Before buying individual health insurance, it is important for you to first understand the options you can choose from. This is because by understanding your options, it would be a lot easier for you to choose which individual health insurance plan would be best for your needs and budget. To help you get started, here is a guide to the different individual health insurance plans you can get today.
HMO or Health Management Organization Plan: This is a type of individual health insurance option which is mainly designed to provide comprehensive medical care. Some of the services that are usually covered by an HMO policy include annual check-ups, diagnostic and laboratory tests and preventative care. This type of individual health insurance coverage is generally paid for by a combination of personal contributions and premiums. If you would be getting an HMO plan, you would most likely have to agree to co-payments by paying lower fees for doctor’s visits and prescriptions. Though getting an HMO plan is a good option in general, you need to remember that most of the insurance companies that are offering them assign policyholders with a primary care doctor. Most HMO plans also offer little flexibility in choosing physicians or medical facilities.
FFS or Fee-for-Service Plan: An FFS plan is a type of individual health insurance option which would be a better choice if you are looking to have more freedom and more flexibility as you choose a physician or a healthcare provider. Also called indemnity health insurance policies, FFS plans are slightly more expensive than HMO plans but this is mainly because they allow policyholders to go to any specialist or doctor they want to see. One thing that you need to know though before getting an FFS policy would be that you would need to file a claim for every doctor’s visit and every treatment you would be having. You should also note that most FFS policies also offer limited coverage for preventative care which means that you may have to be responsible for paying for immunizations and other services related to preventative care.
PPO or preferred provider organization plan: PPO plans are individual health insurance plans that offer a combination of the coverage benefits you can get from an FFS and an HMO plan. A PPO policy allows a policyholder to choose his or her primary care doctor or physician from a list as well as switch to another doctor or physician who is also in the list whenever he or she wants to. In the event that you want to see a healthcare provider who is not a member of the PPO network, you can do so but your insurance provider might only cover a portion of the cost.
These are just some of the individual health insurance options that you need to understand before purchasing a policy. If you want to get more information about individual health insurance, it would be best if you can go online and look for resources that offer guides to health insurance policy options and individual health insurance quotes which can help you in making an informed decision.