A Helpful Summary of California Medical Insurance Terms
The Georgetown University Health Policy Institute has published a series of health insurance summary guides that briefly outline the health insurance rights and restrictions in each state throughout the United States. In preparing the summary guides, a review is conducted of each state's specific regulatory requirements pertaining to health insurance, as well as the Federal requirements that apply throughout the USA. In addition, state-specific programs offered by a state's government as their local Medicare implementation are reviewed and summarized in the guides.
Regulations associated with health insurance are fairly complex, and most current state regulations are derived from the Federal legislation known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). In the Georgetown health insurance state guides, the HIPAA requirements for group health insurance, treatment of pre-existing conditions, COBRA coverage and health insurance portability are all addressed. By following the HIPAA guidelines carefully, a consumer may remain covered for full-coverage health insurance indefinitely after leaving an eligible group plan. However, the timeline requirements are strictly enforced and, as a person moves farther away in time from the original health plan, the health coverage details and premium fees will generally become less beneficial.
Since understanding both HIPAA regulations and local state-sponsored Medicare programs will be vitally important to finding quality long-term health insurance, the Georgetown summary guides should be required reading early in the task of finding new health insurance. These guides are updated periodically by Georgetown University and offer a current and comprehensive look at health insurance in each state. Click below to read the full Consumer's Guide to Getting and Keeping Health Insurance for your state.