What is Hospital Indemnity Insurance?
Understanding Hospital Indemnity Insurance
When it comes to the health of you and your family, unexpected or long-term hospitalizations should not be a time to worry about medical costs. Hospital indemnity insurance helps by putting recovery first over hospital bills.
Hospital indemnity insurance supplements your existing health insurance coverage by helping pay expenses for hospital stays. Depending on the plan, hospital indemnity insurance gives you cash payments to help you pay for the added expenses that may come while you recover. Typically plans pay based on the number of days of hospitalization.
Even if your medical insurance covers most of your hospitalization, you can still receive payments from your hospital indemnity insurance plan for extra expenses while recovering.
How Does It Work?
You pay monthly premiums for your hospital indemnity insurance plan. If you are admitted to the hospital for an injury or illness, your hospital indemnity plan makes cash payments to you.
And with the payments going directly to you, you can use these emergency funds to pay for costs not covered by your health insurance, health insurance deductibles, copays and coinsurance, childcare expenses while you are in the hospital, or cost-of-living expenses as you recover.
For most plans, there are no deductibles and you are not limited to provider networks.
What Does It Cover?
In general, most plans pay for:
- Hospitalizations with or without surgery.
- Intensive care.
- Critical care.
For higher monthly premiums, some hospital indemnity plans may cover other hospitalization-related services such as:
- Outpatient surgery.
- Emergency room visits.
- Ambulance services.
Questions To Ask About Hospital Indemnity Coverage
Coverage and cost vary with every hospital indemnity plan. Here are questions to ask so you understand the details of the plan you choose when you enroll.
- If hospitalized, how soon do you receive your cash payments?
- Will you receive one lump sum or monthly payments?
- How many days of hospitalization are covered?
- Does the plan cover your family?
- Are there age restrictions for the plan?
Is it Worth It?
Like many supplemental insurance plans, hospital indemnity insurance is typically lower in cost, depending on the plan and coverage. Affordable hospital indemnity plans are worth considering if your existing health insurance plan has limits on hospitalization coverage.
If you are starting a family, a hospitalization indemnity plan can help cover the costs of hospital childbirth and post-childbirth hospital stays. Also, as you become older, the potential for hospitalization may increase. A hospital indemnity plan offers peace-of-mind protection for the unexpected.