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The Managed Care Answer Guide is designed to help people make decisions about choosing a health care plan. The Answer Guide is also designed to assist consumers in understanding parts of their health care plan that may be confusing as they make health insurance choices.

Finally, a section is included for those people who are insured and find out they have cancer or another serious disease. This section helps explain what questions to ask of their current health insurance company.

You may view it as printed by downloading the pdf version, or you may view it through your browser using the links below. Note: This document in pdf format requires Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to be viewed properly. You can download it from Adobe's website by clicking the PDF icon.

There are three parts in the Managed Care Answer Guide:

• PART I entitled Understanding Managed Care Terminology: A Reference Manual, is a dictionary of selected health insurance and medical terms to aid those searching for a health plan and for reference after choosing a plan.
• PART II entitled A Consumer Guide to Selecting an Insurance Plan, deals with questions to be asked before choosing a plan and may help people make an informed decision. Selected criteria to use in evaluating plans is included in this section.
• PART III entitled Understanding the Provisions of Your Plan, assists people after they find out they have a serious medical condition. Certain problems prompt some common questions to ask the insurance company.

Purchasing a health care plan is a major decision and usually an expensive one. Consumers must become as informed as possible in order to choose a health plan that is best for themselves and their families, and also to use health care insurance to their best advantage.

It is our hope that this publication will serve as an educational resource and reference guide to those in need of specific answers and general information about the complicated and ever-changing world of managed health care. However, this should not substitute for an in-depth discussion about your specific concerns with a health-care insurance specialist.