6 Ways Consumers Are Fighting the High Cost of Healthcare 6 Ways Consumers Are Fighting the High Cost of Healthcare
Çağlar Oskay | Unsplash

With healthcare costs on the rise, US consumers are scrambling for ways to keep their expenses as low as possible. Many are finding that their most effective tool is being proactive, as opposed to waiting for financial emergencies to arise and responding on an ad hoc basis. Families and individuals, more than ever before, are struggling to minimize budget line items across the board, but wellness-related costs are a priority for most. What are they doing? For starters, those who value long-term health are taking several deliberate, far-reaching actions that make good sense and save money at the same time.

Even with the Affordable Care Act, consumers of all ages and backgrounds are finding that it's necessary to embrace new technologies, explore every financial option, plan their own care, and essentially stretch every dollar as far as it can go. In the uncertain economy of the mid-2020s, US households want peace of mind, not mounting medical bills. The proactive playbook includes strategies focused on telehealth, self-care, dental payment plans, comparison shopping, negotiating medical bills, and government-approved savings accounts. Here are the details about how the situation stands regarding consumers' favorite techniques for doing battle with this year's rising healthcare costs.

Telehealth Visits

Telehealth visits, conducted via internet-connected devices of all kinds, boomed during and after the pandemic of 2020. Now, five years later, the trend continues as patients are learning they can save money by getting their routine visits and consults, as well as follow-ups, at a lower cost, particularly when dealing with minor ailments like sinus conditions, influenza, and allergies. What began as a necessity amid the COVID era has transformed into a cost-cutting tool for those who like the idea of saving time, not having to travel to a doctor's office, and eliminating the associated fuel expense. Likewise, most physicians offer lower service fees for telehealth visits compared to old-school face-to-face appointments. Another upside for patients is faster and easier access to professional help and fewer costly trips to the emergency room.

Dental Care Financing

For decades, strapped working adults have delayed dental treatment or just avoided it altogether. In see-saw economies, in particular, families and singles devoted their healthcare dollars to services they considered more essential. Fortunately, today's practitioners have discovered a way to ease the budgetary burden on busy working adults. That's why more new and established dentistry practices offer installment-based financing. The most common and popular among the fresh offerings are payment plan arrangements that let patients break entire bills into smaller, more manageable payments.

Consumers are routinely surprised to find that they can go online and set up a plan that suits their budget in a matter of minutes. Plus, they like the fact that there's no impact on their credit scores when they do so. Practitioners make the whole process easy by giving out application links so prospective or established patients can explore various dental patient financing options from the comfort of their home or office. It's the new way of paying for dental bills, and it gives consumers the ability to get treated immediately, keep their budgets in line, and spread expenses over many months.

Paying Attention to Self-Care

Prevention is always a clever strategy for trimming one's expenses, particularly when it comes to doing commonsense things like eating right, getting enough sleep each night, avoiding risky behaviors, not using tobacco products, keeping alcohol intake at a sensible level, and getting regular checkups. Since the pandemic of 2020, consumers of all ages have discovered the power of prevention. The latest version of the trend includes cost-cutting methods like asking doctors to recommend supplements, diet plans, and workout routines. In addition, workers are increasingly using employer-sponsored smoking cessation programs, fitness club memberships, and subsidized healthcare coverage. The bottom line of self-care is about prevention, which is making a huge comeback during the uncertain economy and employment situation of the 2020s.

Comparison Shopping

For the past 50 years, the price tags on various procedures and pharmaceutical drugs have been anything but consistent or stable. Indeed, wise shoppers in today's healthcare marketplace try to get at least two, preferably three or four, quotes before deciding about what to buy. However, modern consumers have the advantage of the internet, which gives them the power to explore dozens of online pharmacies through apps and other e-tools. It's also become much more commonplace for prospective patients to phone ahead to find out about specific pricing for things like imaging services, blood tests, and popular procedures before making appointments or whipping out credit cards to pay in advance. When it comes to non-emergency treatment in an era of rising costs for wellness-related care, individuals take the time to investigate the best values, available discounts, and covered costs.

Negotiating Medical Bills

Physicians and clinic owners are discovering that today's consumers are less reluctant to negotiate over bills. Only a generation ago, few people felt comfortable calling a billing department to dispute charges on an itemized statement, asking for payment arrangements, or bargaining for a lower price. Since the advent of the internet, people have slowly learned that most healthcare providers are not much different from other business owners; they're in business to make a profit.

That's why so many clinics and medical practices are playing the negotiation game by offering substantial discounts for on-time payment, letting patients use payment plans to settle in full, and even providing sliding scales based on financial need and income. Some savvy consumers hire independent advocates to keep bills as low as possible. The new rule seems to be that if a charge appears on an itemized bill, then it's negotiable.

Using Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)

Based on legislation in 1978 and 2004, FSAs and HSAs, respectively, let taxpayers use pre-tax income to pay for a wide range of medical-related expenses. For decades, individuals have used the accounts to reduce their taxable income and keep healthcare costs under control. But as prices for virtually everything continue to rise, more working adults than ever before are leveraging the power of the special accounts, even using HSAs, whose funds roll over from year to year, as investment vehicles.