The diseases that are difficult to be cured and needs lots of money for treatment are called Critical Illness. Cancer, multiple sclerosis, kidney failure, stroke and heart attack are some of the most common illnesses known as critical. There are insurance policies that cover such type of diseases. Under the policies, the insured is paid out a lump sum benefit, free of income tax and capital gains tax.
The insurance agency will be liable to make the payment only if you are diagnosed with a serious or critical illness defined by it. Each agency has its own definition of illnesses. Hence, you should carefully examine the policy wording before committing to one policy. Otherwise you may surprisingly discover that the illnesses you wanted to cover are not there in the list of critical illnesses covered by the company.
In order to take maximum benefit of your medical insurance policy, you can prepare yourself with some related knowledge and information. For example, you can estimate what your loss of income will be and what money you will need to compensate for the earning power which the illness causes you. You can even find out how much it would cost to make improvements to your home should you become subject certain disabilities like unable to use stairs.
You can also make estimation on how much you can afford to contribute towards the payment of the instalments of the critical illness insurance policy. Payments can be made by premium either monthly or annually. It is the premium that you can afford will decide the level of benefit you will be entitled to receive if you become subject to a covered illness. Your general health condition also will influence the premiums. As a rule, you are unlikely to be covered for illnesses that you have suffering since birth. Your premiums may be higher if you have a history of particular illnesses in your family.
Dental And Medical Insurance
Yet the very real dental and medical collection laws issues mean you should think carefully before reminding your patients to pay up. In the end, you may very well be better off outsourcing your medical or dental accounts receivables to one of the new medical and dental collection agency/accounts payable processing centers.
According to the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA), your medical or dental billing notices fall under essentially the same regulations as a mega-bank's car loan collections.
Real-World Medical and Dental Debt Collection Law Quandaries
Anne, a secretary at Westville Orthopedic Associates, calls up a patient who just turned 18, to remind him of an outstanding copayment. The patient's mother answers the telephone. Should Anne:
1. Take the issue of the co-payment up with the patient's mother?
2. Leave a message with the patient's mother to remind the patient of the outstanding co-payment?
3. Leave a message for the patient to call the Westville Orthopedic Associates back?
4. Say she will call back later and quickly hang up?
All but one of the four options above will be a violation of federal debt collections law. Can you guess which one? The correct course of action is option number 3. Why are the others illegal? Look at each of the options above:
1. It is illegal to disclose a debt to a third party.
2. See number one; remember that messages regarding a debt are essentially disclosures to a third party.
3. This is the only suitable course of action.
The FDCPA requires all creditors to identify themselves when making a call. While you can't say what you are calling about, you must say the name of your business before hanging up.
Not ready for your medical or dental practice to become a law practice? You can get around medical and dental collection laws matters by outsourcing the entire job to a professional medical or dental accounts receivable processor or medical collection agency. This option also has the benefit of saving your staff a lot of work. After all, not only is your medical or dental practice not a law practice, it's not an accounts department, either.
Both Darlene Kaitlin & Steve Austin are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Darlene Kaitlin has sinced written about articles on various topics from Finances, Debts Loans and Dental Practice. The author is associated with UK’s leading healthcare and medical insurance broker, Essential Health Ltd, which provides medical benefits, to its clients in UK and around the world, for Cancer, Medical insurance,. Darlene Kaitlin's top article generates over 22200 views. to your Favourites.