Commercial Health Insurance

Commercial Health Insurance… It’s Something Many Business Owners Don’t Think About

Commercial health insurance, or private health insurance, is the kind that is NOT paid for by the government. Unlike Medicare, Medicaid, and such like, commercial or private health insurance has to be paid for by the person themselves, their employer, their union, and so on.

Commercial health insurance companies have a range of these products that they offer to their clients to cover their various needs, but one must keep in mind that the rules that apply here are different from the ones applicable to government sponsored plans.

This type of insurance can be an indemnity plan (fee-for-service), or more recently can be an HMO (health maintenance organization), a PPO (preferred provider organization), or a POS (point-of-service) plan. Indemnity plans cover a pre determined and limited range of benefits and the doctor is not necessarily specific.

In other words, you can choose to get the listed services from any doctor, and the plan should cover your costs.

HMOs will give you the minimum services required by your state, but you have to choose a primary care provider from the HMO list.

A POS Plan from a commercial health insurance company also involves choose a primary care physician from a previously compiled list, but you CAN choose to go to a different doctor if you pay more out of pocket.

A PPO Commercial Health Insurance Policy Has Benefits

If you have a PPO commercial health insurance, you will have a list of doctors you can see at a discounted price or go to off the list doctors if you pay much more. Also, you will not have to choose a primary care physician at all.

Commercial health insurance companies reserve the right to renew or refuse to renew the policy when the term period ends. At the time of renewal, premiums might be re-adjusted, up or down, and perils insured against, or other benefits might be reduced.

And most important, make sure you read all the fine print before you buy. So many people make substantial financial commitments without reading the fine print. We all know it’s an extremely boring thing to do but it’s just one of those things that must be done.

You need to be aware of exactly what the terms of your commercial health insurance policy plan are and what it’s going to cost. This will help you avoid unpleasant surprises in the future.