HealthMarkets Announces New HSA-Compatible Plans for Alabama Residents

HealthMarkets Announces New HSA-Compatible Plans for Alabama Residents

North Richland Hills, Texas – May 21, 2007 – HealthMarkets, Inc., (http://www.healthmarkets.com) announced today that its subsidiary, The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company, is launching consumer-guided, HSA-compatible plans in Alabama equipped with industry-leading tools that empower consumers to compare the cost and quality of health care services.

CareOne Select HSA, the new high deductible health insurance plan from MEGA, is compatible with Health Savings Accounts, which offer certain tax advantages to individuals and families.

"Health Savings Accounts have always been a smart way to pay for health care," said Peter Gaillard, Senior Vice President, Product Development at HealthMarkets. "But usually, consumers have had to make decisions without an effective way to evaluate quality or costs. Using the HealthMarkets web tools, insureds can compare one health care provider with another. We make it easy for insureds to find the best value in price and quality."

A Health Savings Account enables consumers to save and pay for qualified medical expenses on a tax-free basis. An HSA must be paired with an HSA-compatible high deductible health insurance plan such as the CareOne Select plan. Neither HealthMarkets nor MEGA underwrites or administers HSAs.

In addition to Alabama, CareOne Select HSA plans were recently introduced in Michigan and Texas, and will eventually be launched in other states and markets.

The web tools that are available with the CareOne Select HSA provide an instantaneous ranking of providers enabling consumers to better understand potential out-of-pocket expenses before they see their health care professional. These tools offer insureds guidance on costs and quality and, if desired, can provide detailed information on more than 20,000 procedures and services offered by 450,000 medical professionals, 4,000 hospitals and 26,000 other ancillary resources such as laboratories, MRI providers and home health care centers.

"If consumers are going to effectively manage their health care dollars, they need to know how much the services are likely to cost them, and how to compare health care providers," Gaillard said.

The CareOne Select HSA plans provide:

  • Access to an information-packed web site using tools that allow insureds to evaluate providers on the basis of relative cost and quality information.
  • A wide choice of deductibles and co-insurance.
  • Optional additional benefits.
  • Automatic third-party review of all hospital bills over $10,000 to check for errors and overcharges

    • CareOne Select HSA-compatible plans are part of the CareOne suite of products offering consumers various options to meet their health insurance needs. CareOne PPO plans offer a more traditional PPO-type plan. CareOne Value plans are designed to fit limited budgets.

    HealthMarkets is a leading provider of affordable health and life insurance to the self-employed, individuals and small businesses through its subsidiaries, The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company, Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of Tennessee and The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company.