Your Finance: High-deductible health plans

If your company tells you it's replacing your health insurance with a high-deductible plan paired with a health savings account -- or adding that option to your benefits menu -- you might want to make your first stop the information technology department rather than human resources.

While many people shudder at the thought of anything that is "high-deductible," these plans can work out in your favor.

Workers may not have much of a choice, the National Business Group on Health says, since 19 percent of employers will be offering high-deductible plans as the only option in 2013, as opposed to 7 percent in 2009. Some 54 percent of workplaces will offer the high-deductible plans as a choice in 2013.

Here's how to make the plans work for you:

Get over the initial sticker shock. High-deductible plans are similar to traditional plans in that after you meet the deductible, care is covered at around 80 percent or 90 percent if you stay in the preferred-provider network. But initial out-of-pocket costs are higher; there's a minimum deductible of at least $2,400 for a family, versus an average of around $1,200 at large employers for other plans, according to Mercer, a human resources consulting firm.

While most insurance plans can be paired with pretax flexible spending accounts, high-deductible plans are instead often matched up with either an employer-funded health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) or an employee-controlled, pretax health savings account (HSA), depending on which your employer chooses to offer.

Work the freebies. Well visits for the kids, annual physicals, yearly mammograms -- preventive care is free now, and not counted toward the deductible. Paul Fronstin, director of the Health Research & Education Program at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, says the most important way to work your HSA is to know the details of your plan and what incentives your employer offers. Some will put cash into your HSA for completing things like health surveys, and some will just give a cash contribution with no strings attached.

Know what care costs. If you're used to a $20 co-pay, researching costs may sound ominous. But it's worth it to find out which mammogram location costs less, or which drugs are cheaper, says Aon Hewitt's Fay.

Most health insurance providers have smartphone apps that allow you to check doctors and drug costs, and programs like Quicken can help you keep track of the money going in and out. Keeping receipts and good records could help you down the road, since you can reimburse yourself later from your HSA for past bills that you don't claim against the savings right away.

Know your own health. Conventional wisdom says that young, healthy people like high-deductible plans because they only pay for what they use, and they typically use very little. But Fronstin says the plans actually work very well if you have a chronic condition, especially if you know what you spend in a year.

Some families could reach a $3,000 deductible in just a couple of months -- have a baby in January and you are set for the year.

And there are mandated out of pocket maximums -- $6,050 for an individual, $12,100 for a family -- for your protection.

Key steps

Save up. Money you leave in a qualifying high-deductible plan can be carried, tax-free, through retirement.

Use the Web to compare. Check account features at sites like HSAfinder (hsafinder.com).