There’s no other way to say it- healthcare is expensive, and it seems to be demanding more and more of your family budget these days. But there are ways to save your family money on medical and health costs, it just requires you to pay more attention to the small stuff.

When your insurance is up for re-enrollment, don’t automatically take the same plan you’ve been using. The real difference between HMO plans and PPO plans isn’t in the annual premiums, but in the services that are covered underneath the plan. With a family, you want to be more concerned with the plan’s co-pays for doctor’s visits and prescription medicines. Calculate, as best you can, what your family’s total costs (including prescriptions and average number of doctor visits) would be under each plan for one year, and choose the most economical option.

Talk with your pharmacy and mandate generic drugs to be the first option for any prescriptions filled for your family. Generic drugs are the same as brand names, but can cost a little as one third of the brand name price. In fact, you can save over $800/year just by changing one of your monthly prescriptions to a generic drug.

Another option is to check with your insurance’s medication provider and ask which of your prescriptions is eligible for mail order services. If you are able to get your prescriptions through the mail, you will find that this option is not only cheaper (savings of 15-35%) but more convenient.

When your doctor prescribes a new medication, ask him/her for samples before filling the prescription. Part of drug companies’ marketing plans includes providing doctors with numerous sample medications in the hopes that the doctor will push their product. Usually your doctor can provide you with a few weeks of the drug at no extra cost. Also, this is a great way to “test drive” the medication- having to pay a $35 co-pay for the drug at your local pharmacy is a waste of money if you have a bad reaction, can’t handle the side effects, or it does not work for your symptoms.

When you do have to go out of network for a specialist or specific doctor, talk to you insurance to see if they would consider widening your network. Insurance companies have pre-certification departments that deal with situations like this all of the time. Explain to them why you need to go out of network and ask if they would make an exception, allowing coverage at in-network rates. Remember, it never hurts to ask.

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