How can eHealth tools help me manage medical expenses?

Keeping track of billing and payments for most of your living expenses is usually simple. If you receive an electric bill for $100, you know you owe the electric company $100, and you know when they expect payment.

Medical bills can be much more complicated. A hospital may bill $1,000 for a procedure, but if you have insurance, that bill first goes to them. Your insurance company may pay some or all of it depending on your coverage, your deductible, and your out-of-pocket maximum. The price of the procedure may also be changed to reflect the hospital’s agreement with your health plan.

Eventually, an adjusted bill will come to you, but it may or may not correctly reflect all of those adjustments. Even if it is accurate, you may have different options for paying the balance with special funds you have set aside through flexible spending or health savings accounts.

With one bill for one procedure, keeping track of all these details can be hard. With many bills from many doctors, labs, and hospitals, it can seem almost impossible. Below, you’ll find some examples of resources designed to help patients and family caregivers get a handle on the complexity of medical expenses.

The Department of Health and Human Services or the U.S. Government does not endorse any product, service or general policies of any non-Federal entity nor is responsible for the content of any individual organization’s material or web pages found at these links.

Below, learn more about:

• Understanding your medical bills
• Tools to help you manage your medical expenses

Medical Bill and Medical Expense Resources
Information sites	Keeping Track of Medical Bills	Article from Consumer Reports about tracking medical bills and related expenses.
	Understanding Your Medical Bills	Article from FamilyDoctor.org about how to understand medical bills.
Medical Expense Management Tools	CakeHealth	Web-based tool for tracking your health spending and medical bills.
	Simplee	Web-based tool for tracking your health spending and medical bills. It also includes tools to find health insurance plans.