Gap Insurance Trend Protects Employees from Crippling Out-of-Pocket Costs and Offers Clinical Laboratories New Method to Receive Payments
Medical laboratory and pathology groups could benefit from trend by receiving payments for testing services from secondary payer rather than directly from patient
As high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) become the norm for more Americans, gap insurance is being touted as an innovative way to protect consumers from crippling healthcare costs. This added insurance protection is proving attractive to a growing number of patients with HDHPs.
Use of gap plans by more patients also could benefit clinical laboratories and pathology groups. That’s because patients with HDHPs who would normally be required to pay 100% of their lab testing charges until their annual deductible is met, would be covered for these costs because of their gap insurance. In these situations, labs would have a secondary insurer to bill until the annual deductible was met. (more…)
