Services offered by California health insurance companies
There are many excellent California health insurance companies. Some important insurance carriers are Aetna, Blue shield of California, PacifiCare, Kaiser Permanente, Health Net and Anthem Blue Cross etc. Let’s discuss about some of them:
Aetna of California offers variety of plans for individuals; families and self employed as well as life, dental, disability insurance, pharmacy benefits and various other programs for its members nationwide. Its membership includes over 15 million individual health members, over 15 million group health members, over 13 million dental members. It has a huge network base with over 767,000 health care professionals and 4,467 hospitals. Aetna was formed in 1850 named as Aetna Life insurance company in Hartford, CT. It was started as a small regional company which has flourished to 50 US states and also provides Medicare and individual health benefits in many states. The plans that they offer has wide variety of choices ranging from high deductible HSA compatible plan, deductible plans, co-payment for doctor visits and prescription and basic hospital only plans.
Cigna Health of California is 200+ years old and dates back to 1792 where a group of citizens in Philadelphia formed the Insurance Company of North America. They work on group, Health care and International plans. It also provides individual, life, disability, dental, accident and supplemental insurance products for individuals, families, self employed, small and large groups. Cigna offers Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) plans wherein members are given the freedom to choose a primary care physician (PCP) within the network. This PCP is then responsible for your care unless they refer you to another specialist that participates in the CIGNA HMO network. CIGNA also offers Preferred Provider Organization (PPO), indemnity and point of service (POS) networks in certain areas as well. In these types of plans, members can visit any doctor and they do not require you to choose a PCP. Out of network expenses are covered as well even if it is a non emergency situation. Other added benefits include they offer 24 hour access to health information, member discounts, support for chronic conditions, personal assistance etc.
Kaiser Permanente of California was started in 1933 and has been providing quality health care to Californians for many years. This insurance company was started for a few thousand people in Los Angeles which grew to become a billion dollar company that now covers insurance for state of California and also other 10 states. It has grown to become the nation’s largest non-profit HMO with close to 9 million members nationwide. Some added benefits that Kaiser Permanente offers its Californian members are family planning, first post partum visit, eye exams, chiropractic office visits, allergy infection visits and immunizations.
Blue Shield of California, an independent member of the Blue Shield Association, is a not-for-profit health plan dedicated to providing Californians with access to high quality care at a reasonable price. Founded in 1939, it now has 3.2 million members, 4,500 employees, one of the largest provider networks and more than 20 office locations, providing a wide range of commercial and government products throughout the state. The company contributes $30 million annually to the Blue Shield of California Foundation to fund nonprofit organizations that improve access to quality health care in California.
