A Brief Note On The Healthcare Insurance Coverage

PPO- This plan contracts with physicians and facilities to perform services and a specified rate. Its to ensure that PPO members are charged less than nonmembers

There are several types of private payer plans including preferred provider organizations (PPO’s), health maintenance organizations (HMO’s), and point of service (POS). Indemnity plans would cost the most for employees and they usually choose a PPO plan. A trend that is gaining popularity with employees and employers is the consumer driven health plan (CDHP) that has a high deductable combined with a funding option of some type. All of the plans have unique features for coverage of services and financial responsibility.

Another type of managed care program that was introduced is the Preferred Provider Organization (PPO). A PPO is comprised of a group of physicians, hospitals and other medical service providers who contract with employers, insurance companies or other plan sponsors. The PPO offers discounted pricing to these contracted organizations due to the high volume of business received. PPO’s typically have up-front cost sharing in the form of deductibles and/or co-insurance, which vary depending upon the actual plan chosen.

Health insurance in the United States is a highly politicized issue. In recent years, many strides have been made to extend health insurance coverage to all Americans with the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). While the program has been vigorously debated in the public realm, arguments are often centered around political ideology rather than economic theory. This paper seeks to challenge the entire structure of the current health insurance model, since its inception in the 1950s. Through the overuse of a third-party payer model, a magnitude of problems have emerged that severely diminish the efficiency of health care allocation in the United States. This paper proposes a model that seeks to correct issues of cost, access, and market efficiency by adapting the Medicare Part D payment scheme for an all encompassing insurance model.

You have open access to indemnity insurance. You have the right to choose your PCP and it doesn’t matter what your insurance may like. This makes things very convenient considering many people go to the same doctor for the vast majority of their life and solely rely on them for their treatment or care.

As a single employee, I want to select a PPO health network as my medical insurance so that I can continue to see my current family doctor.

Unlike Health Maintenance Organizations, there are managed care programs that offer a deductible, coinsurance feature and earn money by charging a fee to the insurance company for using their network. This service is formally known as Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO). The deductible must be fully paid before any benefits are provided and subsequently, the coinsurance benefits will be applied. For instance, if the PPO plan is an 80% coinsurance plan with a $1,000 deductible, then the patient will pay 100% of the allowed provider fee up to $1,000. After this amount has

I currently work for a hospital which is part of an academic medical center. It offers 3 health plan options to choose from. The first is the hospitals own medical plan which which is has features of an EPO, and can be categorized as a CDHP (Consumer Driven Health Plan). It has a higher monthly cost, but lower out-of-pocket costs when care is needed. It has a large network of providers including the hospital, and a network of providers who have partnered with the institution. You are not required to have a PCP, but it is recommended, you must use in-network providers, it has a HIA (Health Incentive Account) with wellness incentive funds available for members. The second is a POS plan from one of the larger Insurance companies with 2 tiers of in-network providers, lowest monthly cost, but a higher out-of-pocket cost when care is needed, until you meet the annual deductible amount. This has a Health Savings Account (HSA) attached, and you can have tax deductible contributions go to the fund, and wellness incentives funds can be deposited into the HSA. The third is an HMO plan with the highest monthly cost, but a lower out-of-pocket cost compared to the POS plan when care is needed. It also has an HIA attached as well.

Preferred provider organizations have also contracted with hospitals and physicians to provide health-care services. Unlike the case with an HMO, you do not have to go to these physicians. However, you will pay more if you go outside the list of preferred providers. PPO plans usually have a deductible, which is the amount that the insured must pay before the PPO begins to pay. When the PPO plan does start to pay, it will usually pay a percentage of the bill and you have to pay the remainder, which is called “coinsurance.” Most plans have an out-of-pocket maximum. This helps protect you from paying more than a certain amount per year. After you exceed the out-of-pocket maximum, the coinsurance percentage paid by the PPO increases to 100%. (www.ajmc.com)

When U.S. President Barrack Obama signed the health care reform bill into law in March 2010, opposing political pundits were quick to brand the initiative as government takeover of the healthcare system and pejoratively described it as socialized medicine. I considered it my civic duty to look a little deeper into the pros and cons of the issue as earlier research findings had reported 45,000 Americans died annually for lack of health care coverage (Robertson, 2009).

Medicare is a federal health insurance program for people sixty- five or older, also there can be younger people with disabilities, and people with End-Stage Renal Disease. Medicare splits into two segments. Segment A concerns inpatient hospital, skilled nursing facility care and home health care. Once officially registered in Medicare, you will be given these benefits instantly and won’t have to pay premiums for them, because you’ve already paid for them through your taxes. Segment B concerns majority of your medically necessary doctors’ services, preventive care, durable medical equipment, etc. You will pay a monthly inducement for this coverage. Segment C concerns of Medicare policy that permits private health insurance companies to equip. HMO’s and PPO’s (Medicare private health plans) are acknowledged as Medicare Advantage Plans. You have the choice to choose Medicare Advantage Plan in place of going through Original Medicare. Segment D concerns Medicare that

Other programs under DM that have shown to be beneficial to both the members and the health plans are, shared decision-making programs and medical informatics. PPOs, HMOs and CDHPs have preventive services programs being implemented. Preventive services include services such as: immunizations, mammograms, physicals, and counseling. An independent study on an indemnity plan that had prenatal preventive services showed that members who enrolled into this program had an average of $3200 less per delivery than those who had not (p.194). Health risk appraisals are a program geared to obtain information from members regarding activities or behaviors that can affect their health status (Kongstvedt, 2007,p.193). When the health plan obtains this information it

The PPO gives discounts, with its doctors and hospitals that participation, and then pays a fee for services given. Patients have a list that they can pick from for a primary physician. The patient pays a set fee per office visit and the insurance provider pays the rest. It’s basically a co-payment which depends on what type of plan they have. However, like an HMO, the PPO has to choose a physician in that network, if they don’t they may be charged a penalty.

Under your current family PPO plan, your deductible is embedded. This means that your deductible is composed of individual, as well as, an overall family deductible. This also means, each individual deductible paid reduces the overall amount needed to meet the family deductible. In this case your individual deductible is $150.00. After the individual deductible amount is met your health insurance will begin. The percentage owed on any in-network imaging is 10% and any in-network

The United States being referred for specialties depends on the insurance plan (Mossialos, Wenzel, Osborn, Sarnak, 2016, pp. 171-177). Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) plans give access to certain healthcare organizations and physician within their network that have agreed to lower rates for their services. The individual must agree to these services to have services covered. All services will be coordinated by the primary care physician PCP. Medicaid coverage is also based on these principles. Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plan have higher premiums but give more flexibility. PPO allows the individual to see any physician they choose but cost is less if the individual stays within the network. PPO does not require that the individual have a PCP. No referrals for specialist are needed.