What is Point-of-Service Plan (POS)
When we say a point-of-service plan, we mean a kind of health insurance that can provide you with various useful things. Of course, all this depends on what type of health insurance a person wants. There are two ways a person can choose, that is, in-network and out-of-network care.
We also have to say that the point of service is a combination of health maintenance organization (HMO) and preferred provider organization (PPO). It is important to say that the POS does not include a large part of health care users, but most of the users use a health maintenance organization or preferred provider organization health insurance.
Breaking Down Point-of-Service Plan (POS)
The point-of-service plan has some similarities with HMO and PPO. What is similar to HMO is that both ways insist that the health insurance user chooses his in-network doctor and that if he needs a specialist service he must request the necessary referrals from his doctor in order to apply POS.
As far as PPO is concerned, it is possible to have an out-of-network service, but the user who decides on such a thing will have significantly higher costs. However, for all users, it is more convenient in-network mode. On the other hand, POS has some advantages in these situations. For example, for POS users, costs will be significantly lower. Also, with POS, the part of referral is very important, too.
Anyway, some of the benefits of POS, especially for in-network users, are co-payments prices ranging from $ 10 to $ 25, and for these users, there are no deductibles.
POS also has a solution for those who often travel, because it is available around the country. However, this system also has defects. For example, deductibles for out-of-network users are often larger, and this can be a problem.
The Relative Unpopularity of Point-of-Service Plans
Even despite these many advantages, POS is not so much present in the population. As mentioned earlier, HMO and PPO plans are much more in use that POS.
For example, the POS plan is almost twice as cheaper than PPO, but premiums are nearly twice as expensive as HMOs. Perhaps the reason for their reduced usage is that people do not understand how the payments work.