Medical Care Return
Health Insurance
Types of Plans
• HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) Prepaid health plans in which you pay a monthly premium and the HMO covers your cost of care to see doctors within their network at pre-negotiated rates. You must choose a primary care physician who coordinates all of your care and makes referrals to any specialists you might need. If you are an HMO member and you do not use the doctors, hospitals and clinics that participate in your plan's network, you will usually bear the cost of those medical services
• Indemnity Traditional health insurance that usually covers a percentage of the cost of care (often 80%) after the consumer pays an annual deductible. Patients with indemnity coverage can choose any doctor or hospital for their care.
• MSA (Medical Savings Account) A tax-advantaged personal savings account used in conjunction with a high deductible health policy. Individuals can contribute money to this account on a pre-tax basis to set aside money for qualified medical care and expenses, including annual deductibles and copayments.
• POS (Point-of-Service) A type of managed care plan combining features of health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and preferred provider organizations (PPO's). You can decide whether to go to a network provider and pay a flat dollar or to an out-of-network provider and pay a deductible and/or a coinsurance charge.
• PPO (Preferred Provider Organization) A network of health care providers that have agreed to provide medical services to a health plan's members at discounted costs. PPO members typically make their own decisions about their health care rather than going through a primary care physician like HMO member. The cost to use physicians within the PPO network is less than using a non-network provider.