What You Need To Know When Choosing Medical Insurance During Open Enrollment

Published: 26 November 2018

When faced with open enrollment or finding a new health insurance plan, it’s important to make sure you can continue to see the providers you’ve developed trust with. With that in mind, it’s important to make sure your current doctors and local hospitals accept the plan you’re thinking of choosing. Reading the fine print in your health insurance policy is not exactly light weekend reading, but when you are trying to conceive or have just found out you are expecting a child, it may be more important than you think.

Medical coverage can vary widely depending on your policy so as you are considering your new insurance coverage, consider these key factors.

Know Your Network Provider

It seems counterintuitive that a doctor and a hospital aren’t always on the same insurance network, but it’s sometimes the reality of healthcare in the United States.

Not only do you need to be sure that your physician is covered in your network of providers, but also you need to confirm that the hospital your doctor has privileges at is also in your network.

This is especially crucial for OB patients who would like their provider present at the birth of their child. It’s also relevant for all surgery. No one wants to find out in their third trimester that they can’t give birth with their doctor because the hospital is out-of-network.

When you choose an in-network ob/gyn and hospital, it’s much more likely that all medical professionals who may treat you, including nurses and the anesthesiologist, are in your network.

The difference between in-network and out-of-network care can mean thousands of dollars of out-of-pocket expenses.

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