Recession Briefing: Monkey See, Monkey Do

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

Dr. Laurie Santos’s studies of monkey “economics” suggest that greedy, loss-averse human behavior — the kind in large part responsible for the recession — may have deep evolutionary origins. (Big Think)

While the Great Recession was tough on just about everyone, rookie CEOs were faced with what will likely be the biggest crisis of their careers. Here’s how four of them handled it. (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)

The nation’s health insurers have come under sharp attack by the Obama administration for seeking seemingly staggering rate increases on policies they sell to individuals. But the weak economy and the unrelenting rise in the cost of medical care make it increasingly difficult for companies to avoid substantial rate increases. (New York Times)…

How to Outsmart Your Medical Bills

Okay, so you don’t have health insurance. Or your insurance has a low reimbursement limit or a high deductible. Or, you had to have your wisdom teeth out, and dental isn’t covered. However it happened, here you are, staring at a medical bill equal to the annual budget of a small Caribbean nation. Not a good place.

Use A Medical Negotiation Service.

You may think you have no choice but to pay this ridiculous amount, or else eventually face legal action. But there’s another alternative: Use a negotiation service to bring that stratospheric bill back down to earth. Though some specifics differ, all negotiation services work by reviewing your bill, contacting your doctor or other provider and suggesting a lower price. They do this based on extensive information about “usual and customary” charges…

How to Haggle with Your Doctor

These days, everything’s negotiable – even health care, if you know how the system works. You may be able to negotiate a 20 percent discount or more on costs at the doctor’s office. A few pieces of advice:

Where to start:
Never try to negotiate a medical bill without getting a bit of background information. Read the details of your current or previous insurance plan to get a sense of what will and won’t be covered in your upcoming visit.

It’s also worthwhile to find out what Medicare pays physicians—since it is usually substantially less than what they charge private insurance providers or patients themselves—to perform whatever procedure you’ll need. This will help you determine the bottom floor of what a physician will accept. You can do this by calling the doctor’s office, asking for the procedure’s “CPT code,” and going to the American Medical Association’s CPT search engine to look up the typical payment for that procedure based on where you live. When it comes time to bargain, it’s perfectly reasonable to offer a payment that is 25 percent above the Medicare rate for services…

Recession Briefing 8.20: The Scent of a Downturn

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

What does the recession smell like? It has created scents as varied as those produced by the overheated Wall Street shell game that gave birth to it. The mix is different. There’s less perfume, for one. Fragrance sales have fallen 7 percent this year.( New York Times/T)

A man is driving across the U.S. asking people to write stories of how the financial crisis has affected their lives on the side of his orange van. (Washington Post)

JetBlue suspended sales of its recession-friendly unlimited-flight pass Wednesday, saying it had to do so because of strong demand. (USA Today)…

If you come across a good article or blog post about the recession pass it on. To receive Recession Briefing in your inbox, subscribe to our daily email.

Discount Dental

While a number of creative ways exist to find affordable health care coverage, one question remains unanswered for many: What about my teeth?

Poor dental health has been linked to a whole host of other medical conditions. And to make matters worse, the cost of a visit to the dentist’s office is rising so quickly that even basic cleanings and fillings have become unaffordable for many.

So what’s an uninsured person to do? For many, discount clinics run by accredited dental schools have stepped in to fill the void, while other consumers are choosing to leave the country entirely for dental work at half the cost. But those aren’t your only options. We’ve put together a round-up of popular ways to get discounts on your dentistry, even without insurance…