Health Insurance Denver-Fee For Service

Fee for service offers the most choices of doctors and hospitals.

You can choose any doctor you wish and change doctors any time. You can also go to any hospital in any part of the country.

As long as your insurance contract includes the service performed, insurance will cover it, but it won't pay the entire charge.

You will have to satisfy an annual deductable-usually a few hundred dollars-before your insurance kicks in.

Then you will owe a portion of each bill, called a co-payment, [Pullout:

] normally 20 percent. If the provider you choose charges unusually high fees, your share may be considerably higher because your insurer will base its 80 percent share on the usual and customary fee for the service in your area, not the actual bill.

As a rule, fee for service only covers illness or accidents; it does not pay for preventative care such as flu shots or birth control. Depending on your policy it may not pay for prescription drugs or psychotherapy.