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MALPRACTICE INSURANCE
Professional liability coverage for physicians, lawyers, and other specialists against suits alleging negligence or errors and omissions that have harmed clients.

MALPRACTICE REFORM
Proposed changes may include required arbitration and limits to the amount of attorney's fees.

MANAGED CARE
Term used to describe the coordination of financing and provision of health care to produce high-quality health care for the lowest possible cost. A system that imposes control on the utilization of medical services and on the providers who renders the care. Managed care is provided through managed indemnity plans; Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs), Exclusive Provider Organizations (EPOs), Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), or any other cost management environment.

MANAGED COMPETITION
Proposed system in which the government restricts the consumer to purchasing insurance from government-approved carriers.

MANAGED INDEMNITY
Use of utilization controls in traditional fee-for-service health insurance plans in order to reduce cost and inappropriate care.

MANDATE
A specific procedure or coverage that a plan or insurance contract must offer dictated by state or federal law.

MANDATED BENEFITS
Health care coverage required by state and federal law to be included in health insurance contracts.

MANUAL
A book published by an insurance or bonding company or a rating association or bureau that gives rates, classifications, and underwriting rules.

MARINE INSURANCE
Coverage for goods in transit, and for the commercial vehicles that transport them, on water and over land. The term may apply to inland marine but more generally applies to ocean marine insurance. Covers damage or destruction of a ship’s hull and cargo and perils include collision, sinking, capsizing, being stranded, fire, piracy, and jettisoning cargo to save other property. Wear and tear, dampness, mold, and war are not included. (See Inland marine insurance, Ocean marine insurance )

MATURITY DATE
(1) For endowment in insurance, the date on which an insurer will pay the face amount of an endowment policy to the policy owner if the insured is still living. (2) In investing, the date on which a bond issuer must repay to the bondholder the amount originally borrowed. (3) For an annuity, the date on which the insurer begins to make annuity payments. Also known as income date.

MCCARRAN-FERGUSON ACT
Federal law signed in 1945 in which Congress declared that states would continue to regulate the insurance business. Grants insurers a limited exemption from federal antitrust legislation.

MEDIATION
Nonbinding procedure in which a third party attempts to resolve a conflict between two other parties.

MEDICAID
A federal/state public assistance program created in 1965 and administered by the states for people whose income and resources are insufficient to pay for health care.

MEDICAL INFORMATION BUREAU
See MIB, Inc.

MEDICAL NECESSITY
Term used by insurers to describe medical treatment that is appropriate and in accordance with generally accepted standards of medical practice.

MEDICAL MALPRACTICE INSURANCE
See Malpractice insurance

MEDICAL PAYMENTS INSURANCE
A coverage in which the insurer agrees to reimburse the insured and others up to a certain limit for medical or funeral expenses as a result of bodily injury or death by accident. Payments are without regard to fault.

MEDICAL UTILIZATION REVIEW
The practice used by insurance companies to review claims for medical treatment.

MEDICARE
Federal program for people 65 or older that pays part of the costs associated with hospitalization, surgery, doctors’ bills, home health care, and skilled-nursing care.

MEDICARE-APPROVED AMOUNT
Medicare has a fee schedule that list the dollar amount that Medicare considers to be the reasonable charge for the services provided by a doctor that Medicare approves for a covered service provided by a doctor is the lesser of the Medicare fee schedule amount for a particular service or the amount charged by the doctor.

MEDICARE PART A (HOSPITAL INSURANCE)
Helps pay for medically necessary inpatient care in a hospital, skilled nursing facility or psychiatric hospital, and for hospice and home health care.

MEDICARE PART B (MEDICAL INSURANCE)
Helps pay for medically necessary physician services and many other medical services and supplies not covered by Part A.

MEDICARE-QUALIFIED PROVIDERS
Providers who have been approved by Medicare.

MEDICARE RISK PLAN
A type of Medicare supplement coverage where the Medicare recipient "assigns" his/her benefits to an HMO. The HMO contracts with the Federal Government to provide medical services to the Medicare recipient at a discounted rate to the government.

MEDICARE SELECT
Federal programs designed to introduce Medicare beneficiaries to managed care plans through Preferred Provider Organization supplemental (MedSup) health insurance.

MEDIGAP/MEDSUP
Policies that supplement federal insurance benefits particularly for those covered under Medicare.

MEDIGAP-MEDICARE SUPPLEMENT INSURANCE
Medigap insurance is specifically designed to supplement Medicare's benefits and is regulated by federal and state law. It must be clearly identified as Medicare supplemental insurance and it must provide specific benefits that help fill the gaps in your Medicare coverage. Other kinds of insurance may help you with out-of- pocket health care costs but they do not qualify as Medigap plans.

MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
Behavioral health care services that may be provided on an inpatient, outpatient, or partial hospitalization basis.

MIB, INC.
A nonprofit organization established to provide information to insurers about impairments that applicants have admitted to, or that other insurers have detected, in connection with previous applications for insurance. Formerly known as Medical Information Bureau.

MILITARY HEALTH SERVICES SYSTEM (MHSS)
Federal health benefits program for active duty military personnel, retirees, their dependents, and survivors.

MINE SUBSIDENCE COVERAGE
An endorsement to a homeowners insurance policy, available in some states, for losses to a home caused by the land under a house sinking into a mine shaft. Excluded from standard homeowners policies, as are other forms of earth movement.

MISREPRESENTATION
A false or misleading statement. (1) In insurance sales, a false or misleading statement made by a sales agent to induce a customer to purchase insurance is a prohibited sales practice. (2) In insurance underwriting, a false or misleading statement by an insurance applicant may provide a basis for the insurer to avoid the policy.

MISSTATEMENT OF AGE OR SEX PROVISION
A life insurance, health insurance, and annuity policy provision that describes how policy benefits will be adjusted if the age or sex of the insured has been misstated in the insurance application. Typically, the benefits payable will be those that the premiums paid would have purchased for the correct age or sex.

MODIFIED PREMIUM POLICIES
An insurance policy for which the policy owner first pays a lower premium than she would for a similar level premium policy for a specified initial period and then pays a higher premium than she would for a similar level premium policy. Contrast with level premium policies and single premium policies.

MONEY SUPPLY
Total supply of money in the economy, composed of currency in circulation and deposits in savings and checking accounts. By changing the interest rates the Federal Reserve seeks to adjust the money supply to maintain a strong economy.

MORAL HAZARD
The possibility that a person may act dishonestly in an insurance transaction.

MORBIDITY RATE
The rate at which sickness and injury occur within a defined group of people. Insurers base health insurance premiums in part on the morbidity rate for a proposed insured’s age group. Contrast with mortality rate.

MORTALITY AND EXPENSE (M&E) RISK CHARGE
A fee that covers such annuity contract guarantees as death benefits.

MORTALITY RATE
A percentage rate at which death occurs among a defined group of people of a specified age and sometimes of a specified gender. Insurers base the premiums for life insurance in part on the mortality rate for a proposed insured’s age group. Contrast with morbidity rate.

MORTGAGE GUARANTEE INSURANCE
Coverage for the mortgagee (usually a financial institution) in the event that a mortgage holder defaults on a loan. Also called private mortgage insurance (PMI).

MORTGAGE INSURANCE
A form of decreasing term insurance that covers the life of a person taking out a mortgage. Death benefits provide for payment of the outstanding balance of the loan. Coverage is in decreasing term insurance, so the amount of coverage decreases as the debt decreases. A variant, mortgage unemployment insurance pays the mortgage of a policyholder who becomes involuntarily unemployed. (See Term insurance )

MORTGAGE-BACKED SECURITIES
Investment grade securities backed by a pool of mortgages. The issuer uses the cash flow from mortgages to meet interest payments on the bonds.

MULTIPLE PERIL POLICY
A package policy, such as a homeowners or business insurance policy, that provides coverage against several different perils. It also refers to the combination of property and liability coverage in one policy. In the early days of insurance, coverages for property damage and liability were purchased separately.

MULTIPLE EMPLOYER TRUST (MET)
A trust established by a sponsor that allows small employers in the same or related industries to provide medical insurance under a trust arrangement.

MULTIPLE EMPLYER WELFARE ARRANGEMENT (MEWA)
An employee welfare arrangement designed to provide benefits to employees of two or more employers.

MULTIPLE PROVIDER ARRANGEMENT
Managed care plan consisting of group, staff, or IPA structures in combination.

MULTI-SPECIALTY GROUP PRACTICE 
Independent physicians' group that is organized to contract with a managed care plan to provide medical services to enrollees. The physicians are not employees of the HMO, but are employed by the group practice.

MUNICIPAL BOND INSURANCE
Coverage that guarantees bondholders timely payment of interest and principal even if the issuer of the bonds defaults. Offered by insurance companies with high credit ratings, the coverage raises the credit rating of a municipality offering the bond to that of the insurance company. It allows a municipality to raise money at lower interest rates. A form of financial guarantee insurance. (See Financial guarantee insurance )

MUNICIPAL LIABILITY INSURANCE
Liability insurance for municipalities.

MUTUAL HOLDING COMPANY
An organizational structure that provides mutual companies with the organizational and capital raising advantages of stock insurers, while retaining the policyholder ownership of the mutual.

MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY
A company owned by its policyholders that returns part of its profits to the policyholders as dividends. The insurer uses the rest as a surplus cushion in case of large and unexpected losses.