Insurance Basics: Home
Thanks to a law passed in the spring of 2020, most Americans can be tested for COVID-19 for free. But that law didn’t make treatment for the virus free. Medical services for COVID-19 can be costly and sometimes run into tens of thousands of dollars. Whether or not you’ve been diagnosed with COVID-19, you can take steps now to understand your protections under the law and manage the costs of your treatment.
Your plan may have different rules and costs for different healthcare settings. In any setting, you may have to pay a copay, and in some cases, coinsurance. But, these may be waived for preventive services like flu shots and mammograms.
After you visit a provider, you may get a bill telling you how much you have to pay.
Your plan may contract with doctors, dentists and other healthcare practitioners; hospitals; labs; radiology facilities; pharmacies and other types of providers. These are the providers in your “network”.
To look up the estimated costs for behavioral health services (including mental health and alcohol and/or drug services), go to our home page, fairhealthconsumer.org, and click on Medical and Hospital Costs.
Being covered under two health plans doesn't mean the two plans will pay the same amount twice for the same doctor visit. Instead, the plans follow rules about which plan pays what, known as "coordination of benefits."