Slash Your Doctor and Hospital Bills
Slash Your Doctor and Hospital Bills
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6 | TRACK YOUR SPENDING Do you know when you've met your deductibles or how much money is left in your health FSA? Programs such as Quicken's Medical Expense Manager ($50 at quicken.com) can tell you and also alert you to potential savings such as overlooked tax deductions and possible billing errors.

7 | FOLLOW DOCTOR'S ORDERS Roughly half of all patients don't follow instructions about taking medicine, which results in 10% of hospital visits a year, according to the Merck Manual of Medical Information. Simply doing what you're told can save you your out-of-pocket share of the average $8,200 cost of a hospital stay.

8 | EQUIP YOURSELF Hospitals charge a significant markup on equipment like crutches or braces, so you're almost always better off buying them on your own.

9 | SEEK SMART COUNSEL If you're seeing a mental-health therapist every week, you're probably footing much of the bill: Most health plans limit coverage to 30 visits a year. You can cut the cost by going to a certified counselor or clinical social worker (average fee: $90 an hour) instead of a psychologist (around $120). A recent survey found no difference in effectiveness.

10 | VISIT A RETAIL HEALTH CLINIC Got an earache or upset stomach? Visit a walk-in clinic found at retail stores like CVS and Wal-Mart. Cost: about $25 to $100 for treating minor ailments, or about 25% less than the cost of care in a doctor's office, according to insurer HealthPartners. (But only 40% take insurance, so you may have to pay full price rather than just a co-pay.) Bonus: No appointment is necessary, and patients are usually in and out within 15 minutes.
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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.