I was having some difficulties understanding what my health insurance actually was. I wasn’t sure how to map my health insurance to the primary keys required to identify it. I knew it was from United Healthcare, but wasn’t sure of the plan, or other jargon on my card. I’ve come to the following understanding for health insurance primary keys required is (carrier, plan, plan type). Where carrier is the company that you receive your health insurance from, and plan is the set of services that you’re insured for. Finally, plan type is what managed care type your plan is, which is how does your plan restrict what providers you’re insured for.
In my case, I’m with United Healthcare Oxford (NYC company Oxford that was bought out but name kept due to “prestigious” brand value), the plan type is Oxford Health Insurance (OHI non-gated INN/OON), and the plan type is Preferred Provider Organization (PPO). The set of providers that’s are INN are in the Freedom Network, and the underwriter (assessing risk/cost of providing health insurance) is Oxford Health Insurance, Inc.