Hassle-Free Health Coverage: Chapter 3 Summary
In today's business world, employers have come to rely on managed care at the expense of traditional indemnity insurance. In fact, many employers no longer offer traditional insurance indemnity at all.
But economic realities and employee preferences clearly show that, despite its dramatic growth, people want freedom to choose their doctors and hospitals, and the networks that include them.
One of the advantages of the indemnity plan is that there are typically no limits on which providers you can use or how often you see them.
While cost will be one of your biggest concerns in choosing a plan, quality should also be an important consideration.
The concept behind an indemnity plan is to reduce your share of the costs as much as possible-without compromising the quality of the care you recieve.
Some insurance companies do this more aggressively than others.
Generally, you have to shell out more for this type of plan-in deductibles, copayments, premiums and out of pocket expenses-but you have an unlimited amount of choices. So, if you don't have financial limitations holding you back and you want to be able to go to the doctor you want, when you want and wherever you want, you may want to look into an indemnity plan.
Under a fee-for-service type plan, you pay a deductible-a fixed amount that must be paid before your insurance company will start to pay-and all costs for services that your insurance company won't pay for.
Even if you choose an indemnity health coverage plan, you can't rest assured that everything will be covered. It's important to investigate and learn as much about the types of policies available, the companies offering insurance, the agent and the local company represented, what the policy will or will not pay for, and how you will be reimbursed for visits, prescriptions, etc.
Be sure to review your policy at least once a year. Today's healthcare system continues to change at a rapid pace and you wouldn't want to be making up the difference yourself in order to meet these changing demands.
