Benefits With Less Stress

From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, June 2009

On an unpleasantness scale of 1 to 10, managing medical bills earns at least a 9 -- rivaling filing your income-tax return and going to the dentist.

For example, the extra paperwork involved with an employer-sponsored flexible spending account for health care can drive you to distraction. FSAs save you money because you set aside a portion of your salary before taxes to pay for medical expenses not covered by insurance. Once you pay for the expense and submit receipts, your plan reimburses you.

Signing up for automatic deductions saves you the trouble of submitting claims. Out-of-pocket medical expenses are reported by your health insurer to your FSA, which mails you a check or automatically deposits the money in an account you specify. Alternatively, your employer may offer an FSA debit card, which you can use to cover co-payments for office visits, coinsurance for a prescription or the cost of over-the-counter medications. At participating retailers, eligible charges are automatically debited from your FSA.

If you take a "maintenance" drug, save yourself the trouble of monthly trips to the pharmacy. Instead, ask your doctor for a 90-day prescription, submit it to your prescription-benefits manager, and your meds will arrive at your door. You can order refills by phone or online. As an incentive, you typically pay the equivalent of two monthly co-pays instead of three.

When you see a new doctor, you can count on spending time recreating your medical history. A growing number of health insurers now allow you to set up a personal health record (PHR) on their Web site. You initially fill in your own information, and the record updates automatically when your health-care providers send insurance-claims data. Print out the record so you can give doctors or family members the information they need.

Kathy Campbell, head of product development at Aetna, says that when Aetna subscribers change jobs or switch insurers, they can transfer the data from their PHR to a Microsoft HealthVault account and continue to share it with new providers or insurers.

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