Secondary Insurance | Meaning and Definition

What is secondary insurance?

If an employee’s health insurance plan covers a person working in an organization, and if they are in need to choose another health insurance plan, then the first insurance plan will be considered the primary health insurance plan, and the second will be the secondary insurance plan.

The secondary insurance plan helps employees claim medical care once their primary plan is exhausted. Otherwise, if the employees are in need of cover, what are those that were not covered by the primary insurance.

Supplemental insurance or secondary insurance applies to some of the following areas.

Ø  If the primary insurance is not completely covered in the vision care, the employees can use the secondary insurance.

Ø  Secondary insurance can be claimed for dental care treatments like routine check-ups, preventive, and other types of dental care treatments.

Ø  Secondary insurance can be claimed for critical care like cancer, disability, etc.

Why is it needed?

It is needed in place when you have exhausted your primary insurance, and you need to cover or claim more; then, the secondary insurance will be very helpful for you during your financial shortage.

For example, if a person got admitted to the hospital due to an accident, the primary insurance covered most of the treatment, including the hospital care. But the person needs more physical therapy treatment to be completely alright. The primary insurance could not cover all, and in this case, he can avail of the secondary insurance for his additional treatment.

According to the rule of thumb, the primary insurance must be covered first, and then the secondary insurance must be claimed. There might be better policies or plans in the secondary insurance, and one may wish to claim the secondary insurance first. But that is not possible in the case of insurance plans.