Real Insurance Centre » HealthCare

Term Health Insurance

Admin — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 03:43:56 +0000

The term health insurance is generally used to describe a form of insurance that pays for medical expenses. It is sometimes used more broadly to include insurance covering disability or long-term nursing or custodial care needs. It may be provided through a government-sponsored social insurance program, or from private insurance companies. It may be purchased on a group basis (eg, by a firm to cover its employees) or purchased by individual consumers. In each case, the covered groups or individuals pay premiums or taxes to help protect themselves from high or unexpected health care expenses. Similar benefits for paying medical expenses may also be provided through social welfare programs funded by the government.

Health insurance works by estimating the overall risk of healthcare expenses and developing a routine finance structure (such as a monthly or annual premium tax) that will ensure that money is available to pay for the healthcare benefits specified in the insurance agreement. The benefit is administered by a central organization, most often either a government agency or a private or not-for-profit entity operating a health plan.

Insurance for Health Care Regulations

Admin — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:10:46 +0000

Health care providers such as physicians face many risks in the United States today. They constantly have to keep up to date on the changes in their profession. Physicians also need to constantly monitor their relationships with the Health care Insurance providers. They have to pay close attention to State and National legislatures to see what new regulations they have to comply with. For instance, Massachusetts recently passed a new statute regulating all companies that collect and store any private information of its citizens.

The United States today is as litigious as ever, and lawyers and doctors are still not the best of friends. As new laws get passed by the legislatures, mostly lawyers, new risks are presented to physicians. Privacy is one of the biggest issues in the media. The health care industry is far from immune from this issue. In fact there has been numerous acts passed specifically regarding the medical and health care industry’s regulation of private information.

Legislation such as HIPAA, EMTALA and STARK has caused many headaches for health care providers since their enactment. I am not going to be able to help alleviate those headaches, but I will be able to provide an insurance policy that will help those providers sleep a little easier at night. This new program provides defense cost coverage and coverage for civil fines and penalties in regards to health care regulations and other proceedings.

These policies offer payment of defense costs and civil fines for billing errors, including fraud and abuse, voluntary reporting, Qui Tam and commercial payor claims. They also cover HIPAA, EMTALA and STARK. The policies have limits for solo physicians up to $1,000,000 and up to $5,000,000 aggregate limits for physician groups. These policies should name the employees, directors, trustees, officers and the entity as an insured in the definitions page of the policy.

Network security and Privacy liability insurance is also a very important issue for physicians and other health care providing agencies. Network Security and Privacy liability is a policy which covers the company against suits due to invasion of privacy and computer hacking. We’ve all heard the horror stories of different corporations losing laptops, or having private information stolen. All companies that collect and store non-public information of their clients should make certain that they have certain procedures in place. For one, everything needs to be reviewed by an expert in computer security. But secondly, even the best laid plans can go awry, that is why every one of these companies also needs to have a privacy liability insurance policy. Health care agencies have more personal and private information than anyone other entity including the government. That is why it makes the most sense for those agencies to have the insurance.

Doctors have a bad view of insurance. They hate health insurance because they never get paid. They hate casualty insurance because it costs too much. And they are correct on both accounts. However, privacy liability insurance policies and the defense coverage for regulatory actions are reasonably priced. Underwriting for these policies is based on how many doctors are in the practice, gross revenue and what you have done to mitigate against these risks, among other things.

For a free quote, and to speak with a privacy liability insurance expert, please contact Andrew Cohn from Internet Risk Specialist, the technology division of Wilson, Washburn & Forster Insurance. Andrew Cohn has been specializing in the unique risks of the technology and life sciences industries. Andrew has had articles published by the Insurance Journal and Website Magazine regarding privacy liability insurance. Andrew will also be speaking about privacy policies and other insurance matters at the Social Network and Internet Dating Conference in Miami, January, 2009.

About Health Insurance

Admin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:07:54 +0000

There is uncertainty in life and insurance is designed to lessen the burden of this uncertainty. The principle of operation is simple, the insurer (that is Blue Cross Insurance company or Blue Shield in this case) pays the medical costs of the insured (you) if the insured becomes sick due to covered causes like disease, disability, accident etc.Blue Cross Insurance is an insurance company providing health insurance in the United States and Canada.The premium was only 6 dollars a year! Within 10 years of its formation the Blue Cross symbol was adapted by the American Hospital Association. Presently one of every three American is covered by Blue Shield or Blue Cross making them the largest health care provider in the United States. Blue Cross Insurance was started by a university president Justin Ford Kimball. It started out in a very humble way as hospital care for school teachers in Dallas in 1929.

In return the insured (you) pays a monthly or annual premium (a monetary amount usually around 200 dollars a month, however the exact amount varies according to the insurance plan purchased) to the insurer. As a general rule, the larger number of people in the insurance group, the lesser is the premium. This is due to the distribution of costs.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans are very closely linked to managed health care in the United States. The association is also the administrator for Social Security in a large number of states. Traditionally Blue Cross provides hospital coverage and Blue Shield provides medical coverage.

Presently Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is a trade organization linking 38 independent regional health insurance companies in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. It achieved its present form in 1982 after the merger of Blue Cross association and the national association of Blue Shield plans.

In different states Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies have different names. The names of the companies are Wellpoint, Carefirst, Healthcare service corporation, Highmark, Premera, The Regence Group, Wellmark, Blue Cross Blue Shield of various states, La Cruz Azul de Puerto Rico, Triple-S (in Puerto Rico) and The Canadian Association of Blue cross Plans ( In Canada).