Advantages to Indemnity Health Insurance Plans

Indemnity health insurance plans are more regularly known as traditional health insurance plans. These health insurance plans can be costly but often cover most health problems that may arise, while other insurance plans exclude some illnesses or diseases from their coverage. Some disadvantages to indemnity plans are that they do not usually cover preventative health care like physicals, and traditional health insurance plans often cover only a percentage of your bill. Research the advantages and disadvantages to indemnity health insurance when you are considering health insurance options.

While the disadvantages may seem problematic, there are many advantages to indemnity health insurance plans. You may have a higher monthly premium and you may need to pay upfront costs and submit claims paperwork, but your deductible will be more manageable and your coverage will be wider. Some health insurance plans will not cover certain medical expenses or care, but indemnity plans often do.

Another benefit of indemnity health insurance plans that many people desire is the freedom to choose your own physician. While other health insurance plans offered by the insurance industry limit your choice of physicians and hospitals to a list of preferred providers, indemnity insurance will cover any physician or hospital. This benefit may seem unworthy of mention, but there has been more than one instance where a mother finds that her son or daughter's pediatrician is not in their preferred provider network and has to search for another pediatrician. This also means that you can see a specialist without having to consult with your primary care physician first.

Overall, indemnity health insurance plans also offer you the best emergency medical coverage in the industry. While preferred provider organizations (PPOs) or point-of-service (POS) plans limit the physician you can see to a list of network physicians and hospitals, the freedom of choosing any physician is nationwide with indemnity health insurance plans.

This means that if you are traveling across the country and have an accident or a medical emergency, you can go to the nearest hospital or see the closest physician without worrying about the expense. There have been instances where hospitals or physicians will either refuse to treat patients or treat them only minimally because the hospital or physician is not inside the plan's preferred provider network - meaning that the patient's health insurance will only cover a small part of the expense and the patient is liable to pay the rest of the bill.

This is a risky financial situation for the physician and/or hospital since patients are often unable to fully pay costly medical bills. With indemnity health insurance plans, this is almost never the case. Consider this and the other benefits of indemnity health insurance when choosing the plan that is right for you.

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Be Wary of Discount Prescription Drug Cards

by: Anthony T. Johnson 1ST

The newest thing in the American medical savings game is prescription drug cards, where users pay a monthly fee (anywhere from $10-100, approximately) that nets them discounts at their local medical establishment. Doctors, pharmacists, dentists and even hospitals are all jumping on the discount prescription drug card bandwagon. And although they sound like an excellent idea to most consumers, these discount prescription drug cards do carry some risks. This article will detail what to look out for so that you remain an informed medical consumer. How Does it All Work? Usually, discount prescription drug card programs work in the same way. The card company works on the clients’ behalf, getting discounts at a variety of medical establishments. However, the discounts that are ‘purchased’ are not done with the provider directly, but rather with a ‘preferred provider organization’ (PPO). At times, this system works so poorly that cardholders have walked into their medical establishment with their discount prescription drug card, just to be told that the institution has no knowledge of the discount program. Since there is no regulatory body for discount prescription drug cards, the people who sell these cards need not be licensed or even knowledgeable about the health care field. And when you do walk into the pharmacy with one of these cards, it’s hard to even tell if you are getting any sort of discount at all; many health care providers do not offer any sort of price list for their services in the first place. Is There a Problem Here? Well, some legislators in Georgia and Kansas think so. They’ve passed laws stating that discount prescription drug card providers state in ‘prominent type’ that they are not insurance programs, since more than a few consumers were making this mistake. Other states have taken legal action against these discount prescription drug card companies. In one instance, Argus Health Plans was sued because allegedly they signed customers up for a free trial period, and then charged those same customers’ credit cards with no prior authorization for a discount card membership. More than a dozen other suits are still pending investigation or trial with other discount card providers throughout the US as well. So How Do I Save Money on My Prescription Drugs? OF course, not all discount prescription drug cards are poor consumer choices. However, without more legislation in place, consumers are at risk to be scammed while trying to save money. Of course, there are still other ways to save on your prescription drug costs, such as: - Keep dibs on the fluctuating prices of your prescription drugs, as costs can differ quite dramatically between pharmacies; - Ask your doctor to prescribe the generic version instead of the brand name version; and - Try and get health insurance coverage if you don’t have it already. With a bit of know-how and investigative work, you’ll be able to save on your medications without having to resort to discount prescription drug cards anytime soon. Copyright © Anthony T. Johnson 1ST 2008 About the author: Anthony T. Johnson 1ST is the President of VeriTech Group. In need of Affordable Benefits, Sign up right now at the following Link: http://offto.net/medform and receive a better quality of health for you and your loved ones. We’re dealing with the tough benefits issues helping the public to be better informed of the options available to them in today's online world.