Eliz Chan

Review of Preferred Medical Plan, Inc.

I've been a Preferred Medical Plan (PMP) member fo...

I've been a Preferred Medical Plan (PMP) member for probably a decade now. Every member pays the same monthly premium depending on your age and the plan you choose. At the time that I signed up with them, they had only two plans (Plan A and Plan B) which makes it easy to choose and compare. Plan A is their basic plan and it is also their cheapest plan. Plan B is like Plan A but you also get to use physicians from their expanded network (and you also pay slightly more). From what I know and assume, you don't get to choose your physician for Plan A (thus your appointments will be at clinics with lots of people and possibly long waits and busy physicians); Plan B allows you to choose your Primary Care Physician (PCP) which means one doctor and more personalized care. One thing I don't like about PMP is that it's a local healthcare plan for Miami residents so if I decide to relocate to another city, I won't be covered anymore. Their prescription coverage plan is scanty. I'm always paying a lot for my prescription medications and even Walgreen's $20/year prescription coverage plan saves me more money than PMP. The premiums keep rising each year too! I'm always getting a packet in the mail informing me that my premium is increasing on my birthday. The older you are, the more you pay in monthly premium. On the plus side, physician visits are only $5 (Plan A) to $10 (Plan B) co-pay per visit and basic preventative healthcare tests like blood/urine/xray are usually free. If you're doing surgery, you have to call them to ask how much the co-payment is (usually a large amount over $100) and either pay it in-person or over the phone. Their websites used to lack information but right now, I just checked, they improved it a lot. It could still use some more features like member log-in accounts, being able to look at your own medical record, etc. but what the site looks like right now is already a big improvement from what it used to be. Another needed improvement is the payment method. They only take payments either by bank check or auto-debit from your checking account. It would be nice if they could take credit cards. I would give this insurance company a three-and-a-half stars. Improvements can still be made.