What is an insurance "Carrier"?
An insurance carrier is the actual insurance company that covers you ("carries" your policy). They process and pay claims submitted by you or your health care provider.

What is a "Provider"?
A provider is your physician, hospital or other health care facility that provides your medical, dental or vision services.

What is a "Deductible"?
A deductible is the amount of money you must spend each year before your policy begins covering expenses. For example, if you have a $500 deductible, you must pay the first $500 in expenses. After you meet the first $500, your policy will begin to pay your medical bills based on your coinsurance.

What is "Coinsurance"?
Coinsurance refers to the percentage of expenses that a policy will cover after the deductible has been met. For example, if your policy has an 80/20 coinsurance, your policy will pay for 80% of claims while you would pay for 20%. Once the amount of claims has reached the "coinsurance maximum", the policy will then begin paying for 100% of the claims. In this example, if your 80/20 policy had a $5000 coinsurance maximum, you would pay 20% of claims up to the first $5000 in claims. As a result, your maximum out-of-pocket expense would be 20% of $5000, or $1000. After you have met this $1000 maximum out-of-pocket, the policy will then begin paying 100%.

What is a "Copay"?
A copay is a fixed dollar amount that your plan may require you to pay for specific medical services or supplies. For example, your plan may require a $25 copay for physician office visits.

What is a "Provider Network"?
A network is a list of hospitals and physicians that will accept your insurance plan. These providers usually sign an agreement to accept payment based on a schedule of discounted fees set by the network. Your insurance carrier will then pay the providers based on this schedule of discounted fees. These providers will accept these discounted fees as payment-in-full and cannot balance bill you for the difference. This network arrangement works for services that are covered under your policy. Your provider can still charge you the full amount for a service that is not a covered benefit under your policy.

What is an "Indemnity Plan"?
A traditional plan, commonly known as a traditional plan, does not utilize a provider network. You have the freedom to go to any provider for services; however, the services are not discounted because there is no network. As a result, you may rack up out-of-pocket expenses quicker than you would with a PPO or HMO Plan.

What is a "PPO Plan"?
A PPO refers to a "Preferred Provider Organization". This has a provider network, sometimes called a PPO network. You a typically allowed to also see a provider outside of the network; however, you will pay a higher deductible and a higher coinsurance. For example, your plan may have a $250 in-network deductible and a $500 out-of-network deductible. It could also have a 80/20 coinsurance in-network and 60/40 coinsurance out-of-network. These plans are designed to give you the ability to see an out-of-network provider, but definitely give you the incentive to stay in network (hence the term "Preferred Provider Organization").

What is an "HMO Plan"?
An HMO refers to a Health Maintenance Organization. Under an HMO, you must choose a primary care physician (PCP) from within the HMO's provider network. You will then go to your PCP for all your medical
needs. You will need to get a referral from your PCP to see a specialist doctor. If you go to an out-of-network provider or fail to get a referral from your PCP for any services, you may be responsible for the entire bill. The only exception is for emergency care. HMO's are the least flexible in terms of who you can see, but they typically cost less and provide lower deductibles and lower out-of-pocket costs. You can get additional information about HMO's from the State of Michigan's Department of Labor & Economic Growth's HMO Page.

What is a "Health Savings Account"?
A Health Savings Account, or HSA, is a tax sheltered account you can set-up in conjunction with an HSA-qualifying health policy. You may contribute money into an HSA account, and then use that money to pay for deductibles, prescriptions, dental services, vision services or nursing home expenses. The big advantage to HSA's are that contributions, investment growth and withdrawals for health-related expenses are all free from taxation. Any money not spent in your HSA account continues to accumulate as you contribute to it every year. The annual limit on how much you can contribute to an HSA changes periodically and is determined by the federal government. You can learn more about HSA's by visiting our HSA Info Page.
Listen to our founder talk more about HSA's

What is short-term health insurance?
Short-term health insurance plans provide you with coverage for a limited period of time, and may be an ideal solution for those between jobs or those waiting for other health insurance to start. Typically, short-term plans offer coverage up to six months, although some plans may offer coverage up to 12 months. If you think you'll need coverage for a longer period of time, you may want to look at a standard, longer-term health insurance option like our individual and family health insurance plans.
The drawback of purchasing a short-term health insurance plan is that you may become sick or injured while you are covered on the short-term policy. While your sickness or injury may be covered by your short-term policy, this policy will eventually expire, leaving you without continuous coverage. As a result, you may then be ineligible to purchase a permanent health plan because your sickness or injury may be deemed a pre-existing condition. If you are eligible to purchase a permanent health insurance policy, it may be a wiser decision to do so in lieu of a short-term policy, even if the permanent policy may be more expensive.

Short-term health insurance plans typically do not cover pre-existing medical conditions. The definition of a pre-existing condition varies by state, but, in general, short-term health insurance policies exclude coverage for conditions that have been diagnosed or treated within the previous 3 to 5 years. If you have an existing medical condition, you may want to research whether you can extend your current insurance. Employer-sponsored insurance can be extended under a government-regulated option commonly referred to as COBRA, which you should seriously consider if you have an existing medical condition.
Listen to our founder talk more about short-term policies.

Do you offer the best prices?
By law, health insurance premiums must be filed with each state’s Insurance Commissioner’s Office, which regulates insurance companies. Because of this, you’ll pay the same monthly rate for each plan whether you buy from MyHealthInsurancePlace.com, someone else, or directly with the health insurance carrier.This means that you can enjoy the benefits and convenience of shopping and purchasing your health insurance plan through MyHealthInsurancePlace.com, get professional service and advice even after you purchase your policy, and rest assured that you're getting the best available price.

Will using your service cost me anything?
All the services offered by MyHealthInsurancePlace.com are provided at no extra cost to you, the consumer. If you buy a health insurance plan through MyHealthInsurancePlace.com, you'll pay the regular monthly premium to the health insurance company you chose, but you'll pay nothing to us. Our fees are paid by the insurance companies in the form of commissions. Because health insurance premiums must be filed with each state’s Insurance Commissioner’s Office, which regulates insurance companies, your chosen insurance company will charge you the same monthly premium regardless of where you purchase your plan.

Why should I purchase my insurance plan through you?
We believe we offer the best overall package of products and services:
1. Guaranteed Lowest Prices: No one can beat our prices for the health insurance plans we offer. Because health insurance premiums must be filed with each state’s Insurance Commissioner’s Office, which regulates insurance companies, no one can offer a lower monthly premium than we do; whether you buy from us, someone else, or directly from the carrier.

2. Broad range of companies and plans: We work with most top-rated national insurance carriers. When you get an insurance quote through MyHealthInsurancePlace.com, you can be assured that you have thoroughly shopped the marketplace. To view a sample of some of the insurance companies we work with, click here.

3. Expert and professional guidance, advice and service: We are here to help you throughout the process of evaluating insurance plans, choosing the best plan for you, and enrolling you in your chosen plan. Even after you are enrolled, you can contact us with any questions you may have about your plan or how it works. We will act as your full-service insurance agent. Feel free to contact us with any questions.

4. Customer Privacy: At MyHealthInsurancePlace.com, you can be assured that we are committed to keeping your personal information private. We do not sell or otherwise give out anyone's personal information to any person or company other than the companies which we partner with that are directly involved with providing our customers with insurance and insurance quotes. For a full description of our privacy policy, see our privacy page.

5. Risk-free offer: By law, each state has a “free-look” period of at least 10 days (longer in some states) for individual (non-group) health insurance policies. This means that once you receive your policy, you have the right to return it for any reason back to the insurance carrier for a full refund within the free-look period. At MyHealthInsurancePlace.com, we want to ensure that if you buy an individual health insurance policy through us, you will receive the exact benefits and coverage that you thought you were getting at the time of purchase. We are so committed to this, that we will pay you your shipping cost to return the policy within the free-look period if you are not satisfied for any reason.
Listen to our founder speak more on this topic.

At MyHealthInsurancePlace.com, we look forward to the opportunity to earn your business and serve your insurance needs.