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The recovery cost guide

Before agreeing to recovery care

# Bring the awkward questions.

Let the person explaining care do the explaining. Leave with a clear answer to what happens next and what it costs.

## Settle these before paying

“Am I paying for a visit or a prescription?”

Ask what the fee covers if the visit ends without a prescription. Get the answer before you agree to the charge.

“Who actually makes the medicine?”

For someone buying made-to-order medicine online, the maker’s identity may be unclear, as the [Food and Drug Administration’s guidance on making medicine to order](https://www.fda.gov/drugs/human-drug-compounding/compounding-and-fda-questions-and-answers) points out.

Ask for the full name of whoever makes the medicine and of the pharmacy that supplies it to you. Ask whether these are the same business.

Open [the doctor and pharmacy license checks](/safety-chapter/#check-names). Follow the links to the state offices that oversee doctors and pharmacies, then search their records using the full names you were given.

“Why am I being offered tests?”

Ask what each test is meant to help the person treating you decide. Ask who will discuss the results and whether repeat tests carry a new charge.

“What if I change my mind?”

Read the terms for ending care, stopping renewal and getting a refund. Ask what happens to any money paid in advance.

For the care conversation

## The questions to take along

Print this checklist

Tick a box when you have an answer. The print button opens your browser’s print window; the browser’s own print command works too.

- [ ] Write down the proposed drug, alongside the goal of care.

- [ ] Ask about alternatives and the reason for this choice.

- [ ] Write down two names: who will prescribe, and which pharmacy will supply your medicine.

- [ ] Use the doctor and pharmacy license searches linked in “Check the care” below to look up those names.

- [ ] Get a total split into visits, medicine, tests, delivery and ongoing fees.

- [ ] Ask for the next bill after any starting offer ends.

- [ ] Find out who explains test results and answers questions between visits.

- [ ] Read the renewal, cancellation and refund terms before paying.

Still unclear? “Please write down what I will pay, who I am paying and what happens next.”

Leave room for “not yet”

Ask for a simpler explanation whenever an answer leaves you puzzled. Take time to read the quote and the care details together.

## Keep the conversation going

- [Start here Name the treatment before pricing it. ↗ ](/)

- [The full bill Medicine, visits, tests and what comes next. ↗ ](/cost-chapter/)

- [Who might pay Separate the care decision from the coverage answer. ↗ ](/coverage-chapter/)

- [Check the care Look up the people, the pharmacy and the claims. ↗ ](/safety-chapter/)

The recovery cost guide

This guide helps you untangle the bill; it is neither a clinic nor a medicine shop.

[Back to the start of this chapter ↑](#reading)