A health insurance co-payment can be a small insignificant dollar amounts that you pay a infrequently each year, but it can also be a hefty dollar amount that will have major impact on your wallet. If your only understanding of health care insurance co-pays is the forgettable dollar amounts that you might pay when you buy drugs, please read on. Your bank account may be the better for it.
Three important pieces of information that you should know about include how your medical insurance contract limitations co-pays over the course of 12 months, how large copays are sometimes and the fact that often more than just a co-payment will apply to one medical treatment. You shouldn’t assume that you will probably have to keep paying copayments even after you have met your medical insurance policy’s stop loss provision. You may also be very disappointed to discover that some co-pays can be $500. Another little tidbit that you don’t want to be hurt by is the fact that in certain situations both a copayment and a deductible can apply to the same heath care expense.
It is important to understand all not just the way your co-payments work but the other medical insurance cost shares such as deductibles and coinsurance as well. Many consumers make assumptions about their health care insurance and get surprised when then have a big medical bill they have to pay. Don’t let this happen to you.
Health care insurance copays are different from deductibles and coinsurance. Both of the others are usually based on expenses over an annual time period. Co-payments are assessed on a per incident basis.
If you assume that once you have met your policy’s deductible and maximum-out-of-pocket limitations that you will not have to pay any more co-pays, you will probably be wrong. Many if not most health insurance co will have nothing that limits the number of co-payments you can pay over the course of 12 months.
Another misconception is the belief that copays are always small. This is because the typical co-payments that most insurance policyholders pay are the relatively small dollar amounts that they might pay in health care professional’s office or in the pharmacy. These co-payments are relatively insignificant for most policyholders.
However, many medical insurance co assess large copays for other medical services. You may pay a $50 copay for each visit to a walk-in clinic. You could pay a $100 co-pay for each visit to the ER.
When purchasing medical insurance be sure that you don’t assume that all contracts are the same. You may find that you have to pay both a deductible and a co-payment for certain services. You may discover that there is a separate deductible for name brand prescriptions. These provisions arent in every plan, but they exist in enough of them to make it prudent to read your plan’s literature closely.
Appreciating how your policy works is essential to knowing if you are getting a good deal of if you should start shopping for another policy. Medical insurance contracts are often confusing and can take some effort to understand, however not knowing what you are getting usually means that you pay too much for your plan.
Health Care insurance copays aren’t always small insignificant fees you pay in health care professional’s office or pharmacy. Be sure that you understand how your co-payments are assessed in any policy you are considering purchasing before you sign your name on the dotted line.
