Archive for January, 2011

Health Insurance by Life and General Insurance Cos

Monday, January 31st, 2011

Health Insurance by Life and General Insurance Cos

 

By now you know how the increasing cost of hospitalization and healthcare expenses have made health insurance an inevitable necessity for all, right? Let’s now understand how buying health insurance from a general insurance company and a health policy from a life insurance company can mean two totally different things. And it is when you know this difference, can you select the best for yourself and can you avail of all the benefits you are entitled to.

Read on….

Health insurance vis-à-vis General Insurance: (or non-life insurance)

Any insurance which is non-life insurance typically falls under the category of General Insurance. This includes insurance for myriad things including car, fire, travel, household, marine etc. But this is not all. As general insurance pertains to non-life insurance, it also includes Health Insurance, wherein a person insures his and his family’s health against hospitalization due to various unforeseen ailments and growing medical expenses.

Hence, health insurance comes under general insurance as the latter provides protection against unforeseen events such as accidents, illness, et al. General insurance companies offer health policies which are mainly short term in nature. This means, that the health insurance policies can be renewed year after year and the premium amount varies with age.

Health insurance covers offered under general insurance, include mainly hospitalization covers either on reimbursement or cashless basis. The Third Party Administrators (TPAs) mainly offer cashless service as they have arrangements with various hospitals, who are the service providers. The TPAs also help in reimbursement claims.

Health insurance vis-à-vis Life insurance:

Many of us tend to confuse health insurance or mediclaim with life insurance. Though, both of them are vastly different in structure and content, while health insurance primarily caters to your health related expenses until you are alive, life insurance typically means insuring a person’s life wherein the returns are accrued due to your death or at the end of the term of the policy.

There are various life insurance companies that offer health benefits and packages. Firstly, the health related policies under life insurance companies cover certain critical illnesses. For example, certain private companies that offer life insurance to customers cover about 36 critical illnesses which include heart attacks, stroke, cancer, paralysis etc. Now this in turn means that once a person visits a doctor for treatment, and if the doctor then after diagnosis confirms a serious illness, then on the basis of the doctor’s report, the insured will get a lump sum amount from the company.

The benefit of these health packages is such that, if a person, who already has a mediclaim policy, also gets a health policy from a life insurance company, he would doubly benefit. But how does this work? For instance, a person suffers from cancer and it costs him 2 lakh rupees for treatment. He can then claim this money as a mediclaim (2 lakh) as well as a health policy benefit from the life insurance company with which he is a customer (2 lakh). Thus he gets a total of four lakh rupees. That’s a benefit when compared to a person who only has a mediclaim of 2 lakh rupees.

Health policies by life insurance companies are long term plans (over 10, 20 years and above)

One of the prime ways in which life insurance companies tend to sell health policies are mostly in the form of investment plans. These are essentially known as Health ULIP plans. However the difference in these plans and others lies with regard to:

the hidden charges which are high ,
a waiting period of three years before which you cannot claim,
High premium rates.

The positive however, is that the plan comes across as an investment option wherein you pay high premiums over a longer time period and you can claim full money later in some policies (that is either the premium amount collected or the sum insured for, whichever is higher) if you do not claim within the mentioned time period.

Remember: Not all policies have an investment option so you need to check the wordings before buying.

Some of the good plans include: Health plus from LIC, ICICI Prudential Crisis Cover

Thus, there are general insurance companies that offer health insurance and also there are life insurance companies that offer health products or policies. To know more about Health Insurance by Life and General Insurance Cos

Compare & Buy Best Health Insurance Policy

Health Care Staffing Agencies Add Value in Promoting Medical Assistant Careers

Monday, January 31st, 2011

Health Care Staffing Agencies Add Value in Promoting Medical Assistant Careers

Whether you’re a seasoned health care professional, or just embarking on a new career, health care staffing agencies may be a viable solution for finding the career of your dreams. Staffing agencies can provide reliable solutions for both employers and job seekers who are looking to break into the medical assisting field. Employers are able to find a pool of experienced job seekers, while applicants can benefit by finding placement in well-respected health care facilities.

Health Care Staffing Agency Benefits

There are other excellent benefits associated with a health care staffing agency affiliation. Often, health care professionals and medical assisting program graduates can find permanent, temporary, short-term and long-term positions in health care, private or public organizations. These venues include, but are not limited to, health care centers, home health care agencies, nursing homes and more. Both domestic and international candidates may also benefit by the placement services of a competitive health care staffing agency.

Medical jobs for qualified medical assistants may include such benefits as short-term disability insurance, professional or paid housing allowances, 401(k) retirement savings plan, travel allowances, health care and dental insurance, and in some instances a continuing education program. However, benefits will vary from employer to employer. For the individual, finding a job or career is quite often the result of an individual’s own hard work, personal experience, work attitude and local labor market conditions.

Health Care Staffing Agencies Provide Needed Employment Solutions

To deliver needed health care industry recruitment solutions, staffing agencies maintain a staff of skilled professionals adept in recruiting procedures, which include sourcing candidates, and initial employee assessment and interviewing. They are skilled in knowing and matching a candidate’s qualifications with the requirements of a job position.

As a direct result of having an outside agency source out candidates, health care industry employers can save time and money by eliminating monotonous and expensive recruiting efforts. This can help a medical facility reduce bottom line expenditures.

Through health care staffing agencies, Certified Medical Assistants can leverage their experience and skills by working in engaging and challenging environments alongside skilled and knowledgeable experts from other medical disciplines. For health care facilities, finding the right job candidate is extremely critical.

Thus, it makes perfect sense to partner with a reputable health care staffing agency that can provide a ready pool of qualified and industry-ready applicants who can hit the ground running on day one of employment.

Colin McLean writes about medical assistant training for Everest College. Find out how an education from Everest College can help jump-start your career in the health care industry.


Article from articlesbase.com

More Health Care Articles

Florida Against Health Care Reform

Sunday, January 30th, 2011

Florida Against Health Care Reform

The Health Reform Council continues to move forward because we’re confident that the courts will ultimately uphold the constitutionality of reform. Other judges have ruled in favor of reform. We’re committed to having the infrastructure in place so we can expand coverage, improve the quality of care, and lower costs.” Easy To Insure ME has the answers

Florida Challenge

Yet another challenge to the federal health care law came before a federal court in Florida yesterday, and if the partisan track record is any indication, it could prove another legal loss for the Obama administration. Republican-appointed U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson heard oral arguments in Florida Thursday in a lawsuit brought by 20 states challenging the constitutionality of the national health-care law. The case follows on the heels of a ruling Monday by a judge in Virginia that the very idea of an insurance mandate is unconstitutional. With 20 attorneys generals backing it, this is the most high profile and politically charged of the approximately two-dozen cases currently working their way through state and federal courts around the country. The case again goes after the constitutionality of mandates but also challenges the federal government on an old-fashioned states’ rights issue, the 20 states objecting to the reform law’s overhaul of Medicaid which the states argue amounted to the federal government coercing states to participate. From states rights to constitutional issues, will healthcare reform actually be implemented?

Filed On Behalf Of 20 States

What makes the Florida case different is that the lawsuit has been filed on behalf of 20 states. It’s also the first court challenge to the new law’s requirement that Medicaid be expanded to cover Americans with incomes at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty level (about ,000 in 2010 for someone living alone). That Medicaid expansion has unleashed a series of protests from some states that contend the expansion will overwhelm their already-overburdened budgets.