Ways to Save: 12 Tips for Employees 

We’ve written before that a true consumerism strategy means balancing higher employee health plan cost-sharing with tools, resources and education to help them get more for their health care dollars. This article, which quotes our own Tracy Watts, offers 12 solid money-saving suggestions for those in high-deductible plans – or in any plan with cost-sharing. What I like is that some of these suggestions could also result in getting better care, not just less costly care. For example, “Get copies of all your medical test results and records” – not only can bringing records to an appointment cut the number of tests and office visits you pay for, but if you visit a doctor with test results in hand, you may get the advice you need faster. While the list would be useful to pass along to employees, it also includes food for thought for employers. One suggestion is to consider online, telephone or video consultations. Providing employees with telemedicine services makes that much easier to do.

Go to full article: money.usnews.com