A health maintenance organization (HMO) is an organization that provides or arranges managed care for health insurance, self-funded health care benefit plans, individuals and other entities in the United States as a liaison with health care providers (hospitals, doctors, etc.) on a prepaid basis. The Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973 required employers with 25 or more employees to offer federally certified HMO options if the employer offers traditional healthcare options. Unlike traditional indemnity insurance, an HMO covers care rendered by those doctors and other professionals who have agreed by contract to treat patients in accordance with the HMO's guidelines and restrictions in exchange for a steady stream of customers. HMOs cover emergency care regardless of the health care provider's contracted status.
Read more about Health Maintenance Organization: Operation, Cost Containment, History, Types of HMOs, Regulation, Legal Responsibilities, Organizations
Famous quotes containing the words health, maintenance and/or organization:
“While I am to crawl upon this Planet, I would willingly enjoy the health at least of an insect.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“It is an injustice that an old, broken, half-dead father should enjoy alone, in a corner of his hearth, possessions that would suffice for the advancement and maintenance of many children.”
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“The methods by which a trade union can alone act, are necessarily destructive; its organization is necessarily tyrannical.”
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