As reported on in the New York Times, brand name drugs are often more costly than their generic counterparts, and this finding could signal a significant increase in the medical bills of many seniors.

The AARP report found that the cost of the 217 most common brand-name prescription drug products used by older Americans increased an average of 8.3 percent in 2009. This was the largest increase in the last five years.

The findings by the AARP are not uncontested, however.

Several officials in the prescription drug industry challenge the finding, saying select brand-name prices do not accurately reflect the fact that the use of lower priced generic drugs are on the rise. According to IMS Health, a research firm, approximately 75 percent of all prescriptions dispensed in the United States are generics.

In a broader survey of prescription drug prices, the industry claims that the price of prescriptions drugs increased by 3.4 percent in 2009. This survey was conducted by government for the official Consumer Price Index and includes both generic and brand-name drug prices.

Assistant professor of health policy at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, saw improvement in the AARP’s recent data, but still claims their report is flawed.

“It can easily be shown that branded prices are higher here than they are in other countries, but we have the lowest and the most competitively priced generic drugs in the world, and the generic share is going up rapidly … Just focusing on brands I think is unfair.”

Executive vice president for policy and strategy for the AARP, John C. Rother, stated that, “Brand-name retail prices have been accelerating year-to-year even when inflation has been nonexistent in the rest of the economy.”

Not all prescription drugs rose evenly this past year. The incontinence drug Flomax had the largest increase with a 24.8 percent rise in retail price last year. This puts a single Flomax pill at $4.09.

Over the past several years, the price of prescription drugs has been rising across the board. According to the AARP: drugs rose by:

• 8.3 percent increase in 2009
• 7.9 percent increase in 2008
• 7 percent increase in 2007
• 6.1 percent increase in 2006
• 6 percent increase in 2005

When we look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics over the same years, which include the price of generics, the increases are much smaller:

• 3.4 in 2009
• 2.5 in 2008
• 1.4 in 2007
• 4.3 in 2006
• 3.5 in 2005

The AARP says that it is important to focus on brand-name drugs because many older Americans rely on brand-name drugs for chronic illnesses.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry trade group, claims that the growth for prescription medicines is historically low.

The study looked at by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America also reports that Medicare drug spending is much less than initially projected, in part due to generics.

Still, increased drug costs can become a financial issue for anyone facing chronic disease or needs regular medication. While generics offer cheaper alternatives, they aren’t always available. And regular costs like these can lead to someone filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Before the end of the year, millions of small businesses will be eligible for a tax credit of up to 35 percent of the cost of health care plans for their employees. This tax credit, according to the Chicago Tribune, should help mitigate the impact of premiums on millions of small business owners.

This is becoming increasingly necessary as most employers have seen their premiums raise nearly 20 percent of the past 20 years.

The increase in health care costs over the past several decades has been so extreme,that in some instances it has even prevented employers from hiring as many employees as the company would ideally have.

The new tax credits are designed to give more employees better health care coverage – and thus fewer medical bills – as well as allowing more employers to hire as many employees as they desire.

According to a report by the Illinois Main Street Alliance, which polled nearly 500 small businesses in a dozen states, about 12 percent of employers dropped coverage for their workers in either 2008 or 2009. Also, “35 percent reported switching within the past two years to insurance that covers fewer services.”

One of the benefits of this reform is that the workers and employers that need help the most will receive the most benefits. Businesses with 25 workers with wages of less than $50,000 a year tend to have the highest premium costs, and this reform will kick in with the 2010 tax year.

There is a major disparity among the availability of employer provided health care. The smaller the business, the less likely the employer is to offer health care. Employers with three to nine workers only offered health insurance 46 percent of the time, while 95 percent of employers with 50 or more employees offered health care to their employees.

Part of the reason for this disparity is that these small businesses pay around 18 percent more than large firms for the same health insurance policy.

Kathleen Stoll, deputy executive director for Families USA, an advocacy group which has encouraged expanding coverage to uninsured, says that “This tax credit is really for companies on the cusp of dropping coverage for their workers… I’ve never yet met a small business owner that doesn’t want to offer coverage for their workers.”

Not all employers will qualify. If an employer wishes to be eligible for the credit, HealthCare.gov states that employers must provide “at least 50 percent of the cost of health care coverage for some of its workers based on the single rate.”

The savings can be significant, with the average cost being nearly $9,000 per employee. For a small business, this could be the incentive necessary to shift over to providing health care. And if the employer doesn’t, then he or she might have a hard time retaining employees.

The report looks at a common situation: A 24-year-old graduate student becomes financially independent of her parents, as a result, she lost the ability to be covered by her father’s health care plan.

The good news is that the new health care reform will allow her to rejoin his policy. The bad news: She cannot do it until January.

In the interim, she will be forced to use the notorious student policy. Her student policy is going to cost her nearly $1,800, significantly more than it would cost to add her to her father’s, and will have significantly reduced coverage, and potentially higher medical bills.

The new plan attempts to allow these adult children to remain on their parent’s plan, as long as it is through an employer, until they are 26. Also, there is no ability for the insurance companies to exclude a child due to the child’s status as a student or financial dependency.

The problem comes in the coverage gap created by this reform. This portion of the bill takes effect on September 23, or whenever the health plan renews. For many, this means in January 2011, but there are a significant number of people out there who will have a gap that lasts all the way until March or July.

If you or one of your children fall into this gap, it is important to carefully weigh and asses the options you have to find the best coverage fit.

One of the most obvious solutions, assuming the child is in college, is a student health care plan.

While student policies may be better than not having any coverage, health care management consultant Stephen Beckley says, “Most student plans are really bad.”

If it turns out that the parents plan isn’t an option any more, and a student plan is either non-existent or unworkably poor, then the other option is an individual plan.

According to a consumer specialist with eHealthInsruance.com, the average rate for an 18-24 year old is a $106 a month plan with $2,300 deductible.

The plus of the individual plans are that as of September 23, the individual plans must meet the new health care standards. These include no lifetime limits on coverage and free preventive care.

It is easy to get frustrated with the cost of limited coverage often available to adult’s that fall into this class. And with a short gap in coverage, it might be tempting to just wait until you can get covered by your parents.

But you should always do your best to make sure that you are covered and prepared for the worst. Otherwise, you may need to explore your Chapter 7 bankruptcy options.

A recent article in the New York Times covers just that topic, and the savings may help you avoid Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

The first thing that you probably know, but might not have thought about is who the emergency room has to treat. The short answer is, pretty much everyone. Most hospitals are required to treat everyone that requests treatment, regardless of if he or she has insurance.

The result is that many people who receive treatment either cannot or will not pay, which causes the hospitals to set its gross charges very high.

One of the surprises that the ER can hit you with is the fee corresponding to the complexity of the treatment that your injury required. Typically, there are five levels of care.

“Level 1 is for minor problems, like an earache. Level 5 is for more severe problems like a broken bone. (There are higher levels of care reserved for critically ill patients.)” the Times reports.

Some of the best advice about the emergency room is to avoid it whenever possible.

Obviously, you should always seek medical care if you require it, but if it isn’t an emergency, it might be a good idea to call your regular doctor first and ask for advice on how to proceed. Many insurance companies offer free over-the-phone nursing consultations, and, depending on the time of day, there may be walk-in clinics or physicians assistants on hand at local pharmacies.

Another way to avoid trips to the ER is to take care of yourself. We often mention preventive care, and regular doctor visits may help you stop a problem before it becomes so severe you need to see the ER.

Once again, and it is important to emphasize this, if you require emergency care, you should go- no amount of money is worth your life.

If you do end up in the emergency room, be sure to closely examine your bill when you receive it.

With the thousands of patients being processed at hospitals, it is fairly common for a mistake to happen on your bill. You might be charged for minor or major treatments that simply didn’t occur.

There is no risk in asking questions and even asking that a charge be removed. Even if a charge is accurate, you may ask that it be reduced or removed.

If you find that your bill is accurate, then make an offer. If you are unable to pay your bill, bargaining might be your best friend. The majority of hospitals will be willing to deal, particularly if you offer to pay right away.

Finally, act quickly. If you fail to pay your hospital bill, they are often forwarded to collection agencies, which could  – if reported to the credit agencies- wind up hurting your credit score.

Once you see a bill that you think is too high, or is just out of your means, begin a dialogue with the hospital billing department. If you ignore your bill, it will not get any better. The longer you wait to being your action, the greater you risk having your bill go into collection. Being proactive can save you time, money and frustration at a time when you should be worrying about recovering.

According to a recent article from the Wall Street Journal, the new health reform legislation might represent a significant shift: one where the elderly endure a reduction in services to help the young, sick and uninsured.

The new health care bill looks to expand Medicare coverage to younger, uninsured Americans. To achieve this coverage, it may reduce payments to insurance companies or change other ways social security is managed.

Reduced money for the elderly might be an inevitable outcome of the bill. Nearly half of the funding is supposed to come from paying lower fees to hospitals, insurers and other insurance providers that participate in Medicare.

Struggling with medical debt? Chapter 7 bankruptcy may help.

The 44 million Americans that are on Medicare, according to the language of the law, will not see any changes to their guaranteed benefits; however, the more than 11 million people on the Medicare Advantage plans, a public-private hybrid, will probably begin to see extra benefits going away as soon as next year.

That’s not to say that these cuts are upsetting everyone in the senior community. The AARP, perhaps the leading senior advocacy group, is embracing the prospect, stating that in order to keep Social Security viable, Congress “needs to make some small adjustments”, and the group supports the health-care overhaul as a whole.

The White House’s response is that the new reform merely eliminates overpayments to private companies. The idea goes, lower payments to health providers, the new law will extend the life of Medicare’s trust fund by 12 years.

There is some opposition to the cuts to “overpayments.”

A vice president at the conservative Heritage Foundation, Stuart Butler, claims that the White House isn’t being complete clear, and that the new reform “uses [the cuts] to create a new entitlement for a separate group of people rather than strengthening” the program.

Butler also expresses concern that the proposed cuts won’t be enough to pay for the new benefits created by the reform.

The new law is planned to spend a whopping $938 billion over the next ten years, with most of that going to expand coverage to lower-income Americans. The money for this will be from $455 billion in cuts to health-care providers that serve patients on Medicare and two other federal programs.

The remainder of the funding will be from new taxes on healthcare companies, higher Medicare payroll tax for the wealth and a tax on high-value insurance plans.

There is still a debate on whether the total cost is going to be higher than the cuts and increased revenue. Clearly, the current system needs a change and this reform represents an important step toward fixing the health system. As for who is right about the overall stability of the new reforms, only time will tell.

According to a recent article in the New York Times, insurance providers are reacting to the new health care plan by offering “limited option plans,” more affordable plans with reduced premiums, but the pool of doctors that an individual can choose from is much narrower.

These plans are particularly appealing to small businesses that are faced with increasingly expensive medical coverage for their employees.

These limited option plans are, reportedly, capable of saving up to 15 percent for the companies providing the insurance. The savings may mean that more small business can offer coverage to more employees.

According to Peter Skoda, a small business owner, these new plans “eliminate the Gucci doctors.”Skoda recently changed plans for his company in the face of a 35 percent increase in his rates.

Limiting the choices of health care recipients to save money is by no means a new idea. The last time this style of insurance was common was in the early 1990s with HMOs. During this time, the insurance companies did more than just pay the doctor or hospital bills, the insurers would limit the specialists and hospitals that patients could see.

Needless to say, the utterance of “HMOs” does not evoke a positive connotation. As a result, both president Obama and Hillary Clinton have learned to perpetually interject the idea of choice in the discussion of the new health reform.

Insurance companies, however, are convinced that these more affordable but more restrictive health care plans will have a widespread appeal.

The key is balance. The goal of the new health reform is to give people a choice while making an appealing environment for insurers to offer coverage that is high quality and affordable.

Whether the government successfully struck this balance is anyone’s guess at this point. The big question: Will more but limited coverage give people the care they need and the coverage to stay out of medical debt and medical bankruptcy?

Most experts don’t believe that the classic HMO scenario of managed health care is going to come back. But with the increase in the cost of health care, bits and pieces of that type of health care might make an appearance in the kinds of plans that companies switch to in order to save money.

One of the key differences between these new insurance policies and the HMO style ones is the method of doctoral limitation. Previously, the doctors and hospitals were limited based almost exclusively on the cost. Now, however, the insurers are claiming to look at many other factors, including recovery time from surgery.

The speculation of the ramifications of the new health care legislation is never ending. What isn’t speculative is some of the effects that are already taking place. And it is clear that these alternative insurance policies are going to be popping up more than they have.

Both co-pays and co-insurance refer to the portion of your of a medical bill that you are responsible for paying. What many people don’t understand, according to a recent article from the New York Times, is that a co-pay is a flat fee, whereas a co-insurance is a percentage amount.

An example of a co-pay that we are all probably familiar with is prescription drug co-pay.

When you go to pick put your prescription drugs, typically you’ll have to pay a flat, set fee for the drugs, often around $10 or $20. The insurance company is responsible for paying for the remainder of the bill, whatever it may be.

You may also see the co-pay for a doctor’s visit. Many plans set a flat rate for a visit to a doctor or specialist.

As you get into treatments, surgeries and procedures, you may begin to deal with co-insurance.

Co-insurance decides your payment based on a percent of the bill. So instead of paying a flat rate for a procedure, you’ll instead pay a set portion of whatever the cost may be.

For example, an 80/20 co-insurance policy would have you pay 20 percent of the bill with the insurance company picking up the rest.

About half of all employer health plans require co-insurance for hospital admissions.

Even more companies are considering switching from co-pay to co-insurance for hospital stays in order to increase the employee cost-sharing and control the rising expenses for health benefits.

If your insurance changes to co-insurance, you could still find yourself dealing with big medical bills. With an 80/20 plan, on a $100,000 bill, you’d still be responsible for $20,000.

With these plans, it’s possible that you could quickly be confronted with medical debt even if you have insurance. In fact, many medical bankruptcy cases are filed by people who have insurance.

However, most of the plans have caps in place that limit the amount you have to pay each year. Insurers don’t want you putting off necessary procedures, so check your policy to see your annual out-of-pocket expenditures cap.

This caps outlines the maximum amount that you would have to pay out of your pocket for care in a given year. Often these limits are around $5,000 or $6,000, and once the insured individual pays the cap, the insurance company will cover 100 percent of the remaining balance.

As of 2014, the new health care law will limit all cost-sharing, which includes both co-insurance and co-pays.

The current out of pocket limitations on policies can vary greatly from one plan to another. A low end individual out of pocket cap can be $2,500 with one of the higher out of pocket limitations being $6,000. If your insuring a family, the maximums are typically double that.

The final tip to take away from all this: Know what you’ve got.

Just because your insurance plan has a high-deductible, it doesn’t mean that you won’t also have a co-insurance. If you take the time to consider all the variables you can find the right insurance plan for you and your family, but something that might seem like a minor difference in word choice, can actually be the difference between thousands of dollars when it matters most.

There are many tricks that are well known for saving money on medical bills, and avoiding Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Here are a few suggested by the Tribune that you can keep on hand in case you find yourself faced with serious medical bills.

• Negotiation. You can haggle for more than just the price of a used car, but few people realize it can be done with medical bills. If you doctor charges more than your insurance company will pay, you can always try to get your doctor to lower your charge. There really is nothing to lose. Over half of all people have never negotiated a medical bill, nearly a quarter didn’t even know that was an option. These stats are according to a survey done of members of Angie’s List, a consumer review website.
• Get quotes from doctors beforehand. Another good idea is to get written quotes from doctors for how much the surgery should cost and how much those doctors would expect an insurance provider to cover. That way, if you wind up getting charged more, you have evidence of how much it should have cost and how much your insurance should have paid.
• Healthcare Blue Book. If you’ve ever sold or bought a used car your probably familiar with the Kelley Blue Book. This is essentially the medical bill version of that. This resource can help you find how much procedures cost in your area, which is helpful because the cost of a surgery could vary greatly from one region to another. Also, knowing the prices in the area may help you negotiate a discount.
• Stay calm. As emotionally charged as you may feel at times, people will almost always respond better to you if you treat them politely. Most of the time the person you have on the phone was not there throughout the entire procedure. If the person you talk to wants to help you, then you have a better chance at getting what you need out of the conversation.
• Focus on the bill. According to the Medical Billing Advocates of America, eight out of 10 medical bills have mistakes on them. Error can be anything “from duplicate charges to overcharges to charges to charges for non billable services, to misplaced decimal point” even incorrect coding errors by the insurance company can lead to you being overcharged.

A cool head and a solid plan are essential to knowing what your plan is to make your medical bills more manageable. There are dozens of tricks out there that can lower your bills, and combining these tricks with proper foresight can make an insurmountable debt something that you can control.

When you or a loved one go in for surgery, the last thing you want to worry about is paying the medical bills. But minimal planning and effort throughout can go a long way towards helping your bottom line.

According to the Chicago Tribune, several influential voices of the nation’s largest doctors group want to revise the Medicare payments portion of the bill, raise doctor pay from state Medicaid programs and advocate for liability reform.

Several of the delegates are upset that a Medicare payment formula was not a permanent part of the new health reform law, because this forces them to lobby Senate Republicans for another temporary payment fix to prevent the scheduled cut.

Dr. J. Steven Posley, a family physician and chairman of the Ohio delegation to the AMA said, about the new health reform bill, that “although the bill contains some elements that were positive, it contained many that we thought were detrimental or just failed to adequately address the problems… the expansion of Medicaid puts more people on the Medicaid rolls, but Medicaid is underfunded. Limited numbers of doctors participate in Medicaid.”

AMA leaders did address most of the principles it has advocated, including the very important goal of insuring the uninsured, which was one of the most important campaign movements made by the doctors. The new law will expand health benefits to more than 30 million uninsured Americans, which will increase the number of paying patients for the physicians by 30 million people.

There is some criticism against the AMA with the stance that some of the more prominent members are taking. The criticism comes mainly because a strong stance like some of the AMA members are taking might end up tying the hands of the lobbyists. If the positions taken are too extreme to be passed through the legislation, then the group might lose some of its power and relevance as a lobbying group.

This view point, in addition to the ongoing slumbering economy, has the AMA projecting a 5 to 7 percent loss in membership this year from the end of 2009.

Another key that the AMA wanted was a cap on malpractice awards. The group was unable to secure a cap in this health reform passage, but there is a $50 million in grant money to develop, implement and test medical liability reform initiatives.

The AMA has a major influence with the Congress, and clearly all the provisions of the health reform bill that have been passed are good evidence of that. Dr. James Rohack, the AMA’s president and a Texas cardiologist, believes that the health reform is “huge” and that “those reforms were passed by a Democratic Congress and signed into law by a Democratic president who also happens to be an attorney.”

This leaves him with hope that his desired caps on medical malpractice suits will be passed and help to complete the already positive health reform.

For more information on health care reform and medical bills, subscribe to the Chapter 7 Recovery Room blog.

A recent article in the New York Times helps to illuminate just how much people are willing to pay for the medical care of their cats or dogs.

Any animal lovers who are obsessed with their dog or cat may be surprised to find that only 62 percent of pet owners would be willing to pay $500 in medical bills for their pet.

When the vet bill increases to $1,000, less than 50 percent of pet owners would be willing to pay. And if the bill jumps to $2,000, only one out of three pet owners surveyed would be willing to foot the bill.

But those who are devoted enough to pay big medical bills will keep paying even high bills, even if it means risking medical debt and Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

A full 22 percent would be very likely to pay $5,000 for their dog or cats medical bill. That means almost half the people that would pay $1,000 for their animal are willing to pay five times that to keep their pet healthy.

Cat owners were more likely than dog owners to stop treatment at the $500 mark with 26 percent of the unwilling to spend being dog owners and 54 percent owning cats.

It was also surprising to see that income level didn’t have an influence about how much money people would spend to save their pets. Pet owners who earned less than $50,000 a year were willing to spend approximately the same as those who earned more.

If you’re worried that medical bills for your pet could get off the leash, there are steps you can take to protect yourself.

There is an entire industry devoted to animal health insurance. It works very much like regular health insurance. Typically you pay into an account, and when your animal gets sick you visit the veterinarian, submit your claim and wait for your reimbursement.

According to Ehow.com, most premiums are rather affordable at around $300 to $400 per year. However, there is frequently a maximum coverage for animal health insurance.

Typically the younger the animal the easier and cheaper it is to obtain coverage for your animal.
These policies can be very comprehensive, covering regular preventative health care like immunizations and checkups, while some will only cover catastrophic care for illnesses.

It is always possible for a policy to exclude certain conditions, like hereditary diseases, or certain kinds of trauma. If you are considering a policy make sure to read it carefully to determine if the policy covers everything you want without making you pay for things you don’t intend on using.

The main difference seems to be the way the animal’s bill is paid. You will typically have to pay the entire bill upfront, and later submit a claim for reimbursement.

If you own a pet and don’t think a $500 medical bill is worth the money, then spending $300 to $400 a year on insurance for up to and over 17 years is probably not something you’re interested in. But if you find yourself willing to spend money for your pet’s medical bills, and unable to pay an emergency bill, then animal insurance might be something that could work for you.

It’s often not as simple as going in for a check-up at your local family doctor, and if you don’t plan properly it could cost you a lot of money.

The Associated Press recently released an article that helps outline the checks you should go through if you have a surgery on the horizon.

These steps include:

1. Will your insurance cover the surgery? Often, insurance companies will not pay for cosmetic procedures, even if a medical procedure or accident caused a disfigurement. There are also situations where your surgery would be considered investigative or experimental, and not covered. Spinal fusions, for example, are often not covered, reports the AP.

Make sure you don’t get stuck with surprise medical bills after your procedure. Speak with your insurance as soon as your doctor mentions surgery as an option.

2. Preauthorize your procedure. The next question you should ask is if there is a requirement in your insurance plan to preauthorize the procedure. Sometimes, even if your procedure is covered, your insurance company may still require advance notice and approval.

A short phone call with your insurance provider and a notation of the conversation will typically be enough to confirm that your procedure will be covered. This confirmation will often save a hassle of getting the insurance company to cover the procedure after your surgery during the time when you should be worrying about recovery.

3. Check your doctor’s networks. You should also check to make sure that all the doctors, hospitals and surgeons involved are within your insurer’s network.

If your surgery is from an out-of-network provider, your insurance provider will often pay what is “usual and customary” for your procedure. This figure could be as low as 20 percent of your actual bill.

What to do When Insurance Won’t Cover Your Surgery

If you find yourself in a situation where your insurance will not cover a procedure that you need, or that only a small portion of the procedure will be covered, you still have options to reduce your medical bills.

If you know you have big medical bills on the way, letting the hospital know you may have difficulty paying them is often the first step to saving. If they know your bills will be steep they may be willing to work with you to save money.

Some popular methods offered to keep you out of medical debt:

1. Self-pay discounts. Often, a hospital will offer discounts for people paying the bills themselves. Notify the hospital of your status, and see what they offer.

2. Payment funds. Some hospitals work with non-profits or have special funds to help offset costs if you meet certain financial hardship eligibility. If you qualify to file chapter 7 bankruptcy, then you may also qualify for these programs.

3. Pay the Medicare rate. Speak with an in-house social worker or someone in the billing office to see you may pay the Medicare rate – what the hospitals bills the government for Medicare patients – which is often lower than the standard rate.

4. Negotiate. There is no harm in trying to negotiate. If you can get a thousand dollars off a procedure, it’s a thousand dollars you can put toward other expenses. The worst they can say is no.

It is important to note that all these tips are for surgical procedures where you have the luxury of time. Your best bet may bet to discuss these options before your procedure, so you don’t have to worry about bills and recovery at the same time.

Your number one goal should always be to stay healthy and alive. If time is essential, it is important to remember that your life is more important than money.

Here’s an in-depth guide into the changes, and what they could mean for you and your medical debt.

1. Required health insurance. The requirement that everyone have health insurance insurance, which is perhaps the largest and most well known reform, does not even come into effect until 2014. The other big change that does not come into effect until 2014 is the federal subsidies to help people obtain coverage.

2. More coverage for young adults. According to Time, approximately 15.3 million of the 46 million uninsured Americans are young adults.

The bill states that people 26 and younger who cannot receive health insurance through their employers will be eligible for health care coverage by their parents plan. This is to go into effect in September.

3. More preventive care. We’re mentioned how important preventive care can be at lowering overall medical bills. Time reports that the new bill requires: “that newly issued private insurance cover preventive services without co-pays regardless of deductibles.”

It isn’t clear exactly which preventive services will be covered. Immunizations recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be covered, but other procedures are going to be determined by a panel of doctors working with several governmental health agencies.

4. No cap on reimbursements paid out for a given policy. After 2014, insurance providers will no longer be able to put a cap these payments. Until 2014, the Department of Health and Human Services will restrict the limits: although it is unclear how exactly the department will do this.

5. Small business help. According to Times, a new policy will provide tax credits for businesses based on how much they pay for employees’ insurance premiums. Businesses can a tax credit worth up to 35 percent of what they pay for employee premiums.

There are several gray areas in the new legislation that will be flushed out as more of the health reform goes into effect. These reforms may help you reduce your medical costs and even avoid filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy to clear your medical bills.

Checking the grain bin is part of farmer Jason Hass’ routine. But after he missed a run and fell 15 feet he ended up in the hospital with a broken leg and several compressed vertebrae.

His medical bills have already totaled $87,000. Haas, like many Americans with health insurance, thought these bills would be covered.

At the time of the accident, Haas received insurance through his second job at a local manufacturing company. He got the second job to help pay his bills.

The Chicago Tribune reported that Humana, Haas’ insurance company, denied Haas’ claims for his medical bills. They said they do not cover farm related injuries and that he should file his claim under worker’s compensation.

But under Illinois State Law, farm work is exempt from worker’s compensation statutes, so he was not covered for his injuries. Haas and his insurance broker asked Humana to reverse their decision but they still denied his claim.

In the meantime, the medical bills were pouring in and Hass did not know where to turn. Some of his medical debts were turned into collection agencies that started calling Haas requesting payments.

He then decided to pay some of his medical bills because he was afraid of damaging his credit.

Haas’ insurance broker helped him file a complaint against Humana with the Illinois Department of Insurance. The department launched an investigation and found that Humana improperly denied Haas’ claims.

Humana claimed that Haas had primary coverage under worker’s compensation, but his injuries were exempt under Illinois state law.

Haas said that if Humana does not pay his medical bills he may have to start looking into other options like Chapter 7 bankruptcy or selling all of his farm equipment.

The Illinois Department of Insurance continues to work with Humana in hopes they pay Haas’ medical bills. They have paid a few of his claims but with $87,000 in medical bills, there is still a long way to go.

While people may feel comfortable talking down the price of a car on the auto-lot or haggling with a booth operator at a flea market, for many people this strategy feels out of place in a doctor’s office.

However, as we’ve seen before, more and more people are doing this for the simple reason they cannot afford needed health care. Whether it’s lack of insurance, lack of adequate coverage or simply costly procedures and not enough income, more people are negotiating the price of their medical bills before and after receiving coverage.

But not everyone is comfortable discussing medical bills, particularly when their facing illness or surgery.

New Jersey Record columnist Kevin Demarrais looks at the professional companies that have started offering their services to patients.

Companies like Medical Cost Advocate offer to negotiate medical debt on your behalf with your health care provider. In return, the companies ask for about a third of the money saved. After paying the negotiator, clients may still realize two-thirds of the discount.

So if your medical bills were $1,000, and the service got you a $300 discount you would pay the hospital $700 and the company $100.

Will the service help you? It may, although you may have to work with the company each time you receive a bill from your health care provider.

Also, the companies only work with health care providers. So if you used a credit card to pay off your doctor’s bills or are also struggling with your car payment they may not be able to help.

Chapter 7 bankruptcy, on the other, is designed to address multiple types of debt. So if you’re struggling with medical bills and credit bills, then you may be able to clear both with a single Chapter 7 filing.

However, if your debt problems are confined to just one difficult doctor bill, then negotiation may be a good option. You may also be able to use it to successfully stay out of debt.

The decision is up to you, but make sure you have all the facts about your options, the costs and their effects before you commit to any program.

A recent study by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the overall medical expenses for cancer patients have significantly increased.

The study, led by health economist Florence Tangka, had compiled data from two different national telephone surveys.

The National Medical Expenditure Survey was completed in 1987, and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey was conducted from 2001-2005.

The Associated Press reported that Tangka and his team of researchers reviewed 164,000 surveys for cancer patients. The patients were asked about their medical costs, medical conditions and who paid their medical bills.

Several differences were found between the two sets of surveys.

Cost: The nation’s medical expenses for cancer nearly doubled in the 18 years between the surveys. In 1987 the total cost for cancer treatment was $25 billion. By 2005, it had increased to $48 billion.

One reason increase was due to the aging of the populace, researchers reported. Older individuals are at higher risk for cancer and the elderly made up a majority of the cancer patients last surveyed.

Who pays the medical bills: Another major difference was who paid the medical bills.

Medicare paid for a majority of the medical expenses for elderly cancer patients with private insurance companies also covered a large portion of medical costs for cancer patients. In turn, out-of-pocket expenses for cancer patients decreased during the time span.

But the times are changing once again. In the years since the 2005 survey the recession led to more unemployed workers losing their health insurance coverage. Many workers who had jobs found their employers were cutting back on insurance benefits.

Coupled with new – and expensive – cancer treatments, a population that continues to get older is paying many health care costs with their own dime.

Dr. Len Lichtenfeld of the American Cancer Society correlated the rise in Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings to the increase in cancer care costs.

He said that “there’s no question that the out of pocket costs for some patients have risen dramatically.”

In the end, Tangka said that the nation’s growing number of cancer patients has made the overall cost of cancer treatment rise.

Many experts say this data may not be accurate since the recession. More research is needed to determine how specific costs could affect cancer patients in the future.