Life can be unpredictable, and a visit to the hospital is not always as far off as we might hope. In fact, there are more than 80 million injury-related visits to doctors' offices, hospital outpatient departments and emergency-treatment facilities in the U.S. each year, according to the Social Security Administration. Not to mention that treatment for these injuries, whether it is minor diagnostic bloodwork or major surgery, can lead to overwhelming medical costs. After a hospital visit, employees are often left having to make a choice between paying medical bills and other every day expenses, such as cell phone bills and car payments, so it's important that employees are prepared for life's uncertainties with products like hospital indemnity insurance. 

What is hospital indemnity insurance?

Employees are likely familiar with health insurance, which pays for specific medical services after deductible or copayment amounts are satisfied. By contrast, they may not understand that hospital indemnity insurance triggers payments when specific events associated with hospital visits occur. An important distinction to help employees grasp is that with hospital indemnity insurance, cash benefits are paid to the insured (unless otherwise assigned) rather than to the doctor or hospital.