How to Avoid Expensive Mistakes |
Imagine this scenario: Julie's doctor is accustomed to self-pay patients. A large proportion of the practice is made up of patients who don't have traditional insurance. Her doctor wants to order an expensive test. The staff let her know they've negotiated a discount with the test provider. If she pays through the doctor's office, she'll pay only 10 to 20 percent of what the company would bill her directly.
Jan goes to a different doctor, who has few self-pay patients. Her doctor orders the same test, but Jan gets billed by the test provider. It's several thousand dollars. When Jan calls the test provider, she learns there is a discounted self-pay rate, but it's only available if you select that option before the services are rendered. That's news to her.
We've all been blindsided by expensive errors where a way to prevent them existed, but we didn't know that. Perhaps you take your first cruise only to end up with a room above the nightclub. Maybe the cost of a kitchen renovation or round of fertility treatment blows out. Perhaps you missed an application deadline for an excellent free preschool and have to pay for an alternative.
We can't avoid all mistakes. If we tried, we would never move forward with anything new. However, some self-management principles can help us foresee and sidestep certain errors.
Back to Jan and Julie: One doctor's office was focused on helping self-pay patients keep their costs........