H
health care provider
A doctor, hospital, laboratory, nurse or anyone else who delivers medical or health-related care.
health insurance
A type of insurance that provides protection against the risk of financial loss resulting from the insured person's sickness, accidental injury or disability.
health insurance portability and accountability act of 1996 (HIPAA)
Under this federal law (known as HIPAA), group health plans cannot deny coverage based soley on an individual's health status. This law also gives employees who change or lose their jobs better access to health coverage, guarantees renewability and availability to certain employees and limits exclusions for pre-existing conditions. For example, under this law, group health plans must credit any employee the amount of time that they spent on any health plan prior to the new plan, which is known as "prior credible coverage." A pre-existing condition will be covered without a waiting period when an employee joins a new group plan if the employee has been insured for the previous 12 months with credible health insurance, with no lapse in coverage of 63 days or more. This means that if an employee has been insured for 12 months or more, the employee will be able to go from one job to another and his or her pre-existing coverage will remain intact -- without additional waiting periods. However, if an employee has a pre-existing condition and was not covered previously for 12 months before joining a new plan, the longest the employee will have to wait for their pre-existing coverage to be covered is 12 months.
HMO (health maintenance organization)
A health care financing and delivery system that provides comprehensive health care for subscribing members in a particular geographic area using managed care techniques. Most HMOs require that you only utilize physicians within their network, often going so far as to require you to choose a primary care physician who directs most courses of your treatment.
home health care
Skilled medical care and other health care services that you receive in your home for the treatment of an illness or injury. Some insurance plans don't provide this kind of coverage, or provide it only for a limited amount of time.
HSA (health savings account)
An HSA is a high deductible medical plan that includes a tax deferred savings account.
The money from the savings account can be used to:
help meet the deductible
help pay early hospitalization/medical expenses
used towards personal retirement savings
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