What does this mean relative to our health insurance and other benefits?
- We should not postpone any treatment because we don’t think we will meet our deductible for the year. Most health insurance plans credit claims that go toward deductibles in the last quarter of the year into the next year. So, if we feel a bit “off” we should seek help and catch whatever may be wrong while it is still manageable and not wait until it has the chance to grow much more serious.
- If we have had a really bad medical year and met our total out of pocket limit now would be the time to consider those services we might otherwise postpone. Have we been to the dermatologist or other provider to have a baseline check of our bodies? Have we postponed a podiatrist visit to check out conditions to our feet that may be a worry to us? What else have we been putting off because we just can’t afford any more medical bills?
- Have we stayed on top of our dental and vision visits? There are schedules we should stay on in order to keep up with routine preventive care which can prevent or identify conditions which we need to address.
- Prescription formularies change each year and, if our plans are scheduled to change soon, we may want to stock up on whatever medications we take routinely. Copays and deductibles increase, drugs are moved to higher copay levels and sometimes they even fall off the approved list. Filling prescriptions before plans change can often mean dollars saved for drugs which we need to refill routinely.
- If our individual medical plans renew January 1 now is the time to determine how we have used medical services this year. Has the plan we are on met our needs or do we have an imperfect fit? This last 3 months is a good time to analyze how we have used our plans in 2015 and what we may be able to predict on our 2016 horizon.
Contact us at Czajkowski Dumpel & Associates, Inc. – We are here to help!