Managed care plans:

• A. Are much less common today than they were 50 years ago
• B. Indemnity plan
• C. Preferred provider organization
• D. Combine health insurance and healthcare services

Answer: (D)

Managed care plans are designed to integrate financing with the delivery of care, creating a system where paying for care and providing care happen within one coordinated framework. This means members typically operate within a network of providers, with negotiated rates, care coordination, and utilization management to control costs and ensure appropriate services are delivered.

That integration—combining health insurance with actual healthcare delivery—is what characterizes managed care plans overall. An indemnity plan, by contrast, is a more traditional fee-for-service arrangement where you can generally choose any provider and coverage is based on reimbursements after services are rendered, without the same network-based coordination. A preferred provider organization is a specific type of managed care plan, one that offers a network with some out-of-network flexibility, but it doesn’t define the general concept. The statement that managed care plans combine health insurance and healthcare services best captures the defining feature of these plans.