8 things to know about Integrated Health Care

Let’s discover together the importance of integrated health insurance for the coverage of medical services in the public sector.

Still too many people in Italy do not take advantage of the advantages associated with subscribing to integrated health insurance coverage which allows them to protect themselves when the need arises for having to resort to medical services, even of little importance, but with a significant economic impact.

What is Integrated Healthcare?

This is an insurance dedicated to health which allows you to protect, supplement and cover the expenses linked to public services provided through the National Health Service, in practice the costs of visits, interventions or other treatments are recovered or covered.

Integrated health insurance can be stipulated in various ways, independently, by relying on an insurance intermediary or an insurance company, for employees it can be provided by the company, it falls within the National Collective Labor Agreement of specific categories or of Registers and Associations professionals, it is therefore easy to be able to subscribe to or have at your disposal an important coverage that protects the need for treatment.

What are the benefits of Integrated Health Care Insurance?

Thanks to the supplementary health coverage, it is possible to recover, partially or totally, the expenses incurred for medical visits, health services of various kinds, at structures affiliated with insurance companies, this allows people to access quality medical services guaranteeing everyone patients better services and care.

The guarantee of quality is given by the fact that each facility affiliated with integrated insurance coverage is selected according to a regulation based on specific criteria and requirements in order to create a network with maximum healthcare efficiency.

How many Italians have supplementary health care?

According to various data and surveys, about 80% of Italians do not have supplementary health coverage, among those who have it, the largest share is among the employees of companies that insert it directly into the stipulated contracts.

The majority of supplementary healthcare contracts stipulated in Italy, according to the various researches, highlight the poor coverage for drugs and major interventions, the more widespread protection for more generic, general and more widespread interventions in the area.

How to check if you have Supplementary Health Insurance?

Many people are not aware that they benefit from supplementary health coverage, often because it is included in employment contracts or because it is directly linked to organizations or funds. It can be verified in various ways based on your category.

• Employees: Just consult your pay slip and check the presence of the item “Withholdings for health fund” or “Mutual fund”, if they are not present, the second check is to check the text of the CCNL, it could provide for health coverage, for check it is good to ask the various trade unions or those who manage personnel in the company.
• Freelancers: If you belong to an order or a professional register, it is a good idea to ask the contacts or your accountant to check if there is health coverage or a small business health insurance fund. that provides health care.
• Retirees: Even retirees can be beneficiaries of health coverage even after the working term, an extension could be defined by the contract that can cover and protect even after having reached the well-deserved pension.

The verification can be done by asking the personnel office of the old company for employees, the professional order for professionals or the trade unions.

Who can take advantage of supplementary health coverage?

Supplementary health care can be requested by various categories of workers, both employees and freelancers, specifically there are insurance coverage dedicated to these categories:

Managers, executives, employees and workers, pensioners, while as regards the free profession, the owners, legal representatives, administrators, members of the board of directors, members of the board of statutory auditors, collaborators of a company can use them.

What does supplementary health insurance cover?

There are many medical and health services that are covered by supplementary insurance, which can also be extended to the whole family unit and not just to the individual:

• Hospital services
• High diagnostic performance
• Specialistic examinations
• Diagnostic checks
• Medicines
• Reimbursement of hospital or day hospital expenses, and of expenses incurred during convalescence
• Natural childbirth and cesarean
• Daily allowance for loss of income during hospitalization
• Fees for specialist visits and services
• Spa treatments, physiotherapy treatments, prostheses and orthopedic aids
• Dental services and dental care
• Lenses and eyeglasses
• Medical assistance
• Cardiovascular prevention

How is reimbursement of benefits defined?

For those who have supplementary health coverage, there are two reimbursement options, direct or indirect.

Direct reimbursement takes place when the health services are provided by affiliated facilities with the stipulated insurance coverage, in this case the person only pays any extra expenses not covered by the insurance, on the contrary, the case of indirect reimbursement occurs when the services are provided from non-affiliated facilities, in this case the patient pays the medical expenses in person and then requests full or partial reimbursement based on the stipulated insurance contract.

How do I apply for supplementary health coverage?

Given the advantages, given the types of reimbursement, given who can request or have supplementary health care, for those who start from scratch and need to protect their health, the request for supplementary health coverage can be made directly to insurance companies or bodies in charge, relying on an insurance intermediary like us at CIS Broker.

Like all insurance coverage, even supplementary health coverage can and must be personalized on the basis of everyone’s real needs, our advice is to carefully evaluate each element, among the most classic we speak of coverage for visits, hospitalizations, diagnostic tests, treatments dental and dental services, but they are only a small part of the customization possibilities of each policy.