Coming Our Way: Info illness insurance as easy to read as a nutrition label

Coming Our Way: Info illness insurance as easy to read as a nutrition label -

The Affordable Care Act requires all health insurers provide concise and understandable information about their plans and their benefits. It is an all too familiar scenario - playback on your health plan three times and still not understand what is covered. Well, as of September 23, 2012, all that will be a thing of the past.

Patients have a right to the following two key documents to help them understand and compare their Medicare options:

Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC)
A clear, concise and friendly provided by health insurance companies and group health plans that clearly defines all of your benefits and coverage. The SBC will be readily available when consumers need it most: when shopping for a plan at the beginning of each plan year, and upon request at any time.

The SBC will "examples of coverage" with a signature look, too, on the model of the label Nutrition Facts on packaged foods. According healthcare.gov, examples of coverage "illustrate, by way of comparison, the proportion of the cost of care in a health insurance policy or plan would cover for a patient sample for two common medical situations with the diabetes a baby and managing type 2. additional scenarios will be added in the future as feedback is collected from consumers. "

Uniform Glossary of health care coverage and medical terms

the term "uniform" is the key here. The glossary will be consistent definitions across the board for the coverage of health and medical terms that are commonly used as "co-insurance" and "franchise". For even easier access, the Ministries of Health and Social Services and Labour will also display the glossary on their website.

Tweet