The best way to determine the good and the not so good aspects of HMO insurance plans is to compare them with traditional health insurance coverage. The decision to enroll in an HMO plan should be based on your specific needs. If you are considering buying health insurance online, there are some important things to know before you do.

One important difference between HMOs and traditional insurance is what is known as incentives. Traditional insurance tends to encourage maximum treatment services such as tests, scans, medications etc. because payments to the practice are based on the services prescribed by the physician. More services mean more money to the doctor. This often leads to more care than is necessary.

HMOs physicians receive a fixed payment from the insurance company each month regardless of services rendered. Naturally, the incentive is to provide the least possible care or at least, the least expensive approach to care for the particular condition or set of symptoms. The motivation can be less about care and more about reducing costs.

Traditional plans allow the policy holder to visit the doctor of his choice or one within a wide range of practitioners and specialists. HMOs by contrast, allow only visits to designated doctors and require a referral for access to a specialist. If a patient experiences severe pain breathing, he cannot make an appointment with a pulmonologist. He must first see his HMO primary care giver and obtain a referral. Although most of the doctors in an HMO plan are well qualified, some are not. You do not know if the best possible care is available from your HMO plan. There have been instances of HMOs not providing needed care due to the high cost of that care.

Another significant difference is that traditional coverage allows, in fact encourages all available diagnostic testing when any doubt exists regarding symptoms. HMO care, on the other hand, requires the physician to consider the "odds" of a particular diagnosis. In other words, the odds of a tumor being the cause of recurring headaches is far less than any number of other causes; all of which are relatively simple to diagnose and treat. Tests for tumors are expensive. The HMO will not prescribe the costly tests because the odds are that the cause is more commonplace. This is the practice that leads to the horror stories that make the evening news.

When researching health insurance online or enrolling in an HMO plan, remember; the best aspect of the HMO is lower premiums. The worst is the lack of control and the concern that you may not be receiving the best possible care.