We understand that shopping for health insurance can be very frustrating. There are a multitude of plan designs by so many different
insurance companies that it can really leave your head spinning. We have put together a common list of terms frequently used in the
health insurance marketplace in hopes of making your experience a little less confusing. You are always welcome and we even encourage
you to call our professional, experienced staff of insurance agents to help guide you along the way. You will always find our staff
extremely courteous because we really enjoy what we do and our goal is to assist you in finding the right health insurance coverage.
Actuary: A mathematician working for a health insurance company responsible for determining what premiums the company needs to charge based in large part on claims paid verses amounts of premium generated. Their job is to make sure a block of business is priced to be profitable.
Admitting Privileges: The right granted to a doctor to admit patients to a particular hospital.
Advocacy: Any activity done to help a person or group to get something the person or group needs or wants.
Agent: Licensed salespersons who represent one or more health insurance companies and presents their products to consumers.
Association: A group. Often, associations can offer individual health insurance plans specially designed for their members.
Benefit: Amount payable by the insurance company to a claimant, assignee, or beneficiary when the insured suffers a loss.
Brand-name drug: Prescription drugs marketed with a specific brand name by the company that manufactures it, usually the company which develops and patents it. When patents run out, generic versions of many popular drugs are marketed at lower cost by other companies. Check your insurance plan to see if coverage differs between name-brand and their generic twins.
Broker: Licensed insurance salesperson who obtains quotes and plan from multiple sources information for clients.
Capitation: Capitation represents a set dollar limit that you or your employer pay to a health maintenance organization (HMO), regardless of how much you use (or don't use) the services offered by the health maintenance provider.
Carrier: The insurance company or HMO offering a health plan.
Case Management: Case management is a system embraced by employers and insurance companies to ensure that individuals receive appropriate, reasonable health care services.
Certificate of Insurance: The printed description of the benefits and coverage provisions forming the contract between the carrier and the customer. Discloses what it covered, what is not, and dollar limits.
Claim: A request by an individual (or his or her provider) to an individual's insurance company for the insurance company to pay for services obtained from a health care professional.
Case Management: Case management is a system embraced by employers and insurance companies to ensure that individuals receive appropriate, reasonable health care services.
Certificate of Insurance: The printed description of the benefits and coverage provisions forming the contract between the carrier and the customer. Discloses what it covered, what is not, and dollar limits.
Claim: A request by an individual (or his or her provider) to an individual's insurance company for the insurance company to pay for services obtained from a health care professional.
Co-Insurance: Co-insurance refers to money that an individual is required to pay for services, after a deductible has been paid. In some health care plans, co-insurance is called "co-payment." Co-insurance is often specified by a percentage. For example, the employee pays 20 percent toward the charges for a service and the employer or insurance company pays 80 percent.
Co-Payment: Co-payment is a predetermined (flat) fee that an individual pays for health care services, in addition to what the insurance covers. For example, some HMOs require a $10 "co-payment" for each office visit, regardless of the type or level of services provided during the visit. Co-payments are not usually specified by percentages
COBRA: Federal legislation that lets you, if you work for an insured employer group of 20 or more employees, continue to purchase health insurance for up to 18 months if you lose your job or your employer-sponsored coverage is otherwise terminated. For more information, visit the Department of Labor.
Credit for Prior Coverage: This is something that may or may not apply when you switch employers or insurance plans. A pre-existing condition waiting period met under while you were under an employer's (qualifying) coverage can be honored by your new plan, if any interruption in the coverage between the two plans meets state guidelines.
Deductible: The amount an individual must pay for health care expenses before insurance (or a self-insured company) covers the costs. Often, insurance plans are based on yearly deductible amounts.
Denial Of Claim: Refusal by an insurance company or carrier to honor a request by an individual (or his or her provider) to pay for health care services obtained from a health care professional.
Dependent Worker: A worker in a family in which someone else has greater personal income.
Dependents: Spouse and/or unmarried children (whether natural, adopted or step) of an insured.
Effective Date: The date your insurance is to actually begin. You are not covered until the policies effective date.
Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs): Mental health counseling services that are sometimes offered by insurance companies or employers. Typically, individuals or employers do not have to directly pay for services provided through an employee assistance program.
Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance: Of Americans who have health coverage, nearly 60 percent secure that coverage through an employer-sponsored plan, often called group health insurance. Millions take advantage of the coverage for reasons as obvious as employer responsibility for a significant portion of the health care expenses. Group health plans are also guaranteed issue, meaning that a carrier must cover all applicants whose employment qualifies them for coverage. In addition, employer-sponsored plans typically are able to include a range of plan options from HMO and PPO plan to additional coverage such as dental, life, short- and long-term disability
Exclusions: Medical services that are not covered by an individual's insurance policy.
Explanation of Benefits: The insurance company's written explanation to a claim, showing what they paid and what the client must pay. Sometimes accompanied by a benefits check.
Generic Drug: A "twin" to a "brand name drug" once the brand name company's patent has run out and other drug companies are allowed to sell a duplicate of the original. Generic drugs are cheaper, and most prescription and health plans reward clients for choosing generics.
Group Health Insurance: Coverage through an employer or other entity that covers all individuals in the group.
Health Cooperatives have been proposed in the Senate as an alternative to a proposed government plan or public option. The cooperatives, which would be structured as non-profits and owned by their members, could offer a network of health care providers or contract out for medical services. The concept championed by some Democrats would provide "seed money" for the cooperatives, which would then be sustained by customer premiums. Read news coverage about insurance cooperatives. Read this Commonwealth Fund history of health cooperatives.
Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs): Health Maintenance Organizations represent "pre-paid" or "capitated" insurance plans in which individuals or their employers pay a fixed monthly fee for services, instead of a separate charge for each visit or service. The monthly fees remain the same, regardless of types or levels of services provided, Services are provided by physicians who are employed by, or under contract with, the HMO. HMOs vary in design. Depending on the type of the HMO, services may be provided in a central facility, or in a physician's own office (as with IPAs.)
HIPAA: A Federal law passed in 1996 that allows persons to qualify immediately for comparable health insurance coverage when they change their employment or relationships. It also creates the authority to mandate the use of standards for the electronic exchange of health care data; to specify what medical and administrative code sets should be used within those standards; to require the use of national identification systems for health care patients, providers, payers (or plans), and employers (or sponsors); and to specify the types of measures required to protect the security and privacy of personally identifiable health care. Full name is "The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996."
In-network: Providers or health care facilities which are part of a health plan's network of providers with which it has negoiated a discount. Insured individuals usually pay less when using an in-network provider, because those networks provide services at lower cost to the insurance companies with which they have contracts.
Indemnity Health Plan: Indemnity health insurance plans are also called "fee-for-service." These are the types of plans that primarily existed before the rise of HMOs, IPAs, and PPOs. With indemnity plans, the individual pays a pre-determined percentage of the cost of health care services, and the insurance company (or self-insured employer) pays the other percentage. For example, an individual might pay 20 percent for services and the insurance company pays 80 percent. The fees for services are defined by the providers and vary from physician to physician. Indemnity health plans offer individuals the freedom to choose their health care professionals.
Individual Health Insurance: Health insurance coverage on an individual, not group, basis. The premium is usually higher for an individual health insurance plan than for a group policy, but you may not qualify for a group plan. Read more about individual health insurance.
Lifetime Maximum Benefit (or Maximum Lifetime Benefit): the maximum amount a health plan will pay in benefits to an insured individual during that individual's lifetime.
Limitations: a limit on the amount of benefits paid out for a particular covered expense, as disclosed on the Certificate of Insurance.
Long-term Disability Insurance: Pays an insured a percentage of their monthly earnings if they become disabled.
LOS: LOS refers to the length of stay. It is a term used by insurance companies, case managers and/or employers to describe the amount of time an individual stays in a hospital or in-patient facility.
Managed Care: A medical delivery system that attempts to manage the quality and cost of medical services that individuals receive. Most managed care systems offer HMOs and PPOs that individuals are encouraged to use for their health care services. Some managed care plans attempt to improve health quality, by emphasizing prevention of disease.
Maximum Dollar Limit: The maximum amount of money that an insurance company (or self-insured company) will pay for claims within a specific time period. Maximum dollar limits vary greatly. They may be based on or specified in terms of types of illnesses or types of services. Sometimes they are specified in terms of lifetime, sometimes for a year.
Medigap Insurance Policies: Medigap insurance is offered by private insurance companies, not the government. It is not the same as Medicare or Medicaid. These policies are designed to pay for some of the costs that Medicare does not cover.
Multiple Employer Trust (MET): A trust consisting of multiple small employers in the same industry, formed for the purpose of purchasing group health insurance or establishing a self-funded plan at a lower cost than would be available to each of the employers individually.
Network: A group of doctors, hospitals and other health care providers contracted to provide services to insurance companies customers for less than their usual fees. Provider networks can cover a large geographic market or a wide range of health care services. Insured individuals typically pay less for using a network provider.
Open-ended HMOs: HMOs which allow enrolled individuals to use out-of-plan providers and still receive partial or full coverage and payment for the professional's services under a traditional indemnity plan.
Out-of-Plan (Out-of-Network): This phrase usually refers to physicians, hospitals or other health care providers who are considered nonparticipants in an insurance plan (usually an HMO or PPO). Depending on an individual's health insurance plan, expenses incurred by services provided by out-of-plan health professionals may not be covered, or covered only in part by an individual's insurance company.
Out-Of-Pocket Maximum: A predetermined limited amount of money that an individual must pay out of their own savings, before an insurance company or (self-insured employer) will pay 100 percent for an individual's health care expenses.
Outpatient: An individual (patient) who receives health care services (such as surgery) on an outpatient basis, meaning they do not stay overnight in a hospital or inpatient facility. Many insurance companies have identified a list of tests and procedures (including surgery) that will not be covered (paid for) unless they are performed on an outpatient basis. The term outpatient is also used synonymously with ambulatory to describe health care facilities where procedures are performed.
Plan Administration: Supervising the details and routine activities of installing and running a health plan, such as answering questions, enrolling individuals, billing and collecting premiums, and similar duties.
Pre-Admission Certification: Also called pre-certification review, or pre-admission review. Approval by a case manager or insurance company representative (usually a nurse) for a person to be admitted to a hospital or in-patient facility, granted prior to the admittance. Pre-admission certification often must be obtained by the individual. Sometimes, however, physicians will contact the appropriate individual. The goal of pre-admission certification is to ensure that individuals are not exposed to inappropriate health care services (services that are medically unnecessary).
Pre-Admission Review: A review of an individual's health care status or condition, prior to an individual being admitted to an inpatient health care facility, such as a hospital. Pre-admission reviews are often conducted by case managers or insurance company representatives (usually nurses) in cooperation with the individual, his or her physician or health care provider, and hospitals.
Pre-existing Conditions: A medical condition that is excluded from coverage by an insurance company, because the condition was believed to exist prior to the individual obtaining a policy from the particular insurance company.
Preadmission Testing: Medical tests that are completed for an individual prior to being admitted to a hospital or inpatient health care facility.
Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs): You or your employer receive discounted rates if you use doctors from a pre-selected group. If you use a physician outside the PPO plan, you must pay more for the medical care.
Primary Care Provider (PCP): A health care professional (usually a physician) who is responsible for monitoring an individual's overall health care needs. Typically, a PCP serves as a "quarterback" for an individual's medical care, referring the individual to more specialized physicians for specialist care.
Private Health Insurance: Private health insurance – insurance plans marketed by the private health insurance industry – currently dominates the U.S. health care landscape, with approximately two-thirds of the non-elderly population covered by private health insurance. Coverage includes policies obtained through employer-sponsored insurance, with approximately 62 percent of non-elderly Americans receiving insurance provided as a benefit of employment. Another 5 percent of the non-elderly group bought coverage outside of the workplace on the individual health insurance market.
Provider: Provider is a term used for health professionals who provide health care services. Sometimes, the term refers only to physicians. Often, however, the term also refers to other health care professionals such as hospitals, nurse practitioners, chiropractors, physical therapists, and others offering specialized health care services.
Reasonable and Customary Fees: The average fee charged by a particular type of health care practitioner within a geographic area. The term is often used by medical plans as the amount of money they will approve for a specific test or procedure. If the fees are higher than the approved amount, the individual receiving the service is responsible for paying the difference. Sometimes, however, if an individual questions his or her physician about the fee, the provider will reduce the charge to the amount that the insurance company has defined as reasonable and customary.
Actuary: A mathematician working for a health insurance company responsible for determining what premiums the company needs to charge based in large part on claims paid verses amounts of premium generated. Their job is to make sure a block of business is priced to be profitable.
Admitting Privileges: The right granted to a doctor to admit patients to a particular hospital.
Advocacy: Any activity done to help a person or group to get something the person or group needs or wants.
Agent: Licensed salespersons who represent one or more health insurance companies and presents their products to consumers.
Association: A group. Often, associations can offer individual health insurance plans specially designed for their members.
Benefit: Amount payable by the insurance company to a claimant, assignee, or beneficiary when the insured suffers a loss.
Brand-name drug: Prescription drugs marketed with a specific brand name by the company that manufactures it, usually the company which develops and patents it. When patents run out, generic versions of many popular drugs are marketed at lower cost by other companies. Check your insurance plan to see if coverage differs between name-brand and their generic twins.
Broker: Licensed insurance salesperson who obtains quotes and plan from multiple sources information for clients.
Capitation: Capitation represents a set dollar limit that you or your employer pay to a health maintenance organization (HMO), regardless of how much you use (or don't use) the services offered by the health maintenance provider.
Carrier: The insurance company or HMO offering a health plan.
Case Management: Case management is a system embraced by employers and insurance companies to ensure that individuals receive appropriate, reasonable health care services.
Certificate of Insurance: The printed description of the benefits and coverage provisions forming the contract between the carrier and the customer. Discloses what it covered, what is not, and dollar limits.
Claim: A request by an individual (or his or her provider) to an individual's insurance company for the insurance company to pay for services obtained from a health care professional.
Case Management: Case management is a system embraced by employers and insurance companies to ensure that individuals receive appropriate, reasonable health care services.
Certificate of Insurance: The printed description of the benefits and coverage provisions forming the contract between the carrier and the customer. Discloses what it covered, what is not, and dollar limits.
Claim: A request by an individual (or his or her provider) to an individual's insurance company for the insurance company to pay for services obtained from a health care professional.
Co-Insurance: Co-insurance refers to money that an individual is required to pay for services, after a deductible has been paid. In some health care plans, co-insurance is called "co-payment." Co-insurance is often specified by a percentage. For example, the employee pays 20 percent toward the charges for a service and the employer or insurance company pays 80 percent.
Co-Payment: Co-payment is a predetermined (flat) fee that an individual pays for health care services, in addition to what the insurance covers. For example, some HMOs require a $10 "co-payment" for each office visit, regardless of the type or level of services provided during the visit. Co-payments are not usually specified by percentages
COBRA: Federal legislation that lets you, if you work for an insured employer group of 20 or more employees, continue to purchase health insurance for up to 18 months if you lose your job or your employer-sponsored coverage is otherwise terminated. For more information, visit the Department of Labor.
Credit for Prior Coverage: This is something that may or may not apply when you switch employers or insurance plans. A pre-existing condition waiting period met under while you were under an employer's (qualifying) coverage can be honored by your new plan, if any interruption in the coverage between the two plans meets state guidelines.
Deductible: The amount an individual must pay for health care expenses before insurance (or a self-insured company) covers the costs. Often, insurance plans are based on yearly deductible amounts.
Denial Of Claim: Refusal by an insurance company or carrier to honor a request by an individual (or his or her provider) to pay for health care services obtained from a health care professional.
Dependent Worker: A worker in a family in which someone else has greater personal income.
Dependents: Spouse and/or unmarried children (whether natural, adopted or step) of an insured.
Effective Date: The date your insurance is to actually begin. You are not covered until the policies effective date.
Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs): Mental health counseling services that are sometimes offered by insurance companies or employers. Typically, individuals or employers do not have to directly pay for services provided through an employee assistance program.
Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance: Of Americans who have health coverage, nearly 60 percent secure that coverage through an employer-sponsored plan, often called group health insurance. Millions take advantage of the coverage for reasons as obvious as employer responsibility for a significant portion of the health care expenses. Group health plans are also guaranteed issue, meaning that a carrier must cover all applicants whose employment qualifies them for coverage. In addition, employer-sponsored plans typically are able to include a range of plan options from HMO and PPO plan to additional coverage such as dental, life, short- and long-term disability
Exclusions: Medical services that are not covered by an individual's insurance policy.
Explanation of Benefits: The insurance company's written explanation to a claim, showing what they paid and what the client must pay. Sometimes accompanied by a benefits check.
Generic Drug: A "twin" to a "brand name drug" once the brand name company's patent has run out and other drug companies are allowed to sell a duplicate of the original. Generic drugs are cheaper, and most prescription and health plans reward clients for choosing generics.
Group Health Insurance: Coverage through an employer or other entity that covers all individuals in the group.
Health Cooperatives have been proposed in the Senate as an alternative to a proposed government plan or public option. The cooperatives, which would be structured as non-profits and owned by their members, could offer a network of health care providers or contract out for medical services. The concept championed by some Democrats would provide "seed money" for the cooperatives, which would then be sustained by customer premiums. Read news coverage about insurance cooperatives. Read this Commonwealth Fund history of health cooperatives.
Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs): Health Maintenance Organizations represent "pre-paid" or "capitated" insurance plans in which individuals or their employers pay a fixed monthly fee for services, instead of a separate charge for each visit or service. The monthly fees remain the same, regardless of types or levels of services provided, Services are provided by physicians who are employed by, or under contract with, the HMO. HMOs vary in design. Depending on the type of the HMO, services may be provided in a central facility, or in a physician's own office (as with IPAs.)
HIPAA: A Federal law passed in 1996 that allows persons to qualify immediately for comparable health insurance coverage when they change their employment or relationships. It also creates the authority to mandate the use of standards for the electronic exchange of health care data; to specify what medical and administrative code sets should be used within those standards; to require the use of national identification systems for health care patients, providers, payers (or plans), and employers (or sponsors); and to specify the types of measures required to protect the security and privacy of personally identifiable health care. Full name is "The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996."
In-network: Providers or health care facilities which are part of a health plan's network of providers with which it has negoiated a discount. Insured individuals usually pay less when using an in-network provider, because those networks provide services at lower cost to the insurance companies with which they have contracts.
Indemnity Health Plan: Indemnity health insurance plans are also called "fee-for-service." These are the types of plans that primarily existed before the rise of HMOs, IPAs, and PPOs. With indemnity plans, the individual pays a pre-determined percentage of the cost of health care services, and the insurance company (or self-insured employer) pays the other percentage. For example, an individual might pay 20 percent for services and the insurance company pays 80 percent. The fees for services are defined by the providers and vary from physician to physician. Indemnity health plans offer individuals the freedom to choose their health care professionals.
Individual Health Insurance: Health insurance coverage on an individual, not group, basis. The premium is usually higher for an individual health insurance plan than for a group policy, but you may not qualify for a group plan. Read more about individual health insurance.
Lifetime Maximum Benefit (or Maximum Lifetime Benefit): the maximum amount a health plan will pay in benefits to an insured individual during that individual's lifetime.
Limitations: a limit on the amount of benefits paid out for a particular covered expense, as disclosed on the Certificate of Insurance.
Long-term Disability Insurance: Pays an insured a percentage of their monthly earnings if they become disabled.
LOS: LOS refers to the length of stay. It is a term used by insurance companies, case managers and/or employers to describe the amount of time an individual stays in a hospital or in-patient facility.
Managed Care: A medical delivery system that attempts to manage the quality and cost of medical services that individuals receive. Most managed care systems offer HMOs and PPOs that individuals are encouraged to use for their health care services. Some managed care plans attempt to improve health quality, by emphasizing prevention of disease.
Maximum Dollar Limit: The maximum amount of money that an insurance company (or self-insured company) will pay for claims within a specific time period. Maximum dollar limits vary greatly. They may be based on or specified in terms of types of illnesses or types of services. Sometimes they are specified in terms of lifetime, sometimes for a year.
Medigap Insurance Policies: Medigap insurance is offered by private insurance companies, not the government. It is not the same as Medicare or Medicaid. These policies are designed to pay for some of the costs that Medicare does not cover.
Multiple Employer Trust (MET): A trust consisting of multiple small employers in the same industry, formed for the purpose of purchasing group health insurance or establishing a self-funded plan at a lower cost than would be available to each of the employers individually.
Network: A group of doctors, hospitals and other health care providers contracted to provide services to insurance companies customers for less than their usual fees. Provider networks can cover a large geographic market or a wide range of health care services. Insured individuals typically pay less for using a network provider.
Open-ended HMOs: HMOs which allow enrolled individuals to use out-of-plan providers and still receive partial or full coverage and payment for the professional's services under a traditional indemnity plan.
Out-of-Plan (Out-of-Network): This phrase usually refers to physicians, hospitals or other health care providers who are considered nonparticipants in an insurance plan (usually an HMO or PPO). Depending on an individual's health insurance plan, expenses incurred by services provided by out-of-plan health professionals may not be covered, or covered only in part by an individual's insurance company.
Out-Of-Pocket Maximum: A predetermined limited amount of money that an individual must pay out of their own savings, before an insurance company or (self-insured employer) will pay 100 percent for an individual's health care expenses.
Outpatient: An individual (patient) who receives health care services (such as surgery) on an outpatient basis, meaning they do not stay overnight in a hospital or inpatient facility. Many insurance companies have identified a list of tests and procedures (including surgery) that will not be covered (paid for) unless they are performed on an outpatient basis. The term outpatient is also used synonymously with ambulatory to describe health care facilities where procedures are performed.
Plan Administration: Supervising the details and routine activities of installing and running a health plan, such as answering questions, enrolling individuals, billing and collecting premiums, and similar duties.
Pre-Admission Certification: Also called pre-certification review, or pre-admission review. Approval by a case manager or insurance company representative (usually a nurse) for a person to be admitted to a hospital or in-patient facility, granted prior to the admittance. Pre-admission certification often must be obtained by the individual. Sometimes, however, physicians will contact the appropriate individual. The goal of pre-admission certification is to ensure that individuals are not exposed to inappropriate health care services (services that are medically unnecessary).
Pre-Admission Review: A review of an individual's health care status or condition, prior to an individual being admitted to an inpatient health care facility, such as a hospital. Pre-admission reviews are often conducted by case managers or insurance company representatives (usually nurses) in cooperation with the individual, his or her physician or health care provider, and hospitals.
Pre-existing Conditions: A medical condition that is excluded from coverage by an insurance company, because the condition was believed to exist prior to the individual obtaining a policy from the particular insurance company.
Preadmission Testing: Medical tests that are completed for an individual prior to being admitted to a hospital or inpatient health care facility.
Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs): You or your employer receive discounted rates if you use doctors from a pre-selected group. If you use a physician outside the PPO plan, you must pay more for the medical care.
Primary Care Provider (PCP): A health care professional (usually a physician) who is responsible for monitoring an individual's overall health care needs. Typically, a PCP serves as a "quarterback" for an individual's medical care, referring the individual to more specialized physicians for specialist care.
Private Health Insurance: Private health insurance – insurance plans marketed by the private health insurance industry – currently dominates the U.S. health care landscape, with approximately two-thirds of the non-elderly population covered by private health insurance. Coverage includes policies obtained through employer-sponsored insurance, with approximately 62 percent of non-elderly Americans receiving insurance provided as a benefit of employment. Another 5 percent of the non-elderly group bought coverage outside of the workplace on the individual health insurance market.
Provider: Provider is a term used for health professionals who provide health care services. Sometimes, the term refers only to physicians. Often, however, the term also refers to other health care professionals such as hospitals, nurse practitioners, chiropractors, physical therapists, and others offering specialized health care services.
Reasonable and Customary Fees: The average fee charged by a particular type of health care practitioner within a geographic area. The term is often used by medical plans as the amount of money they will approve for a specific test or procedure. If the fees are higher than the approved amount, the individual receiving the service is responsible for paying the difference. Sometimes, however, if an individual questions his or her physician about the fee, the provider will reduce the charge to the amount that the insurance company has defined as reasonable and customary.
Understanding Health Insurance Terms
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