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Emergency Room Insurance Supplement – Injury Plan Review and Price Guide

December 13th, 2011

Emergency room insurance supplements that specifically cover accidental bodily injuries are commonly referred to as 24 Hour Accident Coverage, Accident Medical Expense Benefits, or Supplemental Accident Coverage. Plans are guarantee issue with no underwriting or health questions. Guarantee acceptance is to age 65 or 70 depending on the association based insurance plan selected.

Accident only policies are Indemnity health plans that compensate people for a financial loss (doctor or hospital bill). Indemnity means to compensate. Policy members are compensated up to a predetermined amount depending on which plan you want. Typical policy benefit levels are $2,500, $5,000, $7,500, or $10,000. 24 Hour Accident Coverage usually has a $100 to $200 US dollar deductible per injury or accident. Deductible is the out of pocket expense you have before the plan pays. So the deductible of one hundred dollars is the risk you have assuming the doctor or ER bill doesn’t surpass the accident coverage benefit. Policies only pay benefits for injury that occurs after the coverage effective date.

Emergency room insurance supplements like this are purchased to cover a HDHP (high deductible health plan) deductible or for a personal injury plan. Health insurance agents have been selling accident only plans for years. Policies are practical and dovetail with the high annual deductibles of a major medical plan. The accident compensation payouts of $2,500, $5,000, $7,500, or $10,000 dollars are often put towards paying a primary medical insurance deductible. This strategy also allows people to increase the primary health insurance deductible which lowers the monthly premium and lowers the plan risk. Each injury or accident is treated as separate events and the benefits and deductible reset. Family accident health insurance supplements like this are a steal because the monthly price is the same no matter how many people in a household. So a 12 person family pays the same as a 3 person family. Bigger the family, bigger that $47.00 dollars a month will payout. I’ve researched these clever injury policies for years and here’s the most competitive plan rates up to date.

ER Plan Rate Guideline At A Glance:

Individual Plan: $5,000 benefit: $22.00 US Dollars a month.
Individual Plan: $7,500 benefit: $28.00 a month.
Individual: $10,000 benefit: $34.00 a month.

Family Plan: $5,000 benefit: $35.00 US Dollars a month (includes everyone)
Family Plan: $7,500 benefit: $41.00 a month
Family: $10,000 benefit: $47.00 a month

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Posted in Emergency Room

Tags: Emergency health insurance agents plan health insurance Room

Health Insurance Supplement For the Emergency Room – Plan Review

December 13th, 2011

Health insurance supplements for the emergency room and accident related expenses have been around for a long time. These plans are known as indemnity insurance plans and are essentially compensation policies. Plans are not marketed as insurance nor even in the insurance category. This could be a good thing. Emergency room insurance supplements in this category are guarantee approval up to age 70 and can be used with any licensed medical clinic, doctor, hospital ER, or urgent quick care facility. Plans only compensate people for injuries that occurred after the policy was in force and don’t cover sickness or disease related ER bills.

To save some time, here’s an idea of the injury plan compensation levels (indemnity = compensation) and the estimated monthly prices. Note: Family plans are the same price each month regardless of family size. Bigger the family, bigger the payout.

Individual ER Supplement Rate Guideline:

$5,000 Benefit – $24.00 dollars a month
$7,500 Benefit – $29.00 a month
$10,000 Benefit – $36.00 monthly

Family ER Plan Rate Guideline: (prices include everybody; a 3 person family plan is the same monthly price as a 9 person family plan).

$5,000 Benefit – $35.00 dollars a month
$7,500 Benefit – $41.00 a month
$10,000 Benefit – $47.00 monthly

Health insurance plans for the emergency room cover things like:

-Operating room and surgery costs (including anesthesia expense)
-X-Rays and MRI’S (and other diagnostic testing)
-Casts, splints, braces
-General hospital ER related expenses
-In or outpatient surgery expense
-Ambulance charge
-Doctors visits (inpatient and outpatient)
-Prescription drugs
-Dental treatment to damaged teeth (sound natural teeth)
-Hospital room and board

Emergency room insurance supplements work by compensating policy holders up to a predetermined amount per injury or accident less the plan deductible of $100 US dollars. As previously mentioned, typical injury plan benefit amounts available to people in the United States are $2,500, $5,000, $7,500, and $10,000. Whatever benefit level you choose, plan won’t exceed payouts and compensation above the policy face value of ($2,500, $5,000, $7,500, or $10,000 dollars). I’ve found some other plans online with higher accident medical expense coverage but plans included others benefits that where getting away from the straight ER coverage for bodily injury.

Each injury or accident is treated as a totally separate event and the benefits and deductible reset. Deductible is the out of pocket dollar amount you pay before the injury insurance plan pays. Most ER supplements available online have a $100 – $200 US dollar deductible which is low risk compared to major medical deductibles.

Health insurance supplements for the emergency room have many different names depending on who’s marketing brochure you come across. Other names for this clever injury supplement included 24 hour accident coverage, supplemental accident coverage, accident medical expense benefit, and accident medical coverage.

Policies can be used with any doctor or hospital because this is a injury insurance supplement. Policy holders are basically compensated for any doctor or hospital bill resulting from a accidental bodily injury. Depending on which plan you purchase, some personal accident policies pay off the doctor or hospital for you, or they will reimburse you directly once you provide proof of loss (hospital or doctor bill). Plans only pay for injury related expenses that happen after the policy was active.

Two main motives to purchase a ER supplement is to compliment an existing HDHP (high deductible health plan) or to be a personal injury insurance supplement. Health insurance agents in the United States have been packaging these accident only supplements with a HDHP catastrophic style health plan for a long time. A high deductible health plan (HDHP) is exposed to any initial emergency room visit bill. Most catastrophic plans only pick up the hospital bill above and beyond the deductible. Some PPO (preferred provider organization) annual deductibles are $5,000 or $10,000. So the PPO plan really doesn’t help out with the first $5K or $10K unless you purchased an additional “emergency room rider” to cover that initial ER admittance bill. The typical complaint people have with high deductible plans is “my policy doesn’t pay anything.” This concern is from people having to pay the huge deductible out of pocket first before the major medical plan will pay anything.

It’s worth noticing that these accident only plans pay for bodily injury related ER bills and not sickness or disease. If you have a heart attack and are rushed to the ER these plans won’t help. Critical illness supplements exist that cover ER related treatment for things like heart attacks, stroke, and cancer. If your more concerned with covering emergency room related expenses for disease and sickness (heart attack, stroke, cancer), look into critical illness indemnity plans. Critical illness plans are basically supplemental caner and stroke insurance plans.

In short, 24 Hour accident plans can off set that catastrophic plan deductible by compensating for any injury related ER or doctor bills. People are using that accident coverage compensation to pay off the high deductible. Another popular trend is to purchase a ER supplement as a personal accident plan as a “stand alone.”

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Posted in Emergency Room

Tags: Emergency insurance supplements outpatient prescription drugs Room

Accident Health Insurance – Plan For the Emergency Room

December 5th, 2011

Accident health insurance supplements are being used to cover upfront injury related expenses for the ER. Plans can be used to compliment an existing health insurance policy or just as a personal injury plan to pay for any unexpected ER visits or surgeries.

Many Americans are concerned with insuring the everyday mishaps like bodily injuries and emergency room coverage. Of course, insuring things like Cancer and Heart Attacks are important, but for younger adults and especially kids, emergency room visits are far more prevalent. Unfortunately, a trip to the emergency room isn’t cheap and the healing process from a serious bodily injury can be exhausting. Damaged body parts often need to be surgically corrected and the post operation Physical Therapy sessions feel like a Sylvester Stallone Rocky Movie. I’m not going to lie, the Rocky Four soundtrack got me through my Physical Therapy workouts post ACL Knee surgery.

Health insurance for the self-employed is especially complicated when it comes to emergency room visits. To qualify for a Major Medical PPO plan one must go through underwriting and medically qualify. Assuming you get approved, you’ll need to select a deductible and plan style. The most cost effective PPO policies in the individual health insurance market are the HDHP (High Deductible Health Plan) plans. Deductible is the out of pocket expense the insured has before the health insurance policy picks up the bill. PPO stands for Preferred Provider Organization and is the type of health insurance that lets you choose any doctor. Choosing any doctor isn’t necessarily true, theirs a lot of gray area with “being in network or out of network” with PPO’s.

Deductible options for individuals in the PPO market are $1,500, $2,500, $3,500, and $5,000. Typical family deductible options are $3,000, $5,000, $7,000, and $10,000. You’ll want to choose a co-insurance of 100%. Co-insurance is the shared expense between you and the insurance company after the deductible. Most people are familiar with 80/20 % co-insurance. 100% co-insurance is popular because you won’t need to understand Calculus to figure out any future hospital bills. Insurance plan picks up 100% of the bills after deductible with this option. On a side note, it’s a good idea to set up a Health Savings Account. HSA’s have some decent tax advantages and you can set up an account equivalent to the deductible amount. So a $10,000 HDHP can have a $10,000 health savings account attached to it. The yearly max contribution to the health savings account is determined by your HDHP deductible. Ask your CPA about health savings accounts if your self-employed.

Higher deductible health insurance plans have lower monthly premiums. However, with that high deductible comes risk of having to owe that deductible amount if you use the health insurance. A $5,000 dollar deductible hospital bill is one broken bone away. Guess how a lot of Americans end up paying that HDHP $5,000 deductible? You guessed it, in the emergency room from a accidental bodily injury.

Accident health insurance supplements have been doing a good job filling this ER gap for years. Other names used for this plan include personal accident insurance, emergency room insurance supplement, accident medical coverage, personal injury insurance plan, 24 hour accident coverage, and accident supplemental benefit plan. These plans are under marketed in my opinion, and most licensed health insurance agents are doing a disservice to their clients if they don’t bring it up. I say this because so many people are shelling out a lot of money each month to insurance companies, and if they actually use the insurance could be stuck with a huge deductible bill.

Opposite the PPO health insurance industry is Guarantee Issue insurance products. Emergency room insurance supplements fall into this category and are automatic approval. Online applications have zero health questions but do need social security numbers and birth dates. This type of guarantee issue accident medical expense coverage is an indemnity. Indemnity’s compensate members with a predetermined benefit amount.

Personal injury insurance plans in this category are membership based associations. The membership organization helps individuals and families in the United States gain access to discount programs and in this case, the pound for pound most practical emergency room insurance supplement I’ve seen so far.

Each association member can choose a benefit level of accident coverage to fit their monthly budget or to match the HDHP deductible. Plans cover the HDHP deductible giving high deductible health plans a virtual zero deductible effect. Remember, a lot of HDHP’s max out deductibles from ER visits due to injuries. ER plan pays injury related expenses to pay off the PPO deductible. Again, plans only cover ER related expenses due to injury and not sickness.