You may not have heard of POS health insurance. It is not as popular as the HMO or PPO types of insurance. The letters do not stand for what you may think they do. If you have ever spent time working in a retail environment, you have been trained to understand POS to mean “point of sale”. While that concept is similar to what POS health insurance is all about, it is not the exact meaning.
POS stands for Point Of Service. It is a form of managed care health insurance. This kind of health insurance is a mix, or hybrid, of an HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) and a PPO (Preferred Provider Organization). There are two purposes of this form of health insurance. One purpose is to allow a person to have more control over his or her own health care options. The other purpose is to help keep the cost of health care as low as possible.
If you have POS health insurance, you will be asked to choose a primary care physician, but you will not be absolutely required to do so. It is advised that you use your primary care physician as the doctor you go to first whenever you need medical care, and allow that doctor to coordinate your health care. This doctor becomes your point of service. However, you don’t have to stick with this particular doctor. The POS plan allows you to see other doctors that are in the network, as well as doctors who are out of the network.
One advantage of having POS insurance is the flexibility it offers. Choose whatever doctors and specialists you prefer. If you pick doctors that are in the network, your copay will be lower than if you go outside of the network. If your primary care physician refers you to a specialist, your POS insurance will cover most, if not all, of the cost, even if that specialist is out of network. You do not have to wait for a referral before you go see a specialist.
The biggest disadvantage to POS insurance is that you will have to pay for a deductible before your insurance company will cover the costs. Your copay will be higher than if you went with another kind of insurance. It is possible that your selection of doctors will end up costing you more money than if you went with a different kind of insurance. If you aren’t careful, you can end up making your health care costs rise, which is the opposite of the purpose of a POS.