First Choice Health Insurance

Few things in life are free. This includes your addiction and mental health treatment. As a result, you’ll need to either use health insurance to pay for your treatment or find a way to pay for it out-of-pocket. If you have a policy with First Choice Health Insurance and you’re looking to learn more about it in regards to addiction rehab, allow us to help you here at Free by the Sea.

What is First Choice Health Insurance?

First Choice Health Insurance is a physician and hospital-owned health insurance company that serves people in the Washington and Northwest area of the United States. First Choice Health Insurance is also an alternative to traditional health insurance.

Thus, to compete, it makes sure to provide high-quality and personalized healthcare resources and services at an affordable price. In doing this, First Choice Health Insurance provides its members with access to providers in a growing PPO network, data-driven health plan administration, medical management services, and an Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

First Choice also provides its clients and members with a behavioral health program and directory. In providing these services, First Choice aims to provide health benefit administration and provider network solutions for the United States’ Northwest.

What is a PPO Network?

PPO stands for “preferred provider organization”. A PPO offers a network of healthcare providers that people can use for their medical care. All of the providers within a preferred provider organization network agree to provide healthcare coverage at a certain rate. The purpose of a PPO plan is to provide high-quality healthcare provider options that are also affordable.

What is an HMO Plan?

HMO stands for “health maintenance organization”. An HMO is a healthcare company with its own network of doctors, hospitals, and healthcare providers. Health maintenance organizations agree to provide medical care for people at a certain level of pay. The purpose of an HMO is to provide high-quality health insurance that’s still affordable.

PPO vs. HMO

While both HMO and PPO plans help their customers receive quality healthcare at affordable prices, the two do differ. Some of the areas of health insurance where HMOs and PPOs differ include premiums, copays, coinsurance, and out-of-pocket expenses.

Premiums

The premium of a health insurance plan is the amount of money that you must pay every month to maintain the insurance. Premiums of HMO s tend to be lower than that of PPOs. Although the premiums of HMOs are lower than PPOs, their provider networks are more restrictive. As a result, people with HMOs must only use a primary care physician.

Copays, Coinsurance, and Out-of-Pocket Expenses

Copays and coinsurance are the payments that people make for their medical care once their insurance companies have covered everything that they can and the people have reached their deductibles. Out-of-pocket costs are the amount of money that people pay on their own for medical care.

The copays, coinsurance, and out-of-pocket costs of HMOs are also slightly more affordable than those of PPOs. In exchange for being slightly higher in cost than HMOs, PPOs provide way more healthcare provider options. In fact, PPO plans allow its members to use in-network and out-of-network healthcare providers.

That means that you can use any doctor at any hospital under a preferred provider organization healthcare plan. You will save money though if you use in-network PPO healthcare providers. This is unlike health maintenance organization plans that require you to choose a primary care physician. In fact, HMO plans require their members to get a referral from their primary physician anytime that they go to another doctor or specialist.

Most companies that provide health insurance benefits for their employees do so in the form of PPO plans. This just adds to the reasons why PPO plans are more flexible and desirable than HMO plans.

PPO Network at First Choice Health Insurance

First Choice Health Insurance began as a PPO, or Preferred Provider Organization, in 1985 in Seattle and its surrounding areas. It then expanded to serve all of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and the entire rest of the U.S. Northwest.

All of the healthcare facilities and professionals under a First Choice Health Insurance PPO plan provide high-quality medical care to FCHI network members at lower costs. First Choice Health Insurance PPO plans even provides self-funded employers with healthcare services.

Health Plan Administration at First Choice Health Insurance

First Choice Health Insurance takes the healthcare plans that they make for self-funded employers seriously. That’s why it specializes in third-party claims administration, in-depth data analysis, and cost containment as it pertains to their health plan administration.

First Choice Health Insurance also incorporates integrated solutions and customized services into its self-funded healthcare plans. Ultimately, when it comes to their health plan administrations for self-funded employers, First Choice’s goal is to provide each employer with specialized high-quality healthcare at an affordable cost.

First Choice Health Insurance Medical Management Services

First Choice Health Insurance has been offering medical management services to its members for over 30 years now. Through its medical management services, First Choice can handle all specialized case management programs, review provider billing practices via claims review, and provide countless cost-saving strategies and services for its clients and patients. First Choice even provides actionable predictive modeling data that identifies the health trends of its clients and their employees.

First Choice Health Insurance Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

First Choice Health Insurance has had its own Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for over 15 years. Through its Employee Assistance Program, First Choice Health Insurance helps the employers that it services keep their employees healthy. By keeping the workforce of various companies healthy, FCHI is also helping these companies maintain a high level of productivity.

Some of the services that First Choice Health Insurance offers in its Employee Assistance Program include health assessments and referrals, general clinical support, and crisis healthcare services. The industries that the employers work in that First Choice Health Insurance provides healthcare services to include everything from healthcare, to local government, to education, to finance, and more.

First Choice Health Insurance for Behavioral Health

First Choice Health Insurance for your healthcare company is that it actively values addiction and mental health treatment. Therefore, you don’t need to worry about FCHI not offering addiction or mental health benefits or services.

In fact, First Choice contains its own Behavioral Health Program. Through its Behavioral Health Program, First Choice Health Insurance members can learn about the care options that they have for addiction or mental health treatment. In fact, First Choice even has its own behavioral health case managers.

The First Choice case managers are also licensed counselors. Thus, they can provide high-quality case management for members who suffer from specific mental health and substance abuse disorders.

First Choice Health Insurance also provides its members with a directory that’s filled with behavioral health facilities throughout the U.S. that are in the FCHI provider network. That way, it’s easy for First Choice members to find affordable places to treat their mental health and substance use disorders.

How to Pay for Addiction and Mental Health Treatment Without Insurance

If for some reason you don’t have First Choice Health Insurance or any other form of health insurance, you may need to find other options for payment. There are various ways to get the money to do that. Some of the ways are described below.

Borrow Money: One way to get the money to pay for addiction or mental health treatment without health insurance is to borrow money from your loved ones. Suffering from addiction or mental illness not only puts a strain on yourself, but it also puts a strain on the relationships that you have with your family and friends. Thus, your close family and friends are probably dying for you to get the treatment that you need. Therefore, some of your loved ones may be willing to offer you money to pay for your treatment.

Fundraise or Crowdfund: Another way that you can get the money to pay for addiction or mental health treatment is by crowdfunding or putting on a fundraiser. The fundraiser can be in person or over the internet.

Get a Grant or Loan: You may be able to get a personal, private, or healthcare loan to pay for your addiction and mental health treatment. You can even get a grant. Because a grant doesn’t accrue debt, try getting a grant first. Then if that doesn’t work, try getting a loan.

Pay Out-of-Pocket: If all else fails, you can use the money that you have in your savings account or your credit card to pay for addiction treatment out-of-pocket. Although this isn’t ideal, it’s better than not receiving addiction or mental health treatment at all.

Addiction and Mental Health Treatment at Free by the Sea is Worth the Cost

At Free by the Sea, we provide a wide variety of addiction treatment and therapy programs. To pay for these treatment programs, you can use insurance or not use insurance. When it comes to paying for addiction treatment and therapy through insurance, there are numerous in-network insurance providers that we accept. One of these health insurance providers is First Choice Health Insurance. To learn more about the other forms of insurance that we accept here at Free by the Sea, contact us today.