Health plan terminology can be confusing. So confusing, in fact, that we have state laws restricting the public use of some terminology that can be used to describe and sell health plans. I’m not convinced that even this legislation helps us keep misleading terminology from creeping into the industry.
Normally “health plan” is used to describe an insurance policy. The typical use of “Health Savings” is in association with the term “Health Savings Account” that is a type of deposit account at a financial institution. But in this case the term “Health Savings Plans” has nothing to do with either insurance or deposit accounts. Instead, this term refers to the growing field of discount pricing arrangements available today.
One of the nation’s largest providers of these plans is Careington. Careington was originally known as a national dental network manager. Now Careington’s most popular product is called “Total Health Savings Plan” that combines discount pricing with a telemedicine service. See the Careington product web site for more information.
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