I was accustomed to HMO-based health coverage, as long as I called the family doctor first, I could go to the ER and get whatever I needed for a relatively small fee (maybe $50 max). This plan was available to employees for free, no employee contributions. Fortunately, I didn't have to make much use of the plan, I was healthy. But if I had, pay the few bucks, go to the doctor or hospital, follow their orders and get the care I need, or at least the care the doctor thought I needed.
Now we have a deductible based HMO plan. It's still a great plan, the health care available to me is better than the mercuricrome dispensing clinics I grew up with in the remote towns of the Philippines. They would put mercuricrome on anything: broken arm, laceration or headache. Under the new plan, we pay out of pocket to a certain threshold. Beyond that expenses are split between my pocket and the health insurance company's pocket.
So a recent hospital visit went quite differently. As soon as we passed through the doors of the hospital it was as if we'd gotten into a cab and the driver had turned the meter on. With each check by a nurse, each visit of a doctor, the meter was running.
“"We need to send you to get CAT scan”", cha-ching.
"You'll be getting an MRI and an MRA tomorrow"”, cha-ching, cha-ching.
"“We think you should be admitted, but the choice is yours"”, hmmm, that'll be xxx dollars, how much do we have in our account?
I had a difficult time separating decisions that should have been care-need based from being cash-available based. I was viewing everything through a pair of dollar-filtered glasses, viewing everything with the same skepticism I have for the snacks in fancy hotel rooms, food at the ballpark and popcorn at the movies. I guess that's the world we live in right now, though I don't like it. I don't eat the snacks in hotel rooms, rarely eat at the ballpark and my movies are without popcorn.
I've had the opportunity to view health care from multiple angles: as the finance guy, as the head of Human Resources, as a patient with health insurance, and as a relative of someone without insurance. The health care challenges of today are uber-complex, but my resolve remains the same:
To provide our employees with the best plan(s) available and to make sure each and every one of them knows the benefits with which we provide them.
