Benefits: The medical services and health care products included in a health care plan to which you're entitled.

Calendar Year: The time period from january 1 to December 31 in a single year.

Catastrophic Health Insurance: Insurance with a very high deductible, covering an injury or illness with medical expenses that are above your normal basic health care plan.

Claim: A health-related bill forwarded for payment to your health insurance company or your health care provider.

Co-insurance: The amount of money your health insurance will pay for covered expenditures, usually expressed in a percentage.

Co-payment: The amount of cash that comes out of your pocket every time you visit your health care provider; it varies according to the insurance policy you choose.

Coverage: A health service or product which qualifies as a benefit under the terms of your benefit contract.

Deductable: The amount of money you pay for medical bills before insurance kicks in. This is a yearly amount and may be anywhere from several hundred bucks to several thousand per year, depending on your insurance policy.

Discount Plans: Large buying organizations formed to provide discounts on health sevices to its members. It's non-insurance.

Family Health Insurance: Health coverage taking into account the needs of your family. It can be either group or an individual type of insurance.

Group Health Insurance: Health coverage based on a collection of people, whether put together by an organization or a business. The cost is spread out among the members of the group. Under federal guidelines, a "large employer" is one with 51 or more employees and a "small employer" averages 2 to 50 employees in a calendar year.

HIPAA: "Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act" gives you the means to the record which concerns your health care; also provides that if you have a pre-existing medical condition, that's covered continously for OVER 12 MONTHS you may change jobs and not be turned down for health insurance. 

HMO: "Health Maintenance Organization" is a type of group health plan in which an organization is formed to provide medical care to its members. Your health care provider works for the HMO which makes it difficult to be reffered to an outside specialist in case you need one. Most members receive ALL of their medical needs from HMO clinics through managed medical care.

Managed Care: Comprehensive health care which is provided to participating members of an organized health care organization through the use of a network of health care providers and facilities; it uses a delivery system that secures cost effective health care.

Maximum Limits: The highest cash amount your health insurance plan will pay for: a single claim, and over the lifetime of your coverage.

Network: The healthcare providers and product retailers that either work for or contract with a group health care organization.

Policy: The legal agreement between an insurance company and insured person, whereby the company agrees to pay for the covered medical services included in the agreement and the insured agrees to pay the premium rate.

PPO: "Preffered Provider Organization" is a type of group health plan where insurance company puts together a system of standard fee and health care providers that's managed by the insurance company. This means, as a member you're encouraged to use their network provider, or if you so choose to use non-network provider, you pay that provider out-of-pocket for services and then file for reimbursement from your insurance company. Good luck!

Pre-existing Condition: A physical or mental health condition which happened before applying for a policy, for which medical care was already recommended or received, and which may or may not be covered by insurance, or only after a time lapse.

Premium: The money you pay for a health insurance policy.

Provider: A physician, hospital, medical care facility, or other type of medical personnel who provide health care.

Referral: The method of directing a patient by one physician to another physician.