Hi there!

This might be a stupid question but what the hey -

I got a orange payment bill directly from the hospital. should i forward to my medical insurer or pay it first??

Sorry and thanks
Matt

Pay it, then send the stub and a copy of the original invoice to your health insurer.

+1, you should have some stickers from your insurance company for this purpose

cheers

my HR depo always say send every bill no matter what to insurers, let them deal with the medical bills , you pay enough for there service . then you get another 30 days to pay them .

I can second the routine. I bought tablets from pharmacy today and I got invoice. I must send it to my insurance company in envelope with sticker.

I was also adviced to make sure you do it before end of the year.

I don't think I have stickers. What are they for?

Following on from the above good advice, also make sure you take photocopies of all documentation you send to your insurers. I know this from experience .

For the insurances I've had, I get a sticker sheet and I stick the stickers to the copy of the bill I've paid and the envelope and send it off.

I throw caution to the wind and don't photocopy but you might want to

Hi everybody,

Can you tell me what happens if you don't send the paid invoices to the insurer. Does it make any sense to send them, I assume that they know already where have you been and how much have you paid?

sorry but I am really ignorant with these things everything is in German.

Thanks.

if you have a deductable then they don't know you've been paying anything. They don't know you've been paying then you take longer to reach that deductable.

Unless I am missing something, then how can they know? It's not your health practitioner's job to inform your insurers of your dealings with them if the bill has been sent directly to you for payment and / or forwarding on by you to your insurers. That said, some do do send the invoices direct to your insurers with a copy to you for information but not always. This varies between practitioners in my experience.

Again, from personal experience and as advised to me by a very helpful representative at my health insurers, any invoices received should be sent directly to them, with a copy for my records in case of internal administrative loss ie the papers are misplaced or never arrive in the post. Each to their own on the copying part, however .

I also asked my insurers to send me a copy of any bills sent directly to them so that I have a complete record of everything. This is what comes from having worked in the insurance financial services industry for so long I guess .

They will pay the invoice and depending on your policy type, excess level etc, then re-bill you if applicable. This is where you get to benefit from more time on paying a bill if it ends up being your responsibility to do so.

They need sight of your invoices in order to accurately calculate what counts towards your annual deductible (excess limit), if you have one.

We have a CHF500 franchise/excess - so we pay all the bills and tot them up at the end of the year. As we've never reached the CHF500 - we've not bothered to send bills in. If ever it goes over, then we will. Of course all bills are filed carefully, just in case. We actually buy most meds on private prescriptions in the UK as it is much much cheaper.

Are you aware that the insurance here also pays for the prescribed medicine? The list of refundable meds is quite extensive and covers 99% of what you might already use, and even if it doesn't, there sure is a Swiss equivalent.

I had to pay upfront for medicine in the pharmacy yesterday. She asked me what's your medical aid? I used to be with AVANEX before, in which case she would have sent bill to them directly. Now I'm with ASSURA and I had to pay cash at the counter.

Yes they do - but only if the total amount is over the excess. As we hardly ever go to the doc, we've not yet gone over this.

Great to hear you're healthy, but may I ask - why are you paying the high premiums for 500chf excess, when you could be paying much less for 2500chf excess? In worst case (depending on your insurer) you could perhaps pay 800chf more that single year when you happen to need expensive treatment. You could save more than that in one year if following your usual scheme (medical bills not exceeding even the lowest excess).