizations, critical illnesses and disabilities directly to the insured. The best feature of the indemnity plans is the premiums lock in at your enrollment age and do not trend up annually. Plus the coverage is portable. By combining high deductible plans with Aflac coverages you can save on fixed premiums and still pay for unforseen out-of-pocket expenses tax-free. These plans work especially well with HSA plans when employees cannot afford to set aside thousands of dollars for their deductibles. 5) ADOPT WELLNESS PROGRAMS â change is not always good except when it comes to improving your health. There are a myriad of lifestyle and wellness programs available through both the insurance carriers and stand-alone in the market, including: smoking cessation, weight-loss and nutrition plans. I esp hrefecially like YouRQuest Wellness Solutions as a provider because they work with individuals, corporations and are independent of a specific carrier. Learn more about them at www.yourquest.net article submitted by Doug Helser of One Putt Marketing Group, LLC