Special Features of Different Health Plans

There are several types of health plans available in the market, including traditional fee-for-service plan, health maintenance organization, point-of-service plan and preferred-provider organization. Each plan has its own special features which suit different needs of different people. Hence, it is good for you to know their features before making your final decision.

First of all, let’s take a look at fee-for-service plan. This typical plan is a traditional kind of healthcare policy. Insurance companies pay fees for the services provided to the insured people covered by the policy. It offers the most choices of doctors and hospitals. The policy holders can choose any doctor they wish and change doctors any time. They can go to any hospital in any part of United States.

On the other hand, health maintenance organization is the cheapest plan but it is also the least flexible. Under this specific plan, the policy holders are required to select their primary care physicians. It is compulsory for them to obtain pre-authorizations for visiting specialists as well as getting through certain medical procedures.

In terms of flexibility, point-of service plan is more flexible than health maintenance organization. The policy holders can refer themselves to those medical providers outside the network but they can still get some coverage.

The preferred-provider organization is a combination of traditional fee-for-service and health maintenance organization. The plan provides the policyholders a financial incentive in the form of reasonable co-payments. The policy holders are given freedom to either stay within the group’s network of practitioners or visit out-of-network specialists without pre-approval.