A Helpful Summary of Wisconsin Medical Insurance Terms
The Georgetown Health Policy Institute has researched and published a series of health insurance guidebooks that briefly summarize the health insurance requirements in each individual state throughout the U.S. In developing the summary guides, a review is made of the state's regulatory requirements relating to health insurance, as well as applicable Federal requirements that apply within the United States. For completeness, state-specific plans made available by a state's government as the state's Medicare implementation are analyzed and included in the guides.
Regulations concerning health care insurance are quite complex, and many of today's state regulations are derived from the Federal regulations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (also called HIPAA). In Georgetown University's health insurance summary guides, the HIPAA requirements pertaining to group health insurance, restrictions on pre-existing conditions, COBRA coverage and insurance portability are all summarized. Through diligent compliance with HIPAA regulations, a person may keep full-coverage health benefits for a long-term period after no longer being qualified for an eligible group plan. However, the timeline and qualification requirements are strongly enforced and, as coverage is provided farther away in time from the original group health plan, the health coverage levels and premium rates will normally become less beneficial.
Because understanding both HIPAA rights and state-managed Medicare programs will be mutually important to acquiring quality health insurance, the Georgetown summaries should be required information early in the effort to find new health insurance. These insurance guides are updated when required by Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute and offer a current, simple and comprehensive look at health care benefits in each of the fifty U.S. states. Click on the Georgetown University link to review the current and complete Consumer's Guide to Getting and Keeping Health Insurance for the state you call home.