Hi,

This is the first time that I have had some hospital bills to pay.

When I started working I just had the person in the local insurance shop sort out all the things I needed. I understand that I have the health insurance policy from Assura, paying approx. 300CHF per month, and I have 500CHF excess.

I just spoke to them now, and they say that I should pay the bills myself now. They are less than the 500CHF excess so I should keep the bills until the end of this calendar year. If in the time between now and the end of the year I have some more bills, and the total is now more than 500CHF, I can THEN send them in.

I also asked how they can see that I've paid them, since I pay all my stuff on the banking website and get no receipts or anything. They said it doesn't matter, just send the bills.

This seems a bit silly to me. I pay for the insurance so they should do the paperwork! For my car I just go to the garage and tell them I have insurance and everything is done, no questions. The only bills I get are from the car insurance company.

Is this normal? Do Assura have different policy options or something that may cost more or less?

Do different companies offer different services? I have heard other people with a company called 'CSS'?

Is there any health insurance system where I just give my policy details to the doctor or hospital or whatever and it's just sorted out?

Thanks, James.

This is normal.

Hospital bills are normally paid directly, though, but not doctor, pharmacy, laboratory.

Tom

Normal for Assura or normal for everyone?

For everyone.

(I have SUPRA, my girlfriend Visana, both work the same way).

Tom

So nobody offers a service where you're just covered and you don't have to do anything?

What about the system where I have to keep track of the bills and the total that I've paid? There is no company that will accept the bills at any time of the year and keep track for me?

What is the point of giving the doctor my insurance details?

There are several other competing Insurance Companies that will do everything for you, they give you a card you can use everywhere as a kind of means of payment. The catch is that it comes with a cost, the premiums per month are higher as they do all the red tape and booking for you.

For Assura: you send them the bill, not a the payment.

If you were not insured they would require you to pay in advance or make some kind of deposit or caution.

Do you know any of them?

Avanex and Vivao Sympany used to do everything for me, but I switched to Assura because of the big price differences.

We use innova. We have a low franchise. I send them my bills as I get them and they reimburse me, usually within three weeks. Some things are sent directly to insurance, others sent to us, I've not quite figured it out. But they do keep track.

Now granted, I do have some high medical bills so I hit my franchise early in the year. Our insurance with 300 chf franchise and telmed model in Bern for 2 people late 40's mid 50's is chf 660/month.

This is standard for Assura. Until you've had 500 CHFs' worth of bills, you're the one paying, not them, so they don't need/want to see your bills. If you end up with 800 CHFs of bills by the end of 2011, send the whole lot off to Assura and they'll give you the 300 CHFs difference (minus the 10%, I think it is, that you pay on this anyway). Otherwise, you're just wasting a stamp.

They don't care whether you've actually paid the bills to the hospital, doctor, etc, they'll give you the money anyway. The hospital would chase you, not Assura, so it's not their problem.

Incidentally, I'm paying around 190 CHFs a month with Assura, as a 40 yr old female with accident insurance and a 2k deductible. If you don't have a medical condition that means you'll max out the deductible each year, and have a couple of thou to hand in case of emergencies, you can get your monthly bill down by a third. You can change your deductible each year, using their website.

The point is giving them someone to contact if you don't pay your bills, I guess.

I use SWICA. Each time I pay something, I drop a copy of the itemized receipt in the mail to them. They send me back a statement telling me how much, if any, the paid into my account, how close I am to exceeding the bridge, etc. In some cases, such as the Permanence at the Zürich HB, I can have everything billed to the insurance company, who then send me the breakdown and debit my account for the amount necessary.

If you switch to them for that service, tell them Lance McGrath referred you in. I could use the 50 bucks.

Hi Edot

But you still pay your bills yourself and send the bills and get the reimbursements, which is kind of same as Assura or any other insurance company. OP is asking for a service which does end to end payment and does kind of book keeping for him. He pays to the insurer the bills which are not covered so two very different things.

I agree to OP that the insurance companies when charging money should have some kind of service or at least an interface which can help keep the track of Medical expenses, claims and insurance related stuff.

This is why Assura has sightly lower premiums then other companies. If you want the full service and the service of the insurance company paying the bill for you, you have to pay the higher premiums.

I am with Assura and find that most of the time they are slow to reimburse me for my payments but I am saving enough (switched from Intras) to make it worth my while.

Its not really alot of work to throw all my bills in an envelope and check them twice a year, when over 500 I send them in.

With Assura, do you have to go to specific "network" doctors, or can you go to any local GP? I've never lived in a country with private health before, and all the documents are in German... not terribly helpful for me!

Thanks

Depends on the option you chose. Assura offers THREE options. Have a look at the documentation/contract you have compared to the details (product names) on this link.

http://www.assura.ch/web/assura/cont...=D&Mid=1010104

It's just the straightforward Basis one - that means I don't need to call anywhere first or have a doctor chosen in advance, is that right?

Thank you!

That is correct.