The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association has published a guide to help health-care providers and patients understand private health insurance.
The guide, released during financial literacy month, was produced with the Extended Healthcare Professionals Coalition, a group that represents medical professionals, including psychologists, physiotherapists, audiologists, occupational therapists, chiropractors and pharmacists, among others. It’s geared toward helping health-care providers understand the services covered through private plans so they can support their patients.
The guide describes the types of benefits plans available to patients through their employers and how these plans work. It also explains health-care spending accounts and outlines many other terms and concepts used by health insurers.
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“In order to provide the best care possible, many health-care providers want to be able to help their patients identify whether coverage is available, the amount of available coverage, what is eligible to be claimed and even [contact] insurance companies on their behalf,” said Stephen Frank, the CLHIA’s president and chief executive officer, in a press release. “The guide is intended to make those questions easier to answer.”
The CLHIA said it plans to update the guide with new information on an as-needed basis and will continue to work with the EHPC on webinars and other tools to explain insurance matters to health-care providers.