Outpatient Care

Outpatient Care

Patients who do not require an overnight hospital stay receive outpatient care, which is generally covered by comprehensive policies. Outpatient care could be provided in a doctor’s office, a neighborhood clinic, or in a hospital if the patient is sent home the same day. For example, patients often will come to the hospital the day before surgery so that doctors can perform blood tests. Simple surgeries like a tonsillectomy (a procedure to remove the tonsils) usually can be performed on an outpatient basis. Even very sophisticated surgeries like a cochlear implant (a device used to stimulate the auditory nerve in deaf people) often do not require a hospital stay. To encourage patients to make cost-effective use of the health care system, health insurance plans—particularly managed care plans—often include financial incentives to use outpatient services whenever possible.

Treatment of mental illness is commonly performed on an outpatient basis, but insurance coverage is often limited for such services as psychotherapy. For example, private insurers generally pay 80 percent of the cost of most outpatient medical services, but they traditionally limit reimbursement for psychotherapy to 50 percent or less of its cost. Also, many insurers limit their coverage of psychotherapy to a specified maximum dollar amount or to a maximum number of visits.

Many insurance policies will offer coverage of health care performed in the patient’s home by an approved medical provider. Home health care benefits are generally limited to medically necessary services that are part of a treatment plan prescribed by the patient’s doctor. Some policies also cover hospice care that allows a terminally ill patient to receive health care services at home or in an approved hospice center instead of in a hospital.


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