Health Insurance - Knowing The Basics


by Carl DiNello - Date: 2006-12-04 - Word Count: 530 Share This!

Knowing and understanding the basics of health insurance is extremely important when choosing the right health insurance plan for you and your family. Just what are the basics? You should know the exact cost of the insurance, what portion of the costs for covered services does the policy cover, the specifics of what is covered, and which plan best fits the needs of your family. After considering the basics of health insurance, the next thing you need to familiarize yourself with are the secondary considerations.

The secondary considerations will be the extras and additional options either provided, or offered by the insurance company. These may include long-term care, disability, vision, and dental coverage. In addition, you must understand whether the health insurance company requires you to use a specific pool of labs, hospitals, and physicians, or whether you are free to choose your own. Be sure to also check the health insurance companies ranking among consumer groups, and organizations.

In addition, before choosing an insurance company, you should look at often overlooked things such as promptness of answering calls, the time it takes for reimbursements (if this applies), and how helpful is the companies customer service area in answering your questions or comments.

You may also have choices regarding optional coverages from your health insurance plan. These options might include disability, vision, and dental if not already provided by the insurance company. There are so many differences in health insurance policies, you definitely want to take the time to compare before choosing a provider.

For example, you want an insurance company that pays the medical bills on time, every time. You do not want to a company that is slow in paying the bills. Make sure their customer service department is courteous, efficient, and does not place you on hold for long periods of time.

You really want to make sure all of these considerations provide the level of quality you look for in a health insurance company. You may even want to go as far as to test their customer service. Get yourself a timer of some sort, pick up the phone, call their customer service, and experience first hand how your problems, or inquiries will be handled. Keep track of how long you spend on the phone before actually speaking to a human. When you do get the chance to speak to a customer service representative get specific with your questions, and evaluate how completely, and directly your inquiry has been answered.

Try this on at least two different occasions, at different times, and on different days. This will allow you to make an accurate judgment of how well the customer service department functions with that particular company.

Lastly, consider the physicians, hospitals, and any other desired treatment centers that are a part of that health insurance group. You will most likely be more comfortable if you are able to use you current doctors, and medical facilities; especially if you are currently being treated for a medical problem.

Get as many facts as you can regarding any health insurance company you are considering, and ask questions. You do not want to make a mistake with something as important to you and your family as health insurance.


Related Tags: health insurance quote, affordable health insurance, health insurence

Carl DiNello is an Article Author whose articles are featured on websites covering the Internet's most popular topics. To read more on this topic, please visit Health Insurance Information!

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