*Save $20 (office visit) to $300 (your share of the average cost of an MRI under an insurance plan that reimburses only 80 percent)ĭoctors aren't always aware of how much medication costs. If you're going for a second opinion, sign out your X-rays or MRI scans from your doctor and bring them with you.

adults say their doctors have ordered duplicates of medical tests, according to a recent survey by the Commonwealth Fund, a nonpartisan health care foundation in New York City. When a specialist orders a test, such as an X-ray or MRI, ask your primary-care doctor if it's necessary. Arthur Garson Jr., dean and vice president of the University of Virginia School of Medicine and author of Health Care Half Truths: Too Many Myths, Not Enough Reality. 'When a doctor tells you to come back, whether it's in three weeks, six months, or a year, ask why. Here are 10 ways to get started, along with the savings you can expect. With a little research and some hard bargaining, though, you can cut that figure by half or more.

That's an increase of more than 8 percent over last year, following five straight years in which costs jumped more than 9 percent annually. If you fit that profile, about $5,100 of that will be your responsibility - in the form of premiums, co-pays, and deductibles. In 2007, a family of four covered by a typical preferred provider organization insurance plan (PPO) is expected to receive an average of $14,500 in medical services. 'But all you have to do is ask.'Īnd ask you should - repeatedly. 'Before this, I didn't think you could negotiate with your doctor,' says Katz, 35, now a corporate health care consultant and author of Healthcare for Less, which was inspired by her own experience. All told, she ended up paying just half of the original $28,000 estimate. When she got her hospital bill, she haggled with the billing department to drop some charges. Katz offered to pay her surgeon and anesthesiologist a portion up front in exchange for a hefty discount and arranged a payment plan for the rest. Katz, then 26, didn't have health insurance, so she did the only thing she could think of: She negotiated. Many of the 10,000-plus former Placebo Journal subscribers support Farrago’s new endeavor.June 20, 2008— - After a car accident left Michelle Katz, a Washington, D.C., nursing student, with persistent back pain and numbness in 1998, she consulted a neurosurgeon, who told her she'd need an operation to repair her slipped disk. “It is about fighting back against those things that are taking us away from the direct care of patients while still pointing out the lunacy and hypocrisy of this job.” “The mission of this site is to connect us back to the roots of medicine,” said Farrago. His new venture,, aims to restore the notion doctors know what’s best for their patients, not insurers or metric-measurers. Over time, however, Farrago began transitioning from humorist to activist as he railed against bureaucratic organizations that he says are ruining medicine. Regular features poked fun at drug reps with “Stupid Pharmaceutical Tricks” as well as narcotic-seeking patients with “Those Darn Narc Seekers.” Other favorites were the “X-ray Files,” featuring unusual X-rays, and fake ads for things like “Indifferex,” a mediocre antidepressant. He found plenty of material from doctors’ daily foibles - the malodorous infections, the funny exam stories, the red tape. Farrago started the Placebo Journal to try to provide a laugh in a profession that’s tough in the best of times, even without modern bureaucratic meddling.

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