More resources for understanding medical bills.

How appropriate that the first blog entry I'm writing in more than a week is about health care. I took an unexpected "vacation" from the office last week, taking care of three kids with what I think was swine flu. High fevers, runny noses, nasty coughs, nasty attitudes. Week-long quarantines for the preschooler. So NOT a party.

When the hackers went to bed one night, I pounded out a column on understanding your medical bills. I had attended a seminar at Unity Hospital in Fridley last month about this very topic. You can view the presentation on the hospital's web site.

I wasn't able to squeeze in all of the health care resources I would have liked. I mentioned:

http://www.mnhospitalpricecheck.org and http://www.mainstreetmedica.com.

But you might also want to check out the Excelsior company http://www.healthharbor.com. It has articles on saving money on health care as well as a tool where you can search for prices on vaccines and other medical care by zip code. Currently, only Minute Clinic seems to show up in my 'hood.

Open enrollment is on the horizon, which means it's a good time to evaluate your health care expenses from this year and figure out how you could have spent less. It's also a good time to start thinking whether a health plan with a different cost structure would have worked better for you. Tomorrow, I'll post some links with good info on open enrollment.

Now, I'm off to see how the middle sicko did on his first day back at school.