3 Essential (And Free!) Apps to Tackle Your Health Care Costs

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FH Healthcare Care Cost Estimator (iOS)

Tackles: Mystery healthcare costs.

The Healthcare Cost Estimator, by the not-for-profit group Fair Health, helps you understand the cost of medical and dental procedures, how insurance works, and how to compare providers.

It draws from its database of hundreds of millions of insurance claims to show you prices in specific geographies and how much your insurance might pay.

Also check out the handy glossary of healthcare terms and collection of videos and articles about navigating health insurance for the full comparison-shopping experience.

Simplee (iOS)

Tackles: Stacks of bills everywhere and having to pull out your checkbook to pay them.

With Simplee, you have everything you need to track, manage and pay your medical bills from one place online.

By linking all your health, vision, dental, and pharmacy plans to your account, you can see your deductible status or HSA balance, view your benefits, and pay any medical bill with a few taps.

Simplee also sends you various alerts and insights about your insurance claims, such as notifications about free preventive care or claims that looked like they were billed incorrectly.

It’s basically a one-stop-shop for keeping your bills paid on time and in perfect order. Read more about Simplee here.

Healthcare Blue Book (iOS, Android)

Tackles: Unknown prices for health care services.

The Healthcare Blue Book has been around for awhile, helping consumers find the fair market price for anything from an MRI to a heart surgery. Now, the search is available on mobile.

See how providers in your area rank as far as the price for specific services and the range of costs out there. You’ll also get tips on saving money and finding quality providers and help with how to negotiate prices.

The app is especially great if you’re uninsured.

Tomer Shoval is the CEO and Co-Founder of Simplee, a free online personal health care expense management tool. Connect with him on twitterfacebook or email.