medical health insurance

Medical Health Insurance

Medical health insurance has become an essential commodity due to the uncertainty of modern day life. There are numerous plans, coverages and options you can tailor to your needs. Before deciding about a insurer, you must decide by yourself about the type of medical health insurance coverage you want.

Types of Policies

Each plan differs in coverage, payment terms and medical treatment procedures (i.e. available doctors). Below is a list of common policies:

• Indemnity (Fee-for-service): Allows you to go to any hospital or doctor. You submit a claim and pay the invoice (to be reimbursed later) or authorize the hospital or doctor to collect their fees directly from your insurance company. Although this plan is very flexible in who provides your care, the premiums are higher than other types of health insurance. Also, indemnity plans usually do not provide any coverage until the deductible has been satisfied.
  


• PPO (Preferred Provider Organization): The insurance company has a network of "preferred providers" (hospitals, doctors, clinics, etc.). These providers discount their service fees to your insurance company in exchange for being part of the network. If you use a provider from outside the network, you'll have to submit a claim and likely pay a higher deductible. This is usually cheaper but not as flexible as the indemnity plan.
  


• HMO (Health Maintenance Organization): All your medical services are provided by the organization of doctors, hospitals, etc. The HMO is much like a strict PPO: you must use the providers they authorize (except for emergencies as defined by your plan). Your doctor refers you to other doctors within the HMO as necessary. The HMO's advantage is that it has no deductibles and usually requires only a small co-payment for each service. There may also be a maximum to what you pay annually "out-of-pocket."
  


• POS (Point-Of-Service): This is an option of HMO with greater flexibility. Your primary doctor may refer you to someone outside of the HMO with minimal or no additional cost. You may also refer yourself to a non-HMO provider, but you'll have to pay co-insurance.