Apart from the standard health coverage, there are many hidden benefits that insurers don’t advertise openly. These range from offering coverage for management of diseases and mental health conditions to coverage for assisted reproductive technology. Such benefits are marketed to employers who buy corporate plans, but employees often don’t know about their entitlements. Here are five relatively unknown benefits that insurers offer their health plan members.
Management of Disease
Some insurers offer help and guidance in managing chronic diseases such as asthma or diabetes. The help could be in the form of counseling sessions or entire programs that include nurse consultations and blood level monitoring. You could benefit by enquiring with your employer and insurer if your plan provides coverage for disease management.
Healthy Living
Some insurance companies even offer part reimbursements of weight-loss regimes, health club memberships, and support counseling for quitting smoking. Supporting healthy living is beneficial for insurers as healthy people are less likely to make a claim.
Mental Health Coverage
Legislation passed in 2010 will require particular plans to provide coverage for mental health conditions. These policies will include coverage for treatments of conditions from bipolar disorder to eating disorders. Depending on where you live, some states also have laws supplemental to federal legislation on coverage of mental health conditions.
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)
Several insurers now offer coverage for alternative medicine and treatments such as massage and acupuncture. While this coverage often has a higher deductible than for standard medical care, you also may need to purchase an additional rider to your policy.
Reproductive Medicine
Self-financing fertility procedures, like in vitro fertilization (IVF), can be costly. Legislation has been passed by 14 states that require insurers to cover some level of infertility diagnosis and treatment. In a majority of these states, the law includes provisions for payment for IVF procedures.
We hope this guide helps you better understand the hidden benefits offered by insurance companies. As these are less publicized benefits, be sure to enquire with your insurer about them. As laws differ depending on where you live, enquire with your state department of insurance to see which benefits apply to your policy.