I’ve long advocated that consumers be allowed to purchase “catastrophic” policies on the open market and plug and play other models as it fits their health needs. Concierge, tele-medicine and self-pay models are a couple of options.
On average, a family of 4 will pay $20,604 and a single $9,044 before any co-insurance cost. Costs are not going to come down anytime soon so how can you make this work for you if you don’t have insurance. Consider the following if you are in relatively good health, aren’t facing any upcoming needed procedures or surgeries, and you aren’t living a hi-risk life-style.
- Concierge is an annual fee based model ranging from $1,500 to $7,000 per year. The model is designed to give physicians more quality time with their patients, easier access and a focus on prevention in managing your health. Tele-medicine is a monthly fee of $29.00 and up; read the fine print on both.
- Prescriptions – there are many free drugs available thru your particular state and pharmacies; most consumers don’t know this. You can also ask the manufacturers what programs are available for free medications. Lastly, get a discount drug card; we have a good one.
- Blood and diagnostic imaging tests – all of them have self-pay pricing. For example, we recently negotiated for a patient of ours the following blood and imaging tests:
a. Basic Metabolic Panel $ 52.08
b. Lipid Panel $147.34
c. CBC includes diff $ 42.18
d. Prostate PSA Screen $148.48
e. CT scan of AB/Pelvis without contrast $215.00
Insurance would have been billed a much higher rate, meaning that most of this, times 1.5 or higher, would have gone to an annual deductible while still paying a monthly premium.
The above is just an example and you have to run your own numbers for your particular situation. Call us if we can help you.
