FSA vs account for medical/dental?

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-12-2004
FSA vs account for medical/dental?
7
Thu, 12-15-2005 - 1:43am
Hi, all. Well, everyone, I about had an MI when I looked at my online cc charges for the last two months! Yes, I will repair the damage. However, I am frustrated that I have to use my cc to pay for these medical bills, when the insurance company doesnt respond. I mean, four months?! That is insane. Am getting notices from everyone now, for anything from $200 to $35.00 and more. Soo-I set up a payment plan with the hospital for $200/month. I have written, called, sent certified mail letters, e-mailed, etc. Everyone is frustrated with the insurance company. Soooo-do any of you use flexible spending accounts? Are they worth it? How much per month? What about a separate account just for medical expenses? I am SOOO tempted to just charge everything to the cc and get it done and overwith. However, that would jump my cc up to about $8000 from $3,000. Any thoughts? BTW--I checked out other insurance, but it would be prohibitive--$400/month. Sorry to vent, but I remember what happened the last time we had major medical expenses. We almost filed for bankrupcy! WHiz.
Avatar for cl_phocid
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 12-15-2005 - 7:51am

Hey Whiz - the only caution I would have about a FSA is that if you overestimate what you should put away, you lose that money.

All my best,
Danni

Avatar for cherfer
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-11-2003
Thu, 12-15-2005 - 8:09am

Hey Whiz. I handle the FSA at my company. The main problem with the FSA accounts, as another poster mentioned, is that if you don't use it, you lose it. You have to decide at the beginning of the year, usually at open enrollment, how much you want to put aside for the year. So, even though it's easy to account for your known expenses, like a monthly prescription, you probably wouldn't have known to set money aside for the expenses you had, which sounded like something out of the ordinary. I put in about $250 year, for example, to pay for my monthly birth control.
FSA's can be handy to pay your normal medical expenses, but maybe having a separate savings account might be a good idea for you. At least you won't lose your money if you don't need it.
Also, make sure you have the proper medical coverage at work. With so much to pay out for your medical bills, I wonder if you have the right plan for you. You might want to talk to someone in your HR department about the different plans they offer. If your job is on a calendar year open enrollment, they are probably doing sign ups right now.

Cheryl

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-20-2004
Thu, 12-15-2005 - 8:59am
Whiz,
We signed up for a HSA for the first time for 2006. We are a family of four, so we will put in $750 total. About half of that is to cover prescriptions we already know about. The rest is for whatever comes up, but since we know you can use the money for OTC items, glasses, dental bills, etc, we aren't too worried about losing money. if it works out well, we will up it for 2007.
The problem with major medical expenses is that they are totally unpredictable, as we all found out this year. UGH.
Personally, I would not put the medical bills on a cc (if it were a few hundred, I might, but not thousand). I would just send them $10/ month or whatever. that might give them the incentive they need to go after the insurance company themselves....especially if they are under contract, which most in-network providers are. If you put it on the cc, then your minimums will go up, and your credit score might take a hit for it, too.
Good luck, whiz. Heather
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-23-2005
Thu, 12-15-2005 - 11:44am

This is a huge pet-peeve of mine about insurance companies and providers alike. We pay the premiums we pay so that we can receive a service- part of that service includes the billing process. Four months is not long enough for them to have worked it all out and for you to "have" to pay. I just wouldn't do it. I simply refuse to pay a bill until all other avenues have been tried.

Here's an example of why I feel this way. My DD (1 yr) was born with a heart defect. Not a major defect, but something that usually corrects itself over time. Our insurance company tried to refuse payment of her cardiology visits b/c a referral from our primary physician was not entered into the computer "correctly". When I questioned why it hadn't been paid, a billing person for the hospital (the university I also work for) told me that I didn't have a referral for the day she saw the doctor, so insurance wouldn't cover it. I said "Excuse me? Do you think I woke up that day & decided my new baby just looked like she needed to see a pediatric cardiologist? I don't think so". Why on earth would that make any sense? So when we figured out their computer error, she asked me if I'd like to call my doctor & request a correction. I told her that was not my job. She could call the doctor and explain the mix-up- after all THEY were supposed to be working for the same place, right? It's that kind of lazy customer service that I refuse to acknowledge by backing down and paying the bill.

Best of luck to you. I hate to see someone go into debt simply b/c of things like this.

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2004
Thu, 12-15-2005 - 1:43pm

I have a healthcare FSA.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 12-12-2004
Thu, 12-15-2005 - 11:23pm
Hi, Cheryl and Danni---Thanks for the info and advice. I truly dont know (yet) if we have flexible spending accounts at work. We havent had it in the past. I think, for now, I will just start an account for medical expenses. As far as the plan at work, we only have one type of insurance available to us. It's not like we have 5 plans, i.e., Cigna, Blue Cross, etc. We have a PPO and HMO. I chose the PPO, so I could go in and out of network if need be, and go to other doctors (i.e., dermatologist) that I need to go to. Am planning to check out more info. Whiz.
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-12-2004
Thu, 12-15-2005 - 11:32pm
Hi, MTG. Thanks for sharing your experiences. I figured that since the ER visit was out-of-state, that it might be the reason for the delay. However, the insurance company FINALLY paid the ER docs (two separate bills). Yes, again, it took awhile. At least they paid something. Also found out from the local doc that the insurance just paid a Sept. 05 bill this last week! The ER billing folks have been super nice. They have e-mailed, called, resubmitted bills. I sent them all the info I could---copies (again!) of my ins. card, statements, phone #'s, billing addresses in two states, etc. I also called another # and found out that they didnt have the prior authorization #. This happened before. I mean, what if you are incapacitated in the ER? Whose responsibility is it to get the authorization and correct info? They made copies of everything in the ER, but somewhere, the ball got dropped. Sooo-I have set up $200/month for now. At that rate, it will take about a year to pay it off! Whiz.