Managing Benefits

Six Ways to Save on Your Health Care Costs

Published October 31, 2024

In today’s economy, being an informed consumer is more important than ever and this applies directly to your healthcare, especially for participants in consumer-driven health plans like the Yellow and Orange plans offered by SchoolCare.

Currently, 82% of SchoolCare participants are members of SchoolCare’s consumer-driven plans, which means understanding your options and engaging in your healthcare decisions can lead to better outcomes and significant savings.

What is Consumerism in Healthcare?

Consumerism in healthcare refers to being actively engaged in the ways your healthcare dollars are being spent. This includes making informed choices that balance getting the treatment you need with the cost of care. This doesn’t mean avoiding care when needed, but rather paying attention to the cost of services and using lower cost services when available – like seeing in-network providers, utilizing virtual care when appropriate and reviewing where you can save on things like lab work and prescriptions.

How to be a More Informed Consumer and Save

1. Explore Your Options: Take time to review the benefits and resources available through your SchoolCare plan. You have access to a wide range of services for everything from medical and behavioral health care to support for diabetes and hypertension with Omada, musculoskeletal pain with Hinge Health and infertility services through WINFertility – all of which provide personalized care and can help you save money.
2. Utilize Available Resources: Leverage tools and platforms offered by SchoolCare to track your health conditions, compare costs, and access virtual care. Your myCigna portal has numerous tools to help you find both in-person and virtual providers, offers cost comparison tools, provides access to all your claims and so much more.
3. Take Care of Yourself. Schedule your annual preventive care. Familiarize yourself with the Good For You! Well-Being Program and services that can support your health journey, like Cigna’s Case Management Program to help coordinate care for complex medical issues.
4. Use in-network providers. Using providers who are in-network for your medical and behavioral health care and even your lab work can help avoid big surprises when it comes to paying for claims. National labs like Quest and Labcorp can save you up to 85% of your lab costs over other labs associated with your provider’s office, even when those labs are in-network. You can simply ask your provider to send lab tests to Labcorp or Quest for significant savings.
5. Ask Questions: Don’t hesitate to reach out to your healthcare providers with questions about treatment options, costs, and care plans. Utilizing Cigna’s 24/7 Health Information line at no extra cost allows you to speak to a clinician who can help answer questions and direct you to appropriate care.
6. Take Advantage of Saving Accounts.
   • If you are on the Yellow Plan With Choice Fund, don’t forget to complete your annual health assessment to access your Health Reimbursement Account (also called your choice fund). This is the first $1,000 toward your deductible on a single plan or the first $2,500 on a two-person or family plan. Any remaining HRA funds at the end of the year can rollover to the following year up to your out-of-pocket maximum ($2,000 for individual and $4,000 for two-party/family plans)
   • If you are on the Orange Plan, you are eligible to create a Health Savings Account (HSA) – only available to people on a high-deductible health plan. This is a savings account for medical-related expenses that rolls-over annually and stays with you wherever you go. It can be used now and in retirement to pay for qualified medical expenses and certain over-the-counter products. Your HSA provides valuable tax savings annually, and your employer may also offer an annual contribution into your HSA.
   • If your employer offers Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs), you can enroll and contribute pre-tax dollars to your account to save money on eligible medical, dental, vision and hearing expenses as well as over the counter medications not covered by the medical plan. You must use your FSA dollars in the year you elect them, as there are limitations to how much and for how long you can rollover any remaining funds. 

Why is This Important?

You are probably aware that you have Cigna for your insurance, but do you know your plan is managed by SchoolCare?

SchoolCare is a nonprofit, third-party plan administrator that provides dedicated support to you and more than 20,000 participants who make up SchoolCare’s membership. Your employer pools its resources with more than 80 other public entities in New Hampshire for significant savings on the cost of healthcare.

The overall cost of SchoolCare’s medical plans is directly related to the cost of claims on an annual basis. As a SchoolCare participant, shopping around to lower your own claims costs not only helps your wallet but can also help provide efficiency for the plan with reduced claims across the membership, which in turn can help lead to lower premiums for all.

This means, even if you are on one of SchoolCare’s traditional plans (Red or Green) where you pay a flat co-pay for medical visits and prescriptions, doing certain things like seeking lower cost care i.e. visiting Urgent Care instead of the ER or getting generic medications versus name brand when available, is also helpful for reducing overall claims.

Check out this Customer Resource Guide for even more ways to get the most from your plan.

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