A Helpful Summary of Michigan Medical Insurance Terms
The Georgetown University Health Policy Institute has researched a series of health insurance summary guides that briefly describe the health insurance regulations in each state throughout the United States. In preparing the summary guides, a thorough review is made of a state's regulatory requirements pertaining to health insurance, as well as pertinent Federal requirements that apply throughout the USA. In addition, local state programs offered by a state's government as the state Medicare program are reviewed and summarized in the guides.
Regulations associated with health insurance are usually very complex, and most current state regulations are built upon the Federal legislation known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). In the Georgetown health insurance state guides, the HIPAA regulations that address group health insurance, treatment of pre-existing conditions, COBRA availability and long-term insurance portability are all addressed. By following the HIPAA guidelines carefully, a person may retain full-coverage health insurance indefinitely after becoming disqualified from an eligible group plan. However, the timeline requirements are strictly enforced and, as a person's coverage moves farther away in time from the original health plan, the health coverage levels and premiums will generally become less beneficial.
Since understanding both HIPAA regulations and state Medicare programs will be vitally important to finding quality long-term health insurance, the Georgetown insurance guides should be required early in the task of finding new health insurance. These guides are updated periodically by Georgetown University and its Health Policy Institute and offer a current and comprehensive look at health benefits and insurance in each state. Click below to find the full Consumer's Guide to Getting and Keeping Health Insurance for your state.