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Personal health coverage offers reimbursement for health care. Prescription assistance programs can be included in some programs. Some programs can provide for payment of health bills incurred on a reimbursement basis by paying benefits to the policy owner, payment on a service basis by paying those who supply the services directly, or payment of an indemnity by paying a prearranged sum regardless of the total charged for medical expenses. Medical expense or hospitalization coverage can be written on an individual or group basis. Some of these policies will provide prescription help.

Although there are numerous types of benefits to be had, personal medical expense coverage can generally be categorized as basic medical expense coverage, major medical coverage, comprehensive medical coverage, and special policies. These policies should cover prescriptions because prescription drugs help so many patients. A large amount of these policies have for the most part been replaced by managed care plans and are no longer offered as stand-alone policies. These types of policies have been adapted and replaced in answer to changes in the health care field relative to cost control and market competition.

Basic health insurance provided by a private medical expense plan includes hospital expense, surgical expense and medical expense. These three basics might be issued together or individually. Normally this is issued as “first dollar” coverage, which means it does not include a deductible.

Like the name implies, hospital expense health insurance provides benefits for expenses incurred throughout hospitalization. Hospital indemnities are regularly classified into 2 broad categories:

• Room and board, including nursing care and special diets

• Miscellaneous health expenses, including x-rays, laboratory fees, prescription drugs, medical supplies, and operating and treatment rooms

In certain cases, surgical benefits may be built-in for specific types of surgery and associated expenses. Hospital expense health insurance provides benefits for daily hospital room and board and miscellaneous hospital expenses while the insured person is confined to the hospital. The plan can provide for a specified dollar amount for the daily hospital room and board benefit, even though the trend is toward health insurance of not more than the semiprivate room rate unless a private room is medically required. The room and board benefit can be paid on either an indemnity basis or a reimbursement basis, depending on the particular policy.

Indemnity plans are at times called dollar amount policies. Room and board rates vary by geographic location, however it is not abnormal to discover room and board rates ranging from $350  to $500  per day or more.

Typically, the maximum number of days is from 60  to 350 . More commonly, room and board expenses are paid on a reimbursement basis. also called an expenses incurred basis~Frequently known as a expenses incurred basis~This is commonly called a expenses incurred basis}. Under this agreement, the insurance will pay in one of two ways.

• The actual expenses for a semiprivate room are covered.

• A percentage of the actual cost is paid, with no specific dollar limit.

Under the first reimbursement option, the insurance company will pay the full actual semiprivate room rate, regardless of what it is. Under the second reimbursement option, the healthcare insurance company pays a specified percentage, regardless of what the actual charges are. A normal percentage is 80%.

To summarize, with the actual expenses type of reimbursement plan, the plan will pay the actual amount billed for a semiprivate room without regard to a specific dollar limit. With the percentage style of reimbursement insurance, the program will pay a certain percentage of the actual charges.