When I worked at a hospital (15 years ago), indemnity policies were the gold standard. Patients who had them never had to worry about treatment being cut or problems with payments. Indemnity policies, to me, are still the gold standard. Easy, great coverage, and no insurance company interaction. Why have they been phased out? Two reasons, but both are from the same animal: GREED. Insurance companies found that by using HMOs they could control things far better. They could cut coverage, cut authorizations, cut services, and make things all around more difficult for providers and subscribers in the hope that if things are difficult enough, people will just give up. However, providers are not blameless. Over billing, double billing, fraudulent billing, and keeping a patient for longer than necessary milked the insurance industry. Change needed to happen What I would like to see would be indemnity policies with provider reviews. The reviews, however, are based solely on the recommendations of the provider. Back in the day, there were no reviews at all. This is where the problems occurred. Now, the reviews are insurance company driven, not provider driven. If the provider can show medical need, then there should be no issue. Nowadays, this is not always the case.