Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Vs. InHealth Mutual: Who's Better?

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• published: 15 Oct 2015
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Next Step: http://hubs.ly/H01ndv70 Read Full Post: http://www.giangolainsurance.com/blog/anthem-blue-cross-blue-shield-vs-inhealth-mutual Anthem and InHealth Mutual Policy and Plan Comparisons Now that we got through the boring history lesson, it’s time to start comparing these two health insurance heavy weights on something you actually care about, their health insurance plans. Anthem quantity possibly over quality. They have 13 plans available to purchase inside and out of the health insurance marketplace. Bronze - 6 Silver - 7 Gold - 1 Platinum - 0 Catastrophic - 1 Here’s a complete list of the plans Anthem will offer in 2016: Anthem Bronze Pathway X PPO 0 HSA Anthem Bronze Pathway X PPO 5000 30 Anthem Bronze Pathway X PPO 6400 20 Anthem Bronze Pathway X PPO 4300 20 Anthem Bronze Pathway X PPO 5550 20 Anthem Silver Pathway X PPO 3500 25 Anthem Silver Pathway X PPO 3000 10 Anthem Silver Pathway X PPO 10 for HSA Anthem Silver Pathway X PPO 2000 20 Anthem Silver Pathway X PPO 3500 0 Anthem Silver Pathway X PPO 2000 15 Anthem Silver Pathway X PPO 2500 10 Anthem Gold Pathway X PPO 1250 10 NOTE: The “X” in the plan name will only show up if you purchase it from healthcare.gov. That means if you buy one of these plans directly from Anthem there will be no X in the name. InHealth will have nine total plans (Inside and Out of the Marketplace) available for you to choose from in 2016. Bronze - 2 Silver - 3 Gold - 3 Platinum - 0 Catastrophic - 1 Here’s the complete list of plans they will offer. 2016 Bronze 1 2016 Bronze 2 HSA 2016 Silver 1 2016 Silver 2 HSA 2016 Silver 3 HSA 2016 Gold 1 2016 Gold 2 2016 Gold 3 HSA Both companies have changed most of their deductibles to be “Embedded” (except InHealth’s 2016 Gold 3 HSA). This means instead of paying a $8,000 total family deductible they will allow you to split that amount in half for two $4,000 deductible per family. That comes in handy if only one person in your family receives a lot of medical treatment during the year. Overall Anthem obviously has more choices, but their extra offerings are more self-indulgent than anything. InHealth’s portfolio provides the same amount of choice more efficiently, except for the Silver 2 HSA. Anthem and InHealth Mutual Doctor/Hospital Network Differences This is an area where the student becomes the teacher. Anthem’s network can’t even start a rumor that it can compare with InHealth’s. Anthem’s approach since the start of Obamacare in 2014 is to limit your choice of doctors and hospitals. InHealth on the other hand has assembled arguably the best network in Ohio. To make matters even worse for Anthem, their network got even smaller with their new HMO plans. Anthem’s Pathway and Pathway X HMO network only includes the following hospital systems for each region in Ohio: Cleveland/Akron: Metro Health Medical Center Western Reserve Hospital Columbus: Mt. Carmel East Mt. Carmel West Mt. Carmel New Albany Diley Ridge Mt. Carmel St. Anns Fairfield Medical Center Fayette County Hospital Madison County Hospital Nationwide Children's Dayton: Kettering Health Network (Includes Greene Memorial, Soin, Fort Hamilton and Grandview/Southview) Ohio Valley Medical Center Clinton Memorial Hospital Beavercreek Medical Center Dayton Children’s Hospital Wilson Memorial Hospital If you don’t see your hospital on that list then that means you won’t be able to go there under the HMO plan. I’ll put it to you this way, if you can easily list all the hospital networks your plan covers, you might be in trouble. Normally networks are so big you have to list the places that aren’t covered, not the other way around. The biggest risk you run going with a HMO plan or smaller network is not being able to see a top specialist at a competing hospital system if needed. As you will see in the next section, if there was a significant financial savings to justify that risk, I might allow it. However, nine times out of 10 there isn’t. As for InHealth, outside of Medical Mutual, you won’t be able to find a network that can come close to what they are offering.