An Overview Of Employee Group Health Insurance Plans

As an employer, the provision of the right group health insurance plan for the employees is an important decision that must not be taken lightly. The right of provider must be taken into account while the price of premiums to be paid by both the employer and employee must not be forgotten.

Group Health Insurance Choices

As said above, the choice of a group health insurance plan for any company's employees will depend on some crucial choices. There is exactly no 'best' plan for everyone, but each employer ought to look out for their company's and employees' interest by taking up the policy which meets their needs. The three basic types of health insurance plan providers are HMOs, PPO's and POS's. Here are the differences:

HMO. This is the oldest of all the group insurance plans. And there is no doubt of it being the cheapest of the three. However, it has the small disadvantage of providing the least cover. Under a HMO, a primary health physician must be taken up and no specialist must be on record except with reference from the primary doctor. In short, HMOs have contracts with individual doctors who have private offices.

PPO. This group health insurance plan is a bit more costly but it provides better coverage than HMO. A PPO has agreements with doctors, hospitals and other care providers who do agree to lower fees from the insurer for their services. As a result, cost sharing would be lower than if an employee goes outside of the network. PPO also deals with a network of physicians rather than a primary doctor. Also, PPO has the flexibility of a plan member having the freedom to refer to 'outside-plan' doctors for treatment. This network of physicians can include specialists from various fields like dental, mental and optical health services.

POS. A Point of Service (POS) plan is a type of group healthcare care that combines characteristics of the HMO and the PPO. It basically combines the required primary care physician of an HMO, with the network of covered providers of a PPO. However, if an employee decides to go outside the network for healthcare, then he will likely be subject to a deductible, but not of a high amount as with an HMO.

The Internet has made the world a global village now. Hence, it is a bit easier to analyze providers of different group health insurance plans. With a bit of diligent search there may be a 'near-perfect' plan than is just tailor-made for your employees.

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