PacifiCare Health Insurance Company

PacifiCare Health Insurance Company is a subsidiary of United Healthcare, a long-standing insurance provider known across the United States (click here to read the full United Healthcare review). PacifiCare has been doing business under the PacifiCare name for 25 years and is well-known in its provider areas for its comprehensive rider plans than can be added on to any of the standard plans that PacifiCare offers.

PacifiCare Health Insurance Company also offers comprehensive insurance plans in several states and innovative insurance approaches so that they can offer a broader range of services for different budget levels.

Read through this PacifiCare review, browse the customer ratings and reviews of PacifiCare Health Insurance, and then use the free quote tool on the right side of this page to compare insurance quotes from multiple health insurance providers and find the plan that best meets your needs.

PacifiCare Health Insurance Plans

PacifiCare has five plans that they offer to their customers. They are called the Pacificare SignatureValue HMO plan, the SignaturePOS plan, the SignatureElite PPO plan, the PacifiCare Independence Indemnity plan and the SignatureFreedom SDHP plan.

PacifiCare SignatureValue HMO Plan

Each plan offers its own benefits to consumers. For example, the PacifiCare SignatureValue HMO plan offers one of the most affordable options for customers. With the SignatureValue plan you have to work within a network of doctors and hospitals and choose a primary care physician (the amount you can choose from will vary by region), and you are not allowed to use a doctor or hospital outside of your network unless there is an acceptable emergency for doing so. You also have to have an approved referral to see a specialist on this plan. While there is not a lot of flexibility, this plan offers affordability and PacifiCare networks have several thousand doctors to choose from.

PacifiCare Signature POS Plan

The PacifiCare Signature POS plan offers a lot more flexibility to users; however, this flexibility comes at a higher cost. Many people still find that POS plans are very affordable, however. With PacifiCare’s POS plan you still work within a network of doctors and hospitals and you have to choose a primary care physician; however, you can be self-referred for any specialist you need to see and you can also visit doctors and hospitals out of your network if you are willing to pay the difference between the allowed cost and actual cost of your visit.

PacifiCare SignatureElite PPO Plan

For the SignatureElite PPO plan, you have a much wider variety of doctors to choose from within the network. You will also be allowed to choose from more hospitals as well. Additionally, you do not have to choose a primary care physician, which makes it easy for you to change doctors if you are unhappy with your care for any reason. You also have access to out of network coverage under the same terms as the POS plan.

PacifiCare SignatureIndependence Plan

The SignatureIndependence plan is an indemnity plan that offers you full flexibility on what doctor you see, what hospital you go to and when you see a specialist. However, most indemnity plans do not cover pre-existing conditions, which is very important for many people, and it is much more costly than other plans. You can reduce the cost of this indemnity plan by choosing a high deductable, lower caps on the services that you receive or choosing only to receive specific services such as basic medical care or hospital care only.

PacifiCare SignatureFreedom SDHP Plan

Finally, PacifiCare offers their innovative SignatureFreedom SDHP plan. SDHP stands for self-directed health care plan. A self-directed plan allows you to place a ceiling on the amount of money that will be paid out for specific coverage. For example, you could choose your routine services to cap out at $5,000 a year. This means that you can visit your physician and incur costs of up to $5,000. After the cap has been met you then pay for any additional services out of pocket. You can opt to pay deductibles and coinsurance to help manage your yearly costs so that you do not cap put too soon.

Acute and chronic care is managed in much the same way. You choose the coverage you want and a cap is put on that coverage based on the regional average of that coverage. For example, if you have a heart attack and, in your region, the average cost for treating a single incidence of a heart attack is $40,000, then that will be your maximum coverage, any additional costs will be paid out of pocket.

For catastrophic care services the plan works a little differently. Rather than there being a cap on services, if you need catastrophic care and you use a facility that is contracted with PacifiCare to provide those services then there will be no maximum cap for those services. However, if you use a hospital outside of the contracted network, then regional maximums will apply to your services.

Your premiums for this plan will be based on the coverage choices that you make as well as the caps on each of the services. PacifiCare allows you to apply unused amounts of money for services from one year to the next (kind of like rollover minutes, only it is money), which encourages people to use care when electing to see a doctor or have procedure done. Some services in this plan, such as emergency room visits are treated like a PPO and deductibles and coinsurance will apply.

PacifiCare Network Coverage Area

While PacifiCare is a subsidiary of United Healthcare, PacifiCare is only licensed to offer coverage in eight states. These states are Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and Washington. PacifiCare offers healthcare solutions to individuals as well as businesses of any size and offers flexible spending accounts for employers to offer to their employees.

PacifiCare Supplemental Insurance

PacifiCare plans do not automatically include dental, vision or prescriptions, however riders can be added to insurance polices to include these plans. PacifiCare also offers riders that offer chiropractic coverage, behavioral health coverage and life insurance coverage.

Compare PacifiCare Health Insurance Quotes

Choosing the right insurance plan can be confusing and so can choosing the right insurance company. The best way to ensure that you are getting the best rates is to do a rate comparison by using the free, no obligation quote tool found on this page. You can compare your PacifiCare health insurance quotes with other quality insurance companies and see who offers the best prices for the plan that you need. A side-by-side comparison also saves you time as you will not have to refer to several different websites to compare quotes and you will only have to fill out forms one time.

In this day and age no one can afford to be without health care coverage and with so many price points and coverage options, there is no reason for you to continue to go without it. Take some time to review the options that PacifiCare and other carriers have to offer and then compare them with a quote. With the cost of healthcare, without healthcare coverage, you could be risking your financial future. Why not start now by typing your zip code into the box above?