If you or someone you love have ever received hospital care, the chances are that you understand how overwhelming the costs of medical services can be. It is crucial to your financial well-being to understand your options regarding insurance coverages of hospital medical expenses.
Hospital Indemnity Plans
Hospital indemnity plans are a type of insurance policy that covers certain unpaid costs left by your essential healthcare. Depending on the indemnity plan you choose, the insurer pays a designated amount either per visit, per day, week, or month that you are in the hospital for medical care.
These plans are considered supplemental insurance coverage that can’t stand alone as your primary basic healthcare coverage. As indemnity plans aren’t counted as minimum essential coverage, they are intended to complement your essential coverage by aiding in costs left unpaid.
Why Hospital Indemnity Plans Are Important
Unfortunately, many people are currently struggling to pay back medical bills left unpaid by insurance companies. Medical debt causes undue stress on families, some of whom are forced to take money from retirement, college, or other long-term savings to pay back exorbitant hospital services fees.
Hospital stays are expensive, and costs quickly add up the longer and more intensive your care becomes. Basic healthcare coverage often falls short of covering the total costs of hospital medical services, leaving people on the hook for balances that must be paid. As the average expenses of unpaid hospital care reach the tens of thousands, indemnity insurance is vital to decreasing these costs, therefore, minimizing your financial burden.
Other Benefits Of Hospital Indemnity Plans
Hospital indemnity health insurance offers other benefits as well. Indemnity plans have no network, which means the doctors that handled your medical needs in the hospital are covered under the plan. Some programs have deductibles that are required to be paid or co-payments as the policy allows. As indemnity plans supplement your primary medical insurance policy, your benefits can be paid by the insurance company to you directly.
Indemnity health policies may also provide a maximum amount of co-insurance that you must pay; however, the vast majority of policies are advantageous. Once you hit the total payable amount, you are no longer required to pay the co-insurance.
Depending on your medical situation, indemnity hospital plans can help you manage the maximum costs you may be responsible for after a hospital stay.