Medical Expense Insurance

Basic Medical Expense Insurance

If you recall, we explained that there are two broad categories of health insurance policies: disability and medical expense insurance. Thus far we have covered disability. Now we’ll take a look at basic medical expense insurance.

Basic medical expense insurance policies provide for medical expenses that result from accidents and sickness. This is a loose term that refers to various medical, hospital and surgical benefits. The broad category of medical expense insurance coverage provides a wide range of benefits for hospital, surgical and medical care.

Other benefits may apply as well, such as private nurses, convalescent care, and more. Medical expense insurance policies may be written as such that they may be limited to only one or two types of coverage like hospital or miscellaneous medical costs or surgical expenses. These are known as basic medical expense insurance plans.

Other, more broadly written medical expense insurance policies may cover all expenses resulting from accident or illness using some specific exceptions. Medical expense insurance plans include fee-for-service wherein doctors and other providers receive a payment that does not exceed their billed charge for service provided. Medical expense insurance prepaid plans provide medical or hospital benefits in the form of service rather than dollars.

Many things need to be considered when selecting a medical expense insurance plan such as:

• Specified coverage versus comprehensive care.

In other words does the medical expense insurance plan feature only specific benefits or is the coverage comprehensive?

• Any provider versus a limited number of providers.

Are you required to choose from a specific list of providers?

• National versus regional operation.

Is the medical expense insurance plan limited to a specific geographical region or operate nationwide?

• Insured versus subscribers.

Are participants considered insureds (the person who receives the benefit) or subscribers (the person who is paying the premium)?

We are going to take a look at the limited coverage for hospital, medical and surgical expenses. Discussing this separately first, will help you to understand how the components are combined in major medical and comprehensive policies.

The broad definition of basic medical expense insurance in most states includes hospital, medical and surgical expenses. The purpose of this type of insurance is to cover a broad range of medical, hospital and surgical expenses as well as separate categories of medical expenses.

Let’s explore individual versus group coverage. No matter how a medical expense insurancepolicy is written, narrowly or broadly, medical expense insurance is designed to reimburse for the cost of care whether it results from injury or illness.

Both individual and group medical expense insurancepolicies are available to consumers. Normally individual policies are more costly along with having limited benefits but generally speaking, both types of medical expense insurance cover the same medical services.

More Health Insurance Information

Health Insurance | Accident Policies | Disability Insurance | Medical Expense Insurance
Expense Benefits | Health Insurance Benefits | Major Medical | Major Medical Policies
Health Insurance Providers | HMO and PPO | Group Health Insurance
Group Health Types | Health Care Insurance | Health Insurance Glossary