MHC 6301 Week 5 Assignment 2 Health Maintenance Organization

What Is a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)?
An individual who needs to secure health insurance may find a variety of health insurance providers with unique features. One type of insurance provider that is popular in the health insurance marketplace is a health maintenance organization (HMO), an insurance structure that provides coverage through a network of physicians.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
A health maintenance organization (HMO) is a network or organization that provides health insurance coverage for a monthly or annual fee.
An HMO is made up of a group of medical insurance providers that limit coverage to medical care provided through doctors and other providers who are under contract with the HMO.
These contracts allow for premiums to be lower—since the healthcare providers have the advantage of having patients directed to them—but they also add additional restrictions to HMO members.
HMO plans require that participants first receive medical care services from an assigned provider known as the primary care physician (PCP).
Preferred provider organizations (PPOs) and point-of-service plans (POS) are two types of healthcare plans that are alternatives to HMOs.
How a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) Works
Health maintenance organizations (HMOs) provide health insurance coverage for a monthly or annual fee. An HMO limits member coverage to medical care provided through a network of doctors and other healthcare providers who are under contract with the HMO.1 These contracts allow for premiums to be lower than for traditional health insurance—since the health providers have the advantage of having patients directed to them. They also add additional restrictions to the HMO’s members.2

When deciding whether to choose an HMO insurance plan, you should take into consideration the cost of premiums, out-of-pocket costs, any requirements you may have for specialized medical care, and whether it’s important to you to have your own primary care provider.

An HMO is an organized public or private entity that provides basic and supplemental health services to its subscribers. The organization secures its network of health providers by entering into contracts with primary care physicians, clinical facilities, and specialists. The medical entities that enter into contracts with the HMO are paid an agreed-upon fee to offer a range of services to the HMO’s subscribers. The agreed payment allows an HMO to offer lower premiums than other types of health insurance plans while retaining a high quality of care from its network.

Discussion Questions (DQ)
• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.

Read Also: MHC 6301 Week 4 Assignment 3 Policy Concerns Among Hospitals
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

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Weekly Participation
• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

LopesWrite Policy
• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
o Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
o Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.