For anyone who has ever had a significant healthcare service like surgery, they will tell how confusing and intimidating our American healthcare system can be. These days with employer health plans having contracted provider networks, higher out of pocket costs and more complicated procedures, the responsibility to make it all work out to a good outcome, oftentimes falls on the consumers shoulders who may not have the knowledge to assume this responsibility. They would prefer someone else handle the details, and getting all the various providers paid.
As an example, we as consumers assume that if we go to an in-network hospital, the pathologist, radiologist, anesthesiologist and emergency room physicians are also in network. But if they are not employees of the hospital and have their own independent practice with working privileges at the hospital, they may not be in network. Then we get the surprise out-of-network bill for their services.
We either pay the bill, which can be quite high, or we try to negotiate it down, which most times is a futile effort. One feature of a Health Advocate service is to negotiate discounts for you. Since these Health Advocates have the information they need about the costs of care and what is reasonable, they are often able to get significant reductions for our members.
This is where a Health Advocate can help the consumer work through making sure you are getting the best care, by contracted in network hospitals and physicians, saving the consumer time, money and a lot of heartache.
This is just one example of the many valuable services that Health Advocate can deliver for your employees.
To learn more about this service read more at www.healthadvocate.com