Types of Health Insurance Coverage

There are a number of ways in which health insurance carriers provide coverage. Health insurance coverage can be quite complex, as it involves the coordination between a healthcare provider, the health insurance provider, and the actual person receiving care. As a medical billing specialist, you will need to be especially aware of the role that each party plays in these coverage plans as you process claims. Some of the methods of coverage include managed care, indemnity policies, and high-deductible plans.

Managed care

Managed care is the most common form of health insurance coverage. Managed care coverage is administered by organizations that contract with healthcare providers to create an active network of participating providers. The three main components of managed care are preferred provider organizations, health maintenance organizations, and point of service plans.

• Preferred provider organizations (PPOs): PPOs operate off a list of preferred healthcare providers that patients can choose from for their coverage. Patients save the most money on their healthcare plans by selecting the preferred providers affiliated with a PPO. Providers on the preferred list are considered “in-network,” while those not on the preferred list are “out-of-network” providers. Sometimes an insurance carrier will not cover a person who receives treatment from an out-of-network provider, though PPOs tend to have more coverage options for out-of-network providers than HMOs.
• Health maintenance organizations (HMOs): HMOs are groups of physicians, medical facilities, and healthcare services that work to keep patients under the care of providers within their network. Healthcare providers in HMOs coordinate a patient’s healthcare decisions and suggest a suitable hospital for urgent care. Because of the close-knit healthcare community in HMOs, members enrolled with these organizations tend to have limited provider options. The upside to HMO membership is that patients tend to pay less in deductibles and receive higher quality medical care coverage at facilities within the HMO network.
• Point-of-service Plans: Point-of-service plans form a hybrid between PPOs and HMOs. As with HMOs, point-of-service plans allow you to select physicians and services from within a dedicated network of providers. Unlike HMOs, you have the option of coverage for care received from out-of-network providers. Note that patients in point-of-service plans have to get a referral before being covered by out-of-network providers, and they likely have to pay a deductible. Some HMOs offer point-of-service plans to people who want more options with their healthcare coverage.

Indemnity policies

Indemnity policies, or fee-for-service insurance, allows people the freedom to choose whatever healthcare provider they want and receive some form of coverage for these services. Patients covered by an indemnity policy can go to any healthcare provider and receive care, even when traveling across state lines.

The caveat to indemnity policies is that patients are typically required to pay a deductible or out-of-pocket fee before they start to receive coverage. This means patients with an indemnity policy can able to receive emergency room care at a hospital of their choosing, but they might have to pay a sizable deductible (ranging from a few hundred to several thousand dollars) before insurance carriers will pay for their care. Many indemnity policies allow patients to choose how much they pay for their deductible, and that amount is commensurate with the level of coverage they receive from insurance carriers.

High-deductible plans

High-deductible plans have low premiums and high deductibles, which make them enticing to those who don’t want to pay for health insurance up front. High-deductible plans may be a preferable coverage option for people with a clean bill of health who don’t anticipate requiring any medical services in the near future. Of course, when those with a high-deductible plan do require care, they are responsible for covering the cost of their care until they reach the predetermined deductible. However, people with high-deductible plans don’t have to pay the deductible before receiving coverage for preventive care services. Some people opt to enroll in health savings accounts or health reimbursement arrangements to help mitigate the potential costs of high-deductible plans:

• Health savings account (HSA): HSAs allow people to pay for certain medical expenses (including expenses incurred before meeting a deductible) using nontaxed funds. Patients build their savings in an HSA by contributing a portion of their paycheck or other earnings on a regular basis. Funds that remain at the end of the year can often be rolled over to the next year. Furthermore, people with an HSA keep their funds once they leave a job and can continue contributing to their HSA with their next employer. However, there is a limit to the amount of earnings that can be contributed to an HSA.
• Health reimbursement arrangement (HRA): HRAs are different from HSAs in that employers, not the employees, contribute funds to the account that is used to offset healthcare costs. Employees lose their HRA funds if they leave or are terminated from a company, and any funds unused by the end of the year are no longer accessible in the following year.