There’s more to staying healthy on and off the road than good dietary and exercise habits. But even individuals with healthy habits often fail to address the basics of personal healthcare management. In today’s error-ridden and fiscally challenged healthcare landscape, that can lead to physical and financial disaster.

But personal healthcare management is particularly challenging for road warriors who literally don’t have the time or resources at hand for a lot of the research and maintenance work that is the cornerstone of a functional personal healthcare plan. Fortunately, there are resources and services to help with the process.

It all starts with the #1 rule:

Everyone deserves quality healthcare. Getting it is another matter. In the maze of what passes for the healthcare system today, you have to work and plan to realize the desired outcome. Bottom line: You need a healthcare plan that you create and manage as diligently and carefully as your personal financial portfolio.

Your healthcare is in your hands. You need to educate yourself about the process of choosing physicians and hospitals; understanding recommended treatments, tests, and procedures; how to work with healthcare professionals and insurance providers to get necessary care; how to get the maximum benefits from your insurance provider; how to get and review medical records and bills; and how to research medications, possible treatments, and other aspects of personal healthcare.

Without solid insurance, even a minor illness or accident can put a major dent in your finances—and possibly plunge you into serious, long-term debt that can negatively affect your credit. (Need a reality check on costs? Without insurance, the tab for a two-day hospital stay, excluding any surgeon’s or other medical professional’s fees, can equal the charges for two to three weeks at a top spa!)

Healthcare insurance must be a fiscal and personal priority even if you’re fiscally challenged, young, or currently healthy. You may need to make some deep, even painful, cuts in discretionary spending to fund your healthcare premiums. (And yes, I realize that not everyone who works has discretionary income to reallocate.)

If you aren’t offered any health insurance at work and you can’t cover the monthly premiums for health insurance from your current salary/income, you have to earn more—or find an employer who offers adequate coverage! It’s a painful truth. But going without insurance is not an acceptable option.

You may need to make some hard financial choices (increasing your deductible, for example, or your out-of-pocket contributions or even buying more coverage) to get the care you and your family may require.

If you’re self-employed and/or an independent contractor, you must explore your options and allocate dollars for purchasing insurance as if it was a mandatory business expense—because it is. You are the business. If you go down, so does your business.

But you shouldn’t take—or stay—in a job simply because of the healthcare benefits. The daily stress and strain of doing work you dislike (or which, in itself, is physically or emotionally dangerous) can negatively affect your health in the short- and long term. Such ongoing stress can weaken your immune system and make you more vulnerable to disease as well as poor health habits (overeating and drug, alcohol, and tobacco addiction).

TIP: As more people are forced to pay for their own health insurance, more and more scams are surfacing. Even seemingly legit providers have left policyholders in the lurch in recent years. Never commit your financial resources without carefully vetting an insurance provider. And if a premium sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

If you have no back-up financial resources or are the sole support of your family, you should consider getting disability insurance. Good coverage isn't cheap but it can greatly contribute to the quality of your life if you are unable to work.

The good news: You have insurance. The bad news: Your plan seems to be written in another language. There are few things less intriguing and more challenging than reviewing your health insurance coverage. That may be why so many otherwise financially prudent and intelligent folks neglect to do so. But failing to fully understand what’s included in your coverage—and, more importantly, what you must do to ensure that you receive those benefits—can cost you both financially and physically.

You’ve got to work your employer-sponsored or self-purchased plan to get the most out of what’s available and to ensure that you are not denied coverage.

The specifics of plan coverage are always subject to change. Contracts are renegotiated, often with a reduction in benefits and an increase in rules and required paperwork and approvals. You must have a solid and accurate understanding of your current coverage.

Be sure you understand exactly what benefits are provided and when they kick in—or end. (Your physician may deem extended physical therapy a necessity but your carrier may cut it off after a certain number of visits. Never assume that a physician’s directives will ensure coverage.)

If you’re unclear about specifics or have questions, speak to your company’s HR department or to the insurance provider. In some cases, it’s worth investing in the services of a healthcare financial advisor (see below).

If you are:

• What type of coverage is included? Excluded?

• Is medical evacuation included?

• What approvals or other requirements must be met before treatment can be ordered and covered?

• How is emergency care defined? (What you consider an emergency, even what a local physician may consider an emergency, may not meet your insurance provider’s definition.)

If coverage is not provided by your employer, purchase a policy. It’s essential for international travelers, but it is also an important consideration for domestic travelers.

If you can't get home, or elsewhere you specify, for proper medical treatment, you could compromise your health. And with the high cost of medical transport (we're talking five-digit fees in some cases), a policy may be the single best health investment you can make as a road warrior.

TIP: Be sure you understand exactly what is—or isn’t—covered by an individual provider’s policy. You want to be able to specify your destination, for example.

Unfortunately, if you want to get reimbursed for healthcare expenditures or ensure that your bills are paid, you often have to fill out a seemingly endless stream of paperwork. (Think it’s tough for you? Imagine what a physician’s office has to process for hundreds of patients and the multiple insurance providers they rely on, all of whom seem to have different forms and requirements—and numerous ways to deny or delay payment. There’s a reason a growing number of physicians are refusing to accept insurance.)

• Get copies of required forms. Carry a few with you in case you need them on the road.

• Carefully read the forms. Fill them out—completely and accurately. If you’re unsure of what’s being asked or your answers, get help from HR or your provider or physician.

• Find out if your provider and/or physician offers online forms or electronic submissions to expedite processing.

• Don’t dump blank or incomplete paperwork on your physician’s staff. Respect their time and workloads. They have enough paperwork on their end.

• Don’t try to cut corners by omitting steps or information.

If you don’t have the time to fill out and submit forms and track them, consider hiring a financial advocate or other professional. (And unless your secretary or assistant’s job description legitimately includes this arduous and time-consuming activity, don’t ask him or her to do it. Unlike your trip expense reports, it’s a personal, not a professional activity.)

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If you’ve ever been denied reimbursement or payment for a legitimate medical service only to have it approved when you re-applied, you know that getting coverage depends on a lot of details and paperwork. Inaccurate or incomplete information on your, or your physician’s end, can land you in "Denial" land. So check your paperwork and be sure you and your physician and his staff are in sync.

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Even if your insurance covers all of your bills, you should carefully and routinely review physician and hospital bills. It’s been estimated that 90% to 95% of all hospital bills have errors—incorrect billing codes, charges for procedures and services that were never rendered, or errors in the quantities and types of medications and services actually provided.

One of the most painful aspects of medical care often comes after you’ve received treatment. Even well-insured patients are shell-shocked when they find out that an insurer will not pay the full amount of the billed fees for medical procedures and consultations and services from specialists and surgeons.

If your surgeon charges $15,000 for hand surgery, for example, but your provider determines that it’s only "worth" $5,000, that’s $10,000 you have to pay! (I’m using an example from a friend, a financial exec, who found the bill hard to swallow even though she had a very healthy income at the time and was insured by a top provider.)

Medical care is one of the few areas where people routinely do not ask about—and physicians’ fail to offer details on—fees and other costs in advance of booking and receiving the services. But you can’t bemoan the high cost of healthcare without questioning what it actually costs.

Few people are comfortable in this dialogue and many physicians and their staffs do not routinely volunteer such information. (Although, if you have no insurance, you’ll be having this conversation immediately after this fact is ascertained!)

TIP: Don’t "shop" for any medical care based on fees alone. The highest price doesn’t necessarily insure the best care nor does a lower fee reflect a physician’s professional abilities and experience. (Geography, cost-of-business, and other non-skill-related factors influence fees, which can account for the wide spread in some cases.)

FYI: Many of the best physicians no longer accept any form of medical insurance. However, some of them offer the best value in terms of actual fees. The surgeon’s fee, including weekly visits for six months for post-op care, for a friend who had minor surgery a few years ago was about 12% of the entire cost of all her medical care and prescriptions. And this was a top NYC surgeon. On the opposite end of the value scale, the anesthesiologist, who provided a bit over 30 minutes total care, billed her for an amount equal to one-half of what the surgeon charged! (Yes, she questioned the fees.)

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Negotiate Fees In Advance (Applies to the Insured as well as the Uninsured!)

Speak to your physician’s office manager and explain your financial and other mitigating circumstances. In some cases, they may offer reduced fees outright or in exchange for an up-front cash payment (rather than a lengthy wait for provider reimbursement) or offer special payment plans. In certain situations, where someone is temporarily unemployed and uninsured, a physician may even waive a fee but that is generally the exception and only for those in dire need of medical services.

(Note: I am most emphatically not advocating that anyone routinely attempt to hondle physicians just for the sport of it. Some folks simply do not know—or accept—what is a legitimate, going rate for services. Some people always want a discount on "retail" prices, even if they’re getting a bargain to begin with. And although everyone is entitled to the best prices they can negotiate, there is something unseemly, to my mind, about folks who have the money—versus those who genuinely don’t—not wanting to pay the going rate. When so many people literally can’t afford any healthcare, I personally question the nickel-and-diming approach of folks who have huge discretionary income not to mention substantial personal wealth. If you can afford expensive vacations, luxury cars, and the like, you should respect another professional's right to charge what is necessary to stay in business. We need all the good physicians we can get and the best are being driven out of medicine these days. And many physicians are having a hard time making a decent wage given the demand on their time and resources and the cost of doing business today.)

Depending on how their practice is set up, some physicians may not have the option to lower rates (although I’d personally question any organization where an individual who provides the actual service cannot negotiate his fees). Some physicians simply refuse to do so, no matter the circumstances.

You have nothing to lose by asking and you should not be embarrassed to do so. Some of the wealthiest people I know are the first to ask for a reduction in the "sticker price" on everything—including medical care. But do so respectfully and politely and as you would like to be treated if you were providing the services.

The same approach to fee reduction applies to the costs of hospitalization and out-patient procedures.