You can withdraw money from your Health Savings Account (HSA) to visit an MD, DO or a chiropractor. Since you will be writing a check or using your debit card to pay for these visits at the time of service, you will really notice how much it costs. Since you have a high-deductible health insurance policy (a must for an HSA), you will be spending HSA money for the first thousand or more dollars every year. It will hurt! Because of this, you may decide to look around. You might decide that it is cheaper and still effective to visit a naturopath, a type of doctor who specializes in using natural remedies instead of drugs or surgery. These doctors typically charge less and spend much more time with their patients, often more than one hour per appointment. Or you may still want to stick with an MD. If you do, you may decide to use a particular kind of MD. Certain MDs have been opting out of the health insurance business completely. They refuse to take any patients who want them to process health insurance claims. They focus only on patients who pay at the time of service. If you are using HSA money, thats you! You are paying at the time of service, using your HSA dollars. Heres whats wonderful about these kinds of doctors. Their fees are much lower. Much, much lower. Why? Because they dont have to wrangle with insurance companies day in and day out. They can cut their administrative staff down to just one receptionist and one nurse. All the other paperwork jockies who filled out forms and made phone calls to insurance companies arent needed anymore. You can expect that an opted-out doctor might actually charge you only $80 for a half-hour visit. Thats right, I said a half-hour. Once doctors are free from insurance restrictions, they often choose to spend much more time with their patients. They can really ask all the right questions and get down to the true health problems youre suffering. Sound great? Good! The best way to find an opted-out doctor is to start calling around to doctors in your area and ask what insurance they take. If they say We dont take any insurance you know youve found an opted-out doctor. Another method might be to call the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine at 202-686-2210 or the American Holistic Medical Association at www.holisticmedicine.org and use their Doctor Finder. Health Savings Accounts will change how we think of health insurance. They are a wonderful tool that almost every American can and should benefit from. And they're available today! |
