The Two Types of Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO’s)

HMO’s can be classified either as: 1) Staff Model HMO, or 2) Individual Practice Associations (IPAs). The first type of HMO is where the physicians who care for you are actually employees of a particular HMO and you would have appointments with them at a designated medical facility. IPA’s do not employ physicians directly, but instead contract them for their services. With this structure, you may have medical appointments at the various offices of the physicians within the network.