Sometimes, a health insurance plan will provide specific coverage information for insurance-owned health facilities. These facilities are staffed, funded and operated entirely by an insurance company in an attempt to lower health care costs for plan members. While the care provided by these facilities still requires research, what is known is that they can sometimes reduce the amount of time a member must wait for treatment.

Some health insurance plans require patients to obtain company approval prior to receiving a recommended treatment or medication. While this is most often the case in HMO plans, some PPO plans also require this for more extensive treatments or costly medications. One benefit of company-owned health facilities is that approval can be made instantly rather than over a period of several weeks. Traditional approvals must be hardcopy and mailed to the patient and physician involved. In a health facility, however, the health care provider can pick up the phone and obtain approval directly from the insurance company. In fact, many insurance companies have phone lines dedicated to approvals requested by their health facilities.

Health facilities owned by an insurance company can also ease access to treatment for which pre-approval is not required. As these health facilities are owned by the insurance company and made available only to members, the number of patients seeking treatment in these facilities on a daily basis can be much smaller than public facilities. Potentially, this decrease in patient volume could lead to the patient seeing a doctor or other medical professional faster than if they had gone to non-insurance health facilities.

Another way in which plan owned health facilities can shorten waiting times for members is by enabling access to better treatments. Many health insurance plans require the patient to begin treatment at the lowest possible level, the least expensive and invasive treatment designed to assist with their infirmity. At an insurance-owned health facility, however, individuals might not have to try these options prior to attempting the more extensive treatments. Potentially, this could mean faster treatment.

A health insurance plan might also shorten the amount of time for a patient to obtain medications at one of the health facilities. Sometimes, company-owned health facilities offer pharmacies where the patients can obtain prescribed medications or health supplies immediately after seeing the physician. This can save the wait time for an independent pharmacist to fill the prescription. Additionally, some health facilities permit members to obtain a three month supply of their medication at one time.

Health facilities owned by a health insurance company can provide members with multiple means to shorten their wait for treatments. Because of this, these types of facilities are often more than worthwhile to investigate and try.