By David Singer
In our previous blog we covered prospects within Regenerative Medicine as we enter the new year. It truly presents itself as an opportunity for not just your clinic, but to make a significant difference in other people’s lives. Naturally however, the new year brings its own set of challenges in the form of high deductible costs.
The Unfortunate Truth
We are in a system whereby high deductibles affect us all. Particularly at the start of the year, ‘The new year often starts harshly for people with high-deductible health insurance. Many deductibles reset Jan. 1, forcing patients to pay thousands of dollars for care or prescriptions before most insurance coverage starts.’ (Associated Press, 2020, para. 1-2) There are a few options doctors can utilize to assist patients having difficulty through this.
Overcoming High Deductibles
Ways to Change or Improve your Management Approach:
- Split the deductible: If patients find that a single payment early in the year is difficult, 2 or even 4 payments can occur over a period of a year.
- Provide support in decision-making: Provide tools to help patients shop for pricing and information with advocacy programs.
- Telemedicine: This helps patients out of the more costly doctor’s office, but giving diagnosis and treatments over the phone or video call.
- Encourage patients changing needs every year: Through decision support, educate them on how their decision will affect them and what may be a more affordable option.
- Avoid the term: ‘High-deductible’ tends to have a negative connotation with most. ‘A 2020 study by Voya asked employees to choose between identical plans with different premiums and deductibles. They consistently chose the suboptimal plan.’ (Andrus, 2021, para. 6)
- Incorporate Cash Services: Services that patients are happy to pay out of pocket for, such as anti-aging, regenerative medicine, weight loss, etc.
Although high-deductibles are a part of an issue that plagues most people at the start of the new year, you can minimize the effects of this through some simple steps. Given these hurdles can seep over to your clinics bottom-line, it is in every practitioners interest that such measures are taken to ensure that you are ready for the new year’s financial hurdle.
Andrus, D. (2021, April 6). 3 ways to overcome high barriers set by high-deductibles. BenefitsPRO. Retrieved November 23, 2021, from https://www.benefitspro.com/2021/04/06/3-ways-to-overcome-high-barriers-set-by-high-deductibles/?slreturn=20211023154059.
Associated Press. (2020, January 15). How to ease the pain of new year high-deductible plans. NBCNews.com. Retrieved November 22, 2021, from https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/how-ease-pain-new-year-high-deductible-plans-n1116521.
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