Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Posts related to a health plan's deductible, in and out of network.
There are a couple of different models of the deductible insurance plans. All of the designs require the individual to meet a deductible between $1,000 to $2,000. The plan’s deductible are health care expenses you must pay before the deductible insurance is triggered. Also with the models are two different maximum benefits of either $4,000 or $6,000. In other words, the plan will cover either $4,000 or $6,000 in health care expenses in a calendar year.
The one wildcard with outpatient services is the coinsurance. Coinsurance is a percentage of the invoiced services that the health plan member is responsible for. For outpatient procedures, the coinsurance is not subject to the medical deductible for Silver plans. However, you may find yourself getting billed for coinsurance when you thought the health service had just a set copayment. For example, imaging with the injection of a dye to enhance image contrast. The machine imaging scan will have a set copayment, but the injection of the dye is considered an outpatient procedure subject to coinsurance.
Premiums, deductibles, and coinsurance for Original Medicare, 2021. Individuals with Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplement plans may not realizes some of the higher Medicare costs.
But as you can see, there are far more services with a specified copayment or coinsurance percentage, not subject to the deductible, than health care services subject to the medical deductible. It’s possible to meet your maximum out-of-pocket amount without ever meeting the medical deductible.
What all the deductibles, coinsurance, and copayments have in common is that they all accumulate toward meeting the plan maximum out-of-pocket amount (MOOP). When you reach your MOOP, then all the services and prescription drugs are covered 100% by the health plan. But it can seem like forever to reach your MOOP when you are going through lots of tests, procedures, and swallowing drugs like candy on Halloween.
The standard monthly premium for Medicare Part B enrollees will be $144.60 for 2020, an increase of $9.10 from $135.50 in 2019. The annual deductible for all Medicare Part B beneficiaries is $198 in 2020, an increase of $13 from the annual deductible of $185 in 2019.
For individuals transitioning into Medicare in 2019 they will see a higher Part B premium. The new Part B premium will be $135.50, up from $134.00. Many Medicare beneficiaries already in Medicare will not pay the full Part B premium because certain provisions limit the Part B premium increase to be no greater than the increase in their Social Security benefits.
Forcing either the health plans or the providers to post a list of costs for routine services is a very low impact way of adding consumer information to the health care market. The government is not telling the providers what they should charge. The government is not telling the health insurance companies what they should pay the providers. A law mandating a simple fee schedule like Kaiser Permanente has published will create price transparency and allow consumers to compare valuable health care cost information across a variety of health plans and providers. This will ultimately slow down the rate increases as providers compete not only on patient satisfaction, but on price as well.
However, I still don’t understand why the costs for services for Southern California Kaiser members are so much lower than prices for Northern California members. Does Kaiser just have more members in Southern California to spread the fixed costs of supplying the services over? Kaiser charges 29% more for a colonoscopy in Northern California than Southern California. Are more people getting colonoscopies in Southern California so the volumes of patients help drive down the costs?
Even with the Obamacare subsidies, many individuals and families still opt for the least expensive Bronze high deductible health plans. The high deductible health plans require the consumer to spend $4,500 to $6,500 in a medical deductible before any real cost sharing with the health insurance company starts. As more consumers opt for these least expensive Bronze plans more insurance companies are creating insurance products to help cover the high deductible of these plans. But are these indemnity plans worth the money and will they actually pay when you need the money?
