Health insurance ever made you this happy? Yeah, we didn’t think so. 

 Let’s face facts: having insurance is great, but using it is not always great.

After forking over premiums for months, when you finally get care you might get hit with one of the following surprises: your doctor is out of network, your medicine isn’t covered, your clinic charges like a hospital, or your Tylenol costs an absurd $40 per pill.

But wait: insurance doesn’t have to hurt.

Here are five ways to up the convenience and lower the shock and costs:

1. Seize your complimentary annual wellness visit provided by the Affordable Care Act. Through the ACA, the various tests and screenings that make up an “annual wellness visit or preventative” are 100% covered. You won’t pay a dime. This includes general preventive services, STI screenings, and wellness services for women. Yes, the cost probably got lumped into your premiums, so if you don’t take advantage of it, you’re losing out on your health and your wallet.  Trek Tip: The wellness visit must completed by a doctor or clinic in your network to be free. Also, if more tests or medications need to be ordered that are above and beyond a general wellness visit, then you might have to pay for them out of pocket depending on your plan selection, so make sure to ask your doctor what’s free and what’s not.
2. Save your insurance company’s customer support number in your contacts as ‘BFF’. Some insurance companies list ‘low call-volume’ times directly in their contact pages while others offer a ‘scheduled call’ feature where you specify a good time for a rep to call you.  Trek Tip: Keep your phone charged if you’re braving the wait times, and have your insurance card in hand. The less you get frustrated with the robot, the more patient you’ll be with the human rep, stay calm all.
3. Spend 15 minutes getting cozy with your insurance company’s website.  You never know when you’ll need the doctor finder, urgent care finder, drug formularies, or discount              programs. The doctor search ensures that you stay within your network. It’s also a good way to call ahead and ask if the practice is independent or hospital-based, which helps you avoid surprise charges. Drug formularies are good for checking if your drug (or its generic version) is covered. And, often times, your insurance company has additional discounts on things like gym memberships, weight loss programs or vision material discounts. Information is power.
4. Explore Tele-Health options through your insurer. It sounds futuristic, but new Tele-health companies offer 24/7 access to doctors who can not only diagnose conditions, but can also prescribe medicines and send them to your local pharmacy. For non-emergency medical needs, this can be more convenient than waiting for an appointment at your doctor’s office, especially with children. The cost is also often less or equivalent to a doctor’s visit. Trek Tip: For complicated conditions, you might get referred to your primary care doc and end up paying twice. Also, many insurance carriers have a (free) nursing call line that can help you decide if you need to come in to see a doctor or not.

It can sometimes feel like your insurance is buckling under pressure, but there’s no reason it has to. With a little bit of planning and awareness of your options, using insurance does not have to hurt! If all else fails, just reach out to Trek Insurance Group, LLC. We’ll take care of you, with you.

Contacts us at Info@TrekInsuranceGroup.com