HIPAA AND GROUP HEALTH INSURANCE

GROUP INSURANCE – THE HIPAA ADVANTAGE

A person on international individual health insurance returning to the USA can be declined by companies offering US individual insurance. This would almost always be the case if a person was a diabetic, had a developed a cancer problem etc. And most individual international health plans will drop a person from coverage once they change their residence back to the USA. Yet if they were on group health insurance when returning to the USA they could automatically switch to a HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) federally mandated plan and be covered on that plan for the rest of their life. These HIPAA plans are “guarantee issue” which means questions about medical conditions are not even asked on the application. Even though the HIPAA plans are expensive at least a person is insurable and can get insurance which would not be possible if he had individual insurance. Group health insurance coverage opens the door to the HIPAA coverage option.