Toward the end of the year, when you may have used up your deductible, it's a good time to look into health care services you have been putting off. | Pexels/Maitree Rimthong
Toward the end of the year, when you may have used up your deductible, it's a good time to look into health care services you have been putting off. | Pexels/Maitree Rimthong
• Most Americans who get health insurance through their employer have an annual deductible.
• You can save money during the last few months of the year by taking advantage of your health insurance if you've already met your deductible.
• Most health insurance plans cover allergy testing and treatment.
While many people save money by shopping on Black Friday, another way to save money this holiday season is by making the most of your health insurance if you've already met your deductible, according to Dr. Robert Weiss of CT ENT Sinus Center.
Eighty-five percent of American workers who receive health insurance coverage through their employer in 2021 had a general annual deductible for single coverage that they needed to meet before the plan paid for most health services, according to the 23rd Employer Health Benefits Survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
For workers employed by small companies, the average single coverage deductible was $2,379. Workers employed by large firms had an average deductible of $1,397.Once your deductible has been met, Stamford Heath recommends making the most of your health insurance coverage and saving money by scheduling appointments and testing before the end of the year.
Recommendations include getting your annual physical and refilling prescriptions. People over 45 can get a colonoscopy, and women over 40 can get a mammogram. Stamford Health also recommends taking care of lab work or other diagnostic testing.
Most insurance plans cover allergy testing and treatment, so once your deductible has been met, costs for allergy tests and treatments could be very low or even zero cost, according to Family Allergy. Winter is the perfect time to prepare for spring allergies. If you discover you have allergies in the fall and your allergist recommends allergy shots for treatment, you can begin the allergy shots before your deductible resets, which will save you money in addition to beginning to build up your body's defense against spring allergens.
"A lot of our patients we treat with immunotherapy," Weiss told Litchfield Hills Today. "So what does that mean? Immunotherapy is desensitizing someone to all the things they're allergic to. Most of us are familiar with allergy shots. You go to the allergist once a week, and they're giving you a shot of a small concentration of many of the things that you're allergic to. If you do this once a week and it takes a few years, this is a long-term treatment. Your body will start to ignore those allergens and stop reacting to them. The shots have been around for 75 years or more."
Allergy drops, a form of sublingual therapy, have been used for 20 to 30 years and don't require frequent visits to the doctor's office as shots do, Weiss said.
"You put a drop of all the things you're allergic to under your tongue," he said. "You don't have to have an injection. You get a little bottle of your recipe, and each day, you place drops under your tongue. You do this at home; you do it by yourself. You don't have to be at a medical practice to do it, and it's just as effective as the shots. A lot of our patients will do that, and we've seen some very, very good results from using the drops."
If you're interested in learning more about diagnosis or treatment of allergies, please take this Sinus Self-Assessment Quiz.
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