What is a copayment?
A copayment is a defined dollar amount a patient pays for medical expenses. With many health insurance plans, a patient pays 100 percent of costs out-of-pocket until they have met their deductible. After meeting the deductible, a patient pays a copayment (often shortened to “copay”).
Your health insurance plan will pay the other 80 percent. If you meet your annual deductible in June, and need an MRI in July, it is covered by coinsurance. If the covered charges for an MRI are $2,000 and your coinsurance is 20 percent, you need to pay $400 ($2,000 x 20%). Your insurance company or health plan pays the other $1,600. How Co-Pay Works. Copay fees vary among insurers but typically are $25 or less. For example, an insurance plan with copays may require the insured to pay $25 per doctor visit or $10 per prescription. Copays and deductibles are both out-of-pocket payments you can expect to make with any health insurance plan. A copay is a common form of cost-sharing under many insurance plans. Copays are a fixed fee you pay when you receive covered care like an office visit or pick up prescription drugs.
Do I pay the same copayment for all types of healthcare services?
No. Health insurance plans set different copay amounts for different types of services, such as an emergency room visit vs. an office visit. For prescription drugs, most plans define different copayments for different categories (formulary tiers) of drugs. For example, a plan might have a $10 copay for a generic drug, $25 for a preferred brand-name drug, $50 for a non-preferred brand-name drug, and $100 for a specialty drug.
Plans may also require a mixture of copayments and coinsurance. For example, you may have a copayment for prescription drugs, but coinsurance for a hospital stay. And, insurance plans sometime “stack” copayments and coinsurance. For example, you might pay a baseline copayment of $100 for a hospital stay plus 20 percent of charges for healthcare services you receive during your stay.
Do copayments vary if I go to an in-network vs. out-of-network provider?
No Copay Health Insurance Meaning Definition
Yes, almost all health insurance plans require the patient to pay more for an out-of-network service. Check your certificate of insurance, certificate of coverage, or summary plan description (SPD) to understand what portion of a given medical expense you will be responsible for paying. Some plans might not cover a service provided by an out-of-network. Others may require the covered individual to pay the difference between charges from an in-network and an out-of-network provider.