HIPAA	HMO	Medicaid	Medicare	PCP	PPO	Pre-Existing
HIPAA: Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act. The purpose of HIPAA is to improve efficiency in the delivery of health care by creating and enforcing standards for electronic data interchange and to protect the confidentiality and security of health information to be adapted nation wide. Also contains provisions designed to ensure that enrollees in a group health plan are not discriminated against based on health status. HMO: Health Maintenance Organization. [Managed Care] Prepaid health plans. Designated doctors and hospitals must be used to receive the benefits of an HMO. You pay a monthly premium and the HMO covers your doctors' visits, hospital stays, emergency care, etc. Medicaid: Health care for the needy and disabled. A federally and state funded program for qualifying persons without insurance. Medicare: Health care for the aged. A federally administered system of health insurance available to qualifying persons aged 65 and over. PCP: Primary Care Physician. Your main doctor for health care. Could be an internal medicine doctor, family physician or sometimes for women, their gynecologist. They monitor your health and diagnose and treat health problems. If another degree of care is needed, they refer you to a specialist. PPO: Preferred Provider Organization. [Managed Care] Participating providers at reduced costs. The benefits of using a PPO is you have a larger part of your medical expenses covered. Using non PPO doctors and hospitals results in you having to pay higher costs Pre-existing condition: A medical condition that existed before a health insurance policy was issued.