In the early days, they were often reimbursed by indemnity insurance plans that covered all services when they cared for AIDS patients.
While indemnity insurance plans generally cover most prescription drugs, a 1994 study by the Guttmacher Institute found that only about half of all large group insurance plans cover any of the five contraceptive methods available to women by prescription: oral contraceptive pills, the intrauterine device, Depo Provera, Norplant and the diaphragm.
While almost all traditional indemnity insurance plans provide coverage for some prescription drugs, only about half cover any of the five contraceptive methods available by prescription -- oral contraceptive pills, the intrauterine device, Depo Provera, Norplant and the diaphragm -- all of them prescribed to women.
Analyze the list of dentists in the network: Unlike the indemnity insurance plans, the HMO and PPO plans don't allow you to choose your dentists.
Had most of its customers been enrolled in indemnity plans, Oxford would have suffered a far worse fate.
And employers are continuing to move away from offering traditional indemnity plans, said Bob Braddick of the benefits consultant firm William M. Mercer.
Health care costs for health maintenance organizations will rise 16percentt, while premiums for preferred-provider organizations and traditional indemnity plans will rise 15percentt.
But some critics of managed care say the savings from such restrictions can be realized only once, and that as the years roll on, large rate increases like those in indemnity plans are inevitable.
Other experts cite a second, contradictory dynamic: that managed care has, in fact, failed to cut costs significantly as it offers finicky customers in the New York region a level of choice much more like indemnity plans.
