Our upcoming webinar on April 2, 2024, will include information about the most common health insurance ancillary products and how they protect your health and finances.
An ancillary product is an add-on insurance that works with your main insurance to offer additional financial support to help offset the expenses that you would otherwise have to pay on your own. Bundling these and other ancillary products with your existing health insurance policies can provide you with comprehensive coverage and peace of mind.
Here are some of the most common ancillary products:
Accident Insurance
Accident insurance policies pay a cash benefit to help cover the cost of medical expenses after an accidental injury. These plans can help pay for the deductibles and coinsurance you may incur on your health insurance policy when an unexpected injury occurs.
Dental Insurance
Private dental insurance policies help people budget for the cost of maintaining their dental health. These plans are not tied to any enrollment periods, so they can be added at any time of year.
Dental insurance policies typically pay 100% of the cost of preventive care like cleanings, exams, and X-rays, 50%-90% for basic services such as fillings and simple extractions, and 20-60% for major services like crowns, root canals, and dentures or implants. Policies differ in which procedures are considered preventive, basic, or major so it’s important to review how they are classified when comparing plans.
Dental insurance has deductibles, co-pays, and coinsurance and has annual coverage maximums ranging from $1500 to $5000 per year.
There are often waiting periods before the basic and major services will be covered and some companies have lower benefits in the first year that increase after that. Some companies waive the waiting periods if you have had prior coverage immediately before enrolling.
The dental plans we represent are PPO plans, so if your dentist is in the dental network, you will have the highest benefit without balance billing. Balance billing is the difference between what the insurance company pays and what the dentist charges. So if the dentist is not in the network, they can pass on those charges to you.
Vision Insurance
Vision insurance helps reduce your expenses for routine preventive eye care like eye exams for glasses and prescription eyewear like glasses and contact lenses. Vision plans are typically very inexpensive, and you can enroll at any time of the year.
They offer fixed copays for exams and discounted eyewear or a fixed dollar amount of benefits within an annual benefit period. There is usually an annual deductible for eyewear and one eye exam per year.
These plans offer access to a couple of different vision networks that include major chains, private practices, and online stores.
Hearing Insurance
Hearing exams are generally covered by a person's basic medical insurance, however, hearing aids are not. And there are no stand-alone hearing plans to cover hearing aids available at this time.
Medicare Advantage plans often have a hearing aid benefit and a few plans have a bundled product that covers Dental/Vision and Hearing in the same policy.
Hospital Indemnity Insurance
Hospital Indemnity plans are often bundled with Medicare Advantage plans to help cover the costs of the more expensive copays and coinsurance found on those plans like in-patient hospitalizations, daily skilled nursing days, Outpatient Rehab, ambulance and ER riders, and more.
If you have any additional questions, contact our team today!