No, I’m not talking about a diagnosis. I’m talking about your high deductible health care plan.

Sometimes these are also called HAS (health savings accounts). I have touted these for years as being a way to participate with the highest quality carriers, the highest quality network of providers and offset your monthly premium with a high deductible.

HAS plans also have some tax advantages. So, the mentality was, you get your free preventative/wellness exam once per year and outside of that, you pay for your doctoring out of pocket until you have reached your deductible/maximum out of pocket. Years go by and you “win” on this theory by having a lower premium than insuring with a low deductible and if you choose to participate in an HAS account, some tax advantages.

However, with the environment the way it is presently, there are some hospitals that are asking the patients to pay for their high deductibles up front. The purpose for this is that the hospitals are trying to reduce the probability for accounts receivable as they continue to struggle with low reimbursements for their services. Nationwide, we have seen more health insurance companies participate in mergers and acquisitions than ever before. This was done because their reserves were not adequate enough to support the tidal waves of extremely high dollar Clients. Understandably so, but the result of that reduced the number of companies in the marketplace making competition less than it was before…driving rates up.

If you have an HDHP, my suggestion is, you’re going to pay now or pay later, so if you are astute about your budgeting and your financial planning, you indeed would have an HAS account set up, you would contribute to it and if you were ever asked by a hospital system to pay for your deductible in advance, you would be prepared and this would not be a challenge for you and you would still enjoy the benefits of an HDHP.

Please call me for a review of your current position, we will analyze your options, provide you with choices and you will know best what is a good choice for your family.