Discount Health Care Cards-Consumer Driven Healthcare

What are discount health cards?
Discount health cards provide one part of the solution to the nation’s
healthcare crisis by enabling consumers to purchase healthcare products
and services at discounted retail rates. Discount health cards are not
insurance and are not intended to replace insurance. In fact, many
consumers choose a discount card to complement their health insurance
program, filling in gaps such as prescription drug benefits or vision
care.

Why Choose a Discount Health Card? Discount health cards are NOT insurance.

Discount
health cards enable consumers to purchase healthcare products and
services from providers at discounted prices, similar to the rates that
healthcare providers charge wholesale customers such as preferred
provider networks (PPOs) or large insurance plans.

Many consumers
choose a discount card to complement their health insurance program,
filling in gaps, such as prescription drug benefits, chiropractic care,
dental or vision care.

Discount health cards have gained
popularity because they provide consumers access to the healthcare they
need without the limitations, exclusions and paperwork associated with
insurance plans.

In addition, discount health programs typically include the cardholder’s entire household.

How You Benefit with a Discount Health Card? Discount
health programs, or discount benefits cards as they are sometimes
called, were created to help bridge the gap for consumers burdened by
the increasing cost of healthcare by providing opportunities to directly
purchase healthcare services and products at discounted retail rates.
Discount cards offer:

Access: Individuals
and families without insurance can use discount programs to receive
access to and substantial savings on health care services such as doctor
visits, hospitalization, prescription drugs, eyeglasses and dental care
that they might otherwise not afford.

Affordability:
While insurance rates have increased at double-digit rates over the
past 12 years, discount card providers have kept their rates virtually
unchanged.

Savings: Those with limited
insurance, the under-insured, and insured individuals with high
deductibles can reduce out-of-pocket expenses and receive discounts for
services not normally covered by insurance such as chiropractic care.

Choice:
In some cases, consumers with discount health cards pay less for
services such as dental and vision care than those covered by
traditional insurance plans.

Convenience:
Discount programs are accepted at some of the nation’s largest
healthcare retailers including national pharmacy and optical chains.
While each program varies, many companies offer programs with providers
that include:

* Pearle * LensCrafters * Medicine Shoppe

* Eckerd’s * Safeway * Wal-Mart

* Sears * Target, and many more!

What types of services are typically included by discount health cards?
Discount health cards include a wide range of services and products
including dental services, prescription drugs, vision care, chiropractic
procedures, hearing care, physician/hospital & ancillary services,
nurse medical information lines, vitamins and emergency care for
travelers. Choose a program that offers discounts on services that you
need and that you will use.

Who should use discount health cards?
The wide array of choices in the discount health card industry and the
many discounts available make it possible for everyone to enjoy the
benefits of discount health cards. Discount health cards are designed to
provide benefits for a wide-range of consumers. For individuals and
families without insurance, discount health cards offer substantial
savings on healthcare services such as doctor visits and on everyday
health related expenses including prescription drugs, eyeglasses and
dental care that they might otherwise not afford.

For those with limited insurance, the under-insured,
and insured individuals with high deductibles, discount health cards can
reduce out-of-pocket expenses and offer discounts for services that may
not be covered by insurance such as chiropractic care.

In some
instances, discount health cards for ancillary health services and
products such as vision, dental and chiropractic care offer services at
overall out-of-pocket costs lower than insurance co-payments.

For
these reasons, many of the country’s Fortune 500 companies now offer
discount health cards to their employees as part of their benefits
packages.

How do consumers get discount health cards and how do the cards work?
You can obtain discount health cards either through your employer, an
association, union, or another entity with which you are connected or
you can go directly through a reputable discount healthcare program.

Signing
up for a card is easy. Complete an application and pay a nominal
monthly fee. In some instances, your employer will pay the fee. To
access care and receive savings, a cardholder must simply provide the
card to a participating provider at the time health services are
rendered and pay the discounted fee.

How do discount healthcare programs offer such benefits?
Discount healthcare programs enable members to access similar rates
that healthcare providers charge wholesale customers such as preferred
provider networks (PPO) or large insurance plans. The difference is that
instead of financing the medical expenses of members by charging high
monthly rates, consumers agree to pay a discounted fee to the provider
directly at the time of service.

What is the difference between discount health cards and health insurance?
Discount health cards are not insurance. Card companies who indicate
otherwise are not being truthful. Unlike health insurance, there is no
sharing of risk by the consumer and the discount healthcare company.

Discount
health cards afford consumers the opportunity to directly purchase
health care services and products from providers at amounts discounted
below their retail rates. Cardholders are required to pay the provider’s
discounted fees in full at the time healthcare services are rendered or
as dictated by the provider’s agreement. Consumers are free to make
their own choices about which services to purchase and from whom to make
those purchases.

Insurance plans, on the other hand, define
specific benefits available to the consumer at rates determined by the
plan purchaser. Insurance plans also pay health care providers on behalf
of the consumer.

Do I still need insurance if I have a discount health card? That’s
a decision each consumer must make. Discount cards and insurance plans
frequently provide complementary benefits. That is why many of the
nation’s leading companies offer their employees both insurance plans
and discount cards. Each individual should evaluate his or her own
health needs and the various benefits offered by each type of program.

Why has there been controversy surrounding some discount health card providers?
Millions of consumers have embraced discount health cards because of
their value and simplicity. This popularity has led a number of
companies to enter the discount health card business. Unfortunately, not
all of them are reputable. Some card providers charge steep up-front
fees or promise dramatic savings they can’t deliver, while others
bombard consumers with misleading and confusing sale pitches.

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