Virginia Residents Have Access to Variety of Health Plans

There are basically two types of health plan options available in Virginia – indemnity medical policies and managed healthcare plans.

Indemnity plans are the traditional form of health insurance in the USA. There is no restriction on the healthcare services or the doctors to be consulted. Indemnity plans are the most flexible but the costliest as well. Moreover, here a beneficiary has to pay his medical bills upfront and has to get it reimbursed from the insurance company later.

With the recession setting in, the expensive indemnity health plans are slowly being replaced by the managed healthcare options. Managed healthcare plans provide comprehensive but primary and preventive healthcare at affordable prices.

Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) is the most basic and the cheapest of the managed health plans. There is a network of healthcare service providers in HMO plans and beneficiaries necessarily have to stick to it, except in cases of emergency. Also here, patients need the approval of a primary care physician before they can consult a specialist.

However the most popular medical policies are the Preferred Provider Organization or the PPO plans as they are commonly known. PPO oscillates between an HMO and an indemnity health plan according to the needs of the patient during his each visit. There is a network of doctors provided, but a patient can choose to refer to a doctor beyond the network. He only has to pay higher co-pay every time he does so. There is also no need to get the prior authorization of a primary care physician before consulting a specialist. The premium in a PPO is comparable to that of an HMO plan.

Indemnity and managed healthcare options are available in individual, family and group health insurances.  However, in group plans the premiums are slightly lower as because of the number of people getting covered and also because the premium is shared by the employer and the employee.  Also even with the same medical policy from the same health insurance company, those accessing coverage will get to enjoy more added benefits as compared to those who have individual or family health plans.

Though costly, the biggest advantage of owning an individual policy is that unlike the ‘one size fits all’ group coverage, an individual health plan is customized to fit the specific health needs of the person. This ensures that the person is covered for all the medical care that he needs and that he pays only for those services that he uses or anticipates to use.

There is no shortage of choices when it comes to health insurance Virginia. However the residents should not get confused with the variety of options and make their choices carefully.