The plans continue to sell like clockwork today, despite all the speculation, and realistically, it will be difficult for anyone to squash a consumer's desire to purchase
first-dollar coverage when that consumer has the means to purchase such a policy.
The Affordable Care Act of 2010 requires health plans to provide
first-dollar coverage for the preventive services listed in HHS' comprehensive list of preventive services beginning in 2014.
As we muddle through the discussion of which ornaments to include on the university's health care tree, I wonder when we are going to provide
first-dollar coverage for primary care, encourage the use of a well-established patient-centered medical home, and foster the development of a trusted relationship with a primary care physician-led team.
The benefit structure provides
first-dollar coverage (no high deductibles) and gives employees access to see a doctor or obtain a prescription for just a small copayment.
These provisions include new W-2 reporting requirements, the elimination of lifetime and annual limits on benefits, the requirement to provide
first-dollar coverage for preventive care and the extension of eligibility for dependent coverage.
Financial incentives are provided by employer-paid funds, carry forward of unused employer-paid fund balances, and
first-dollar coverage for routine visits and preventive care (e.g., 100 percent of first $300 per covered individual with excess subject to a deductible).
Known as
first-dollar coverage, Aetna's insurance policy coverage typically exists all the way up to the full amount on the policy, said a statement.
Insurance companies are concerned (if not downright paranoid) about the prospect of a policyholder not having the financial wherewithal to shoulder its retention, and a court coming along after the fact and making it drop down to provide primary,
first-dollar coverage. To insurance company management, this scenario is as welcome as Michael Vick at an SPCA Convention.
In essence, the market for the
first-dollar coverage all but disappeared."
* Mandating through federal legislation (unlike the Institute of Medicine proposal, which is voluntary) that all private health plans provide
first-dollar coverage for all recommended childhood vaccines.
Both types are designed around a cheaper-to-buy high-deductible health plan, coupled with an account from which deductibles and
first-dollar coverage is paid.
So his company is moving away from plans that offer
first-dollar coverage, in which employees contribute nothing to the cost of treatment, toward plans that are more consumer-driven and serve as safety nets in case of severe injuries or illness.
