Kids and Health Care: Fee-For-Service Coverage

Fee-for-service coverage simply means that someone will pay a medical-care provider (usually a doctor or hospital) for services rendered. Paying cash -- that is, unreimbursed out-of-pocket expenses -- for medical care is a fee-for-service arrangement. Traditional health insurance -- what insurers call indemnity coverage -- is also a fee-for-service arrangement.

With fee-for-service coverage, you choose the doctor you want to see; and you can choose a different doctor for any reason, any time you feel like it.

This flexibility is something that most people value highly. And it's the reason that fee-for-service plans are more expensive than other kinds of health care.