Need medical treatment in the new year and want to nail down your out-of-pocket costs before you walk into the doctor's office? There's a new tool for that for insured patients.
Need medical treatment in the new year and want to nail down your out-of-pocket costs before you walk into the doctor's office? There's a new tool for that, at least for insured patients.
Insurers must make the cost information available for 500 nonemergency services considered"shoppable," meaning patients generally have time to consider their options. The federal requirement stems from thePatients, knowing they need a specific treatment, drug, or medical service, first log on to the cost estimator on a website offered through their insurer or, for some, their employer.
And there are caveats: Consumers using the tools must be enrolled in the respective health plan, and there's no guarantee the final cost will be exactly as shown. Many insurers have offered versions of cost-estimator tools before, but small percentages of enrollees actually use them,Federal regulators defended the requirement for estimator tools, writing that even though many insurers had provided them, the new rule sets specific parameters, which may be more detailed than earlier versions.
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