Understandin
g health insurance can be a daunting task, never mind reading through pages of policy documentation that is full of insurance terms. We have made a directory to simplify what it all means:
- Certificate of insurance: Sometimes referred to as a membership certificate, this is the documentation you receive from your insurer which summarises your cover. You may have to provide it if you wish to switch to another insurer or make a claim.
- Day patient: To qualify as a day patient, you will typically return home on the same day as your test or procedure and have taken up a bed whilst in hospital.
- Excess: An excess is the amount you agree to pay at the point of claim before the insurance starts to pay out. A higher excess can also sometimes be used to reduce a monthly premium.
- Exclusion: An exclusion is something an insurance company will not cover, and can include a specific condition, a treatment or your selection of hospitals.
- FCA (Financial Conduct Authority): The financial regulatory body in the UK, which regulates the financial markets to ensure that firms treat their customers fairly and act with integrity.
- FOS (Financial Ombudsmen Service): An independent service designed to settle unresolved disputes between businesses providing financial services and their customers.
- Full medical underwriting: Based on your full medical history, this may require a medical exam and doctor’s notes. With full medical underwriting, there is more certainty of what is covered on your policy and what is excluded.
- In-patient: To qualify as an in-patient, you must have been admitted to hospital and spent at least one night in a hospital bed.
- IPT (Insurance premium tax): The tax levied on general insurance premiums for those living in the UK.
- Moratorium underwriting: A simpler and quicker form of underwriting that does not require your full medical history, although it may not cover you for illnesses or conditions that have occurred in the last few years. With this option, it’s important to be completely clear on what your provider considers to be a pre-existing condition.
- NCD (No-claims discount): A discount applied to a premium, typically applied when no claim has been made.
- Out-patient: A patient who visits hospital typically for a diagnostic test or consultation.
- Self-pay: Self Pay Healthcare is used when someone receives private medical treatment and decides to pay their medical bill directly without claiming on their insurance.
- Underwriting: The underwriting of a policy measures the risk of someone’s health which then stipulates the terms and conditions of a policy.