: an organization that provides comprehensive health care to voluntarily enrolled individuals and families in a particular geographic area by member physicians with limited referral to outside specialists and that is financed by fixed periodic payments determined in advance

called also health maintenance organization

Examples of HMO in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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But, if either spouse has family coverage that covers the other spouse via another, non-HDHP health insurance plan such as an HMO or PPO, neither spouse is eligible to contribute to an HSA. Martha C. White, wsj.com, 7 Dec. 2023 About 9,000 of those HMO patients, officials confirmed, are currently assigned to doctors with UC San Diego Health. Paul Sisson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Oct. 2023 Tens of thousands of Kaiser Permanente workers voted to authorize a strike against the HMO if no agreement is reached with their unions by the end of September, union officials announced Thursday. 13,000 workers for Detroit’s Big 3 automakers went on strike over wages and benefits. Helen Li, Los Angeles Times, 15 Sep. 2023 Medicare Advantage plans generally offer a wider range of services such as dental and vision and tend to offer a wide variety of copays and deductibles similar to HMO coverage that companies offer their employees. Paul Sisson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Aug. 2023 The second, a Medicare Advantage Plan HMO, would cost less than half as much and cover the basics plus vision, dental, hearing and prescriptions, but limit me to a prescribed network of doctors. Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times, 12 Aug. 2023 Humana is a Medicare Advantage HMO and PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Jesse Gamez, The Salt Lake Tribune, 22 Nov. 2022

Word History

First Known Use

1971, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of HMO was in 1971

Dictionary Entries Near HMO

Cite this Entry

“HMO.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/HMO. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.

Medical Definition

plural HMOs
: an organization that provides comprehensive health care to voluntarily enrolled individuals and families in a particular geographic area by member physicians with limited referral to outside specialists and that is financed by fixed periodic payments determined in advance

called also health maintenance organization

compare ppo

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