Top 10 Ways to Make Your Health Benefits Work for You

1. Your Options Are Important
There are many different types of health benefit plans. Find out which one your employer offers, then check out the plan, or plans, offered. Your employer's human resource office, the health plan administrator, or your union can provide information to help you match your needs and preferences with the available plans. The more information you have, the better your health care decisions will be.

2. Review the Benefits Available

3. Look for Quality
The quality of health care services varies, but quality can be measured. You should consider the quality of health care in deciding among the health care plans or options available to you. Not all health plans, doctors, hospitals and other providers give the highest quality care. Fortunately, there is quality information you can use right now to help you compare your health care choices. Find out how you can measure quality. Consult Choosing and Using a Health Plan from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

4. Your Plan's Summary Plan Description (SPD) Provides a Wealth of Information
Your health plan administrator should provide a copy. It outlines your benefits and your legal rights under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the federal law that protects your health benefits. It should contain information about the coverage of dependents, what services will require a co-pay, and the circumstances under which your employer can change or terminate a health benefits plan. Save the SPD and all other health plan brochures and documents, along with memos or correspondence from your employer relating to health benefits.

5. Assess Your Benefit Coverage as Your Family Status Changes

6. Changing Jobs and Other Life Events Can Affect Your Health Benefits

7. HIPAA Can Also Help If You are Changing Jobs

8. Plan for Retirement

9. Know How to File an Appeal if Your Health Benefits Claim Is Denied

10. Take Steps to Improve the Quality of Health Care and Benefits You Receive
Look for and use things like Quality Reports and Accreditation Reports whenever you can. Quality reports may contain consumer ratings -- how satisfied consumers are with the doctors in their plan, for instance-- and clinical performance measures -- how well a health care organization prevents and treats illness. Accreditation reports provide information on how accredited organizations meet national standards, and often include clinical performance measures. Look for these quality measures whenever possible. For more information, see Choosing and Using a Health Plan.

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