Successive Periods

In insurance, successive periods happen when hospital confinements in hospital income protections are considered a portion of the same confinement period because such are due to related or the same grounds and are divided by a smaller amount of a contractually predetermined period.

Hospital income insurance is availed to compensate hospitalization expenses that are not covered in a certain insurance plan, such as costs of private room, phone calls, personal nurse or medical assistance, coinsurance, and deductibles. Child care, meals out, lawn care, house care, and pet care, are the purposes in which the benefits can be employed.

When an insured person is admitted in a hospital, hospital insurance will compensate a benefit. Irrespective of the real expenses incurred, hospital insurance pays, as fixed in the insurance contract, a monthly, weekly, or daily benefit directly to the person insured. Other names for hospital insurance are “hospital indemnity”, “supplemental medical insurance”, and “hospital confinement insurance”.

In case the insured individual is under intensive care, emergency treatment, or cancer confinement, hospital insurance policies normally pay more benefits. Renewable premium rates are offered in this type of insurance, in which the insured cannot be evaluated with a higher premium charge each year if not each person in the category are also charged with higher rates. Once the insured reaches the age 65 or 70, the benefits will be possibly reduced.

Not all states offer hospital income insurance. Well off individuals need not to avail of this indemnity since it is only considered as a supplemental coverage. Thus, any person planning to benefit from such must carefully weigh the impending benefits versus the costs.

Hospital insurance premiums differ for each age because of the varying risks associated. Younger individuals pay lower premiums while older ones shell out higher charges. Hospital insurance can be paid through personal payments or payroll deductions.

In case of a disability, successive periods are regarded as portions of the preceding disabilities if following the receipt of disability benefits covered in such policy, one resumed to work within two constant weeks and became incapacitated again due to the same disease. A 20% loss of a person’s monthly earnings is required to be qualified for successive periods of disability. Thus, the disability’s successive period will be viewed as its new period once an individual returns to his/her job in two incessant weeks. In other words, he/she should finish another elimination cycle in order to be considered eligible for such benefits.

Aside from successive periods, other essential terms embraced in hospital protection insurance are annual administrative fee, attained age, concurrent periods, and pre-existing condition.

Annual administrative fees refer to expenses pertaining to the management of benefit plans for group employees. Attained age represent the insured person’s age for a particular period, since physical examinations are not typically necessitated for younger individuals but are mandatory for older persons. Concurrent periods signify a situation where a patient is admitted to the hospital by reason of multiple illnesses or injuries simultaneously and the paid benefits are made such that the disability is a result of a sole cause only. Pre-existing conditions, in contrast, characterize limitations in a coverage stipulating certain mental or physical conditions not to be covered in the recent policy for a given time, whether those requiring treatment prior to its issuance or those which have been diagnosed previously.