Health insurance can be considered an investment on your life. It is the thing that you will rely on especially when you suddenly get sick when you are working. But you shouldn’t rely on health insurance provided by the company you are working in since the company usually have conditions that will just irritate you when you finally avail of them. When it comes to medical insurance, always try and get external providers, those who you can trust to provide you with the services you paid for. But how do you choose the right medical insurance for you? Below is a list of standard insurance where you can select the right one for you.
Major medical insurance, or traditional health insurance, allows the client privileges wherein the insurance company will pay for a large percentage of the total bill amount, and the client will pay for only a small portion of the said amount. The client can choose to go to any doctor or hospital and avail of their services, pay the provider directly, and then just get reimbursed a percentage of the amount paid. The client can sign a release requesting the insurance company pay the health provider directly and would then be responsible for paying the doctor or hospital the remaining percentage.
An HMO, or a Health Maintenance Organization, is one kind of health insurance that focuses on the long term care of its client and is normally much less expensive than major medical plan. Every patient has his or her own Primary Care Physician who will be responsible for providing preventive and coordinating care for a patient especially if additional specialists or hospitalization is necessary, keeping the costs down. Also, by limiting choices such as choosing physicians available only to a certain network and not covering services that are deemed unnecessary usually controls costs.
A Preferred Provider Organization, or PPO, is like an HMO as there is a network of available physicians, but the difference with an HMO is that the client is not limited to network physicians and can see any doctor they choose. However, co-payments and deductibles will be less for in-network services. Also, network physicians determine reasonable charges so if an out-of-network physician charges more for their services rendered, the insurance company will still pay a percentage of the in-network charges, and the client will pay higher fees for an out-of-network services. Some people prefer the freedom to choose their own doctors and not be limited to a network despite the sky-high charges.
Point of Service insurance, or POS, is considered to be a combination of a PPO and an HMO, wherein the insured chooses a Primary Physician, and all health care will start with the patient consulting this chosen physician. This doctor will then authorize a referral to a specialist, on or out of the network. If a patient sees a specialist without a referral, the insurance company providing the health insurance may choose not to pay for the services.
These health insurance providers given each have different advantages and disadvantages to them, and these factors will vary depending on who will benefit from it. It is up to you to select which one you will benefit most from.
