Assignment

Assignment

Identify and discuss the five types of health plans and their characteristics.

There are different health plans designed by different non-profit organizations but the five types of health plans are as following:

Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) - the HMO is the widest range of medical benefits providing traditional plan. It also provides the benefits of taking drugs which other health plans do not offer. In this program a panel of doctors and hospitals is listed and people are restricted to go the doctors or hospitals as listed in the panel list. People in HMO have limited access and cost so it does not encourage people to provide cost for the increasing medical cost.

Conventional or Indemnity Plans- These plans are also called conventional or traditional and they provide a wide range to its healthcare providers in terms of the doctors and the hospitals. HMO's restrict their users for accessing the doctors or hospitals but indemnity plans provide a range to the people to select the best health care provider on the basis of the services and the amount of cost efficiency.

POS Plans- It is a hybrid for of the HMO plan in which people are allowed to take healthcare facilities outside the panel list. The cost is often more when healthcare facilities are provided outside the organization. The increasing cost is deductible and the amount of charges is subject to approval. A certain percentage amount is approved which is paid to the employer and the rest amount is to be bearded by the company on their own.

PPOs Plan- are also an out-of-network service plan that allows the users to get health care facilities from doctors or hospitals not included in the panel list. The only difference between POS and PPO plans is that the percentage of amount approved by the health care organization is paid and the amount left for the service is paid by the user.

High Deductible Health Plans with Saving Options Plan- this is more of a consumer directed health plan that provides saving options for the customers. These plans are recently introduced and their main aim is to involve the customers more in selecting the healthcare plan which is cost effective. The increasing cost containment has increased the market share of HDHP/SO plans dramatically. Many of the plans like HMO and PPO are linked to the HDHHP/SO plans due to their conventional approach.

Describe and discuss the differences between financial and managerial accounting.

Accounting has two main branches that are called financial accounting and managerial accounting. Financial accounting use information provided through different financial statements and helps the decision makers in taking financial decisions for the firm's future. The financial information represented in the financial statements help the organization in making internal and external decisions of the firm. It enables the management to have an analysis of the financial performance of the firm during a fiscal year. It also helps the firm to analyze that whether more investment is needed, are all the assets providing profits for the organization and ...