How to Cover Left Over Hospital Bills

Health care costs have been skyrocketing. A popular tactic for keeping group health premium costs in control is to introduce employee risk sharing. The most common form of employee cost sharing is hospital deductibles, co-pays, co-insurance and out-of-network charges. All the employees enjoy lower premium costs, but a handful of employees get wacked: they wind up in the hospital with lots of left over bills to pay. Hospital indemnity insurance can keep these employees financially whole.

Hospital deductibles are the first form of employee cost sharing. If an insured is admitted to the hospital, the employee is responsible to cover the deductible before the plan begins to pay benefits. There may be individual and well as a household deductible.

Hospital co-pays work differently than the deductible. An insured is responsible to pay a portion of the cost for each day occupying a hospital bed. For example, a plan with a $300 per day hospital co pay would require the insured to pay $1,500 for a five night hospitalization. Many plans will cap the number of days that the co pay applies to limit an employee's out-of-pocket exposure.

Hospital co-insurance requires the insured to pay a percentage of the negotiated fee for in-network hospitals, and may be combined with the hospital deductible. As before there may be an out-of-pocket maximum to limit employee exposure. Take for example, a plan with a $500 deductible, 20% co-insurance, and a $5,000 out of pocket maximum. An insured might quickly reach the maximum with a five night hospital stay.

Insured are often surprised with out-of-network charges for services rendered in an in-network hospital. How can this be? Sometimes hospitals contract with providers who may not be in network: anesthesiologists, specialists, and other providers might send out a separate bill seeking retail rates for their services. You check into an in-network hospital, and check out with lots of unexpected bills.

Hospital indemnity insurance allows employees concerned with the consequences of a hospital stay to plug these holes. It pays cash benefits directly to the insured for a covered hospitalization. The benefit can be used to cover the left over hospital bills.

Find out more about how to leverage hospital indemnity insurance to cover left over bills.

Kevin Haney is a licensed health insurance agent helping growing families generate maternity leave income, and protection just in case by using supplemental family health benefits.

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