Health insurance supplements for the emergency room and accident related expenses have been around for a long time. These plans are known as indemnity insurance plans and are essentially compensation policies. Plans are not marketed as insurance nor even in the insurance category. This could be a good thing. Emergency room insurance supplements in this category are guarantee approval up to age 70 and can be used with any licensed medical clinic, doctor, hospital ER, or urgent quick care facility. Plans only compensate people for injuries that occurred after the policy was in force and don’t cover sickness or disease related ER bills.

To save some time, here’s an idea of the injury plan compensation levels (indemnity = compensation) and the estimated monthly prices. Note: Family plans are the same price each month regardless of family size. Bigger the family, bigger the payout.

Individual ER Supplement Rate Guideline:

$5,000 Benefit – $24.00 dollars a month
$7,500 Benefit – $29.00 a month
$10,000 Benefit – $36.00 monthly

Family ER Plan Rate Guideline: (prices include everybody; a 3 person family plan is the same monthly price as a 9 person family plan).

$5,000 Benefit – $35.00 dollars a month
$7,500 Benefit – $41.00 a month
$10,000 Benefit – $47.00 monthly

Health insurance plans for the emergency room cover things like:

-Operating room and surgery costs (including anesthesia expense)
-X-Rays and MRI’S (and other diagnostic testing)
-Casts, splints, braces
-General hospital ER related expenses
-In or outpatient surgery expense
-Ambulance charge
-Doctors visits (inpatient and outpatient)
-Prescription drugs
-Dental treatment to damaged teeth (sound natural teeth)
-Hospital room and board

Emergency room insurance supplements work by compensating policy holders up to a predetermined amount per injury or accident less the plan deductible of $100 US dollars. As previously mentioned, typical injury plan benefit amounts available to people in the United States are $2,500, $5,000, $7,500, and $10,000. Whatever benefit level you choose, plan won’t exceed payouts and compensation above the policy face value of ($2,500, $5,000, $7,500, or $10,000 dollars). I’ve found some other plans online with higher accident medical expense coverage but plans included others benefits that where getting away from the straight ER coverage for bodily injury.

Each injury or accident is treated as a totally separate event and the benefits and deductible reset. Deductible is the out of pocket dollar amount you pay before the injury insurance plan pays. Most ER supplements available online have a $100 – $200 US dollar deductible which is low risk compared to major medical deductibles.

Health insurance supplements for the emergency room have many different names depending on who’s marketing brochure you come across. Other names for this clever injury supplement included 24 hour accident coverage, supplemental accident coverage, accident medical expense benefit, and accident medical coverage.

Policies can be used with any doctor or hospital because this is a injury insurance supplement. Policy holders are basically compensated for any doctor or hospital bill resulting from a accidental bodily injury. Depending on which plan you purchase, some personal accident policies pay off the doctor or hospital for you, or they will reimburse you directly once you provide proof of loss (hospital or doctor bill). Plans only pay for injury related expenses that happen after the policy was active.

Two main motives to purchase a ER supplement is to compliment an existing HDHP (high deductible health plan) or to be a personal injury insurance supplement. Health insurance agents in the United States have been packaging these accident only supplements with a HDHP catastrophic style health plan for a long time. A high deductible health plan (HDHP) is exposed to any initial emergency room visit bill. Most catastrophic plans only pick up the hospital bill above and beyond the deductible. Some PPO (preferred provider organization) annual deductibles are $5,000 or $10,000. So the PPO plan really doesn’t help out with the first $5K or $10K unless you purchased an additional “emergency room rider” to cover that initial ER admittance bill. The typical complaint people have with high deductible plans is “my policy doesn’t pay anything.” This concern is from people having to pay the huge deductible out of pocket first before the major medical plan will pay anything.

It’s worth noticing that these accident only plans pay for bodily injury related ER bills and not sickness or disease. If you have a heart attack and are rushed to the ER these plans won’t help. Critical illness supplements exist that cover ER related treatment for things like heart attacks, stroke, and cancer. If your more concerned with covering emergency room related expenses for disease and sickness (heart attack, stroke, cancer), look into critical illness indemnity plans. Critical illness plans are basically supplemental caner and stroke insurance plans.

In short, 24 Hour accident plans can off set that catastrophic plan deductible by compensating for any injury related ER or doctor bills. People are using that accident coverage compensation to pay off the high deductible. Another popular trend is to purchase a ER supplement as a personal accident plan as a “stand alone.”

Another practical use for accident only coverage plans is for kids sports related injuries and as a youth sports insurance supplement. When reviewing the explanation of benefits I noticed that a good accident only plan pays for children organized sports related injuries up to age 18. Kids can stay on a family plan until age 26 (when they can switch to a individual policy) but organized sports related injury expenses are only payable up to age 18. So this style indemnity plan could serve as a youth sports insurance supplement to cover soccer, baseball, football, and other high school sports related accidents. College and professional level sports injuries are not covered and one would want way more accident coverage for professional level sports injuries. A MMA (mixed martial arts) cage fight with Brock Lesnar would need more coverage then the health insurance supplement for the emergency room I’m writing about here.