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Overview While some professional or manufacturing associations offer viable products, those are not the ones that are calling you on
the phone, offering you 100% coverage. Most of the telephone solicited association policies cover hospital and surgical costs only. Most do not cover prescriptions, outpatient therapy, office visits, X-rays,
diagnostics, preventive care, equipment, regular ambulance, and a host of other expenses. The non-covered expenses represent about 40% of all expected medical costs. The services that are covered are often limited or
severely restricted. Some expenses, outlined in bold print, appear to be covered, but the fine print reveals something else. A good example shows "Attending Physician Fees, 100%." An attending physician is a
doctor who visits you while you are confined in the hospital. If you have a poorly designed plan, you'd better hope that the doctor only visits you once per day and only charges $50 because may of these association
plans will cover "100%" up to only $50. You might be surprised to know that a ten-minute, inpatient doctor visit costs around $150. Charges above and beyond the $50 amount do not count towards deductibles or
out of pocket maximums. If you are attracted by some of the flashy perks like eye glasses, or dental, read the fine print. The discounts on glasses are generally available to you by using the yellow pages. In one of
the dental plans that claims to pay 100% of preventive benefits after a $25 deductible, the fine print showed that only $17 would be considered for coverage on a check up and cleaning. Your $60 dental bill would only
count $17 towards your deductible, and nothing else. Protecting yourself can be as simple as reading the materials carefully. Unfortunately, many owners of small businesses are occupied with other things -- like running
their business. Want another reference? Check your "Readers Guide to Periodical Literature" at your local library for more recent articles. If you like the idea of a hospital/surgical plan, check out the
Blue Cross Alternative Plan . Blue Cross offers a similar plan design for about 40% less than these associations. Hard to believe? The reason is simple; association plans often pay the agent as much as 5 times the
commission level as a Blue Cross plan. More commission, less insurance value. |
