health maintenance organization

American  

noun

1. a plan for comprehensive health services, prepaid by an individual or by a company for its employees, that provides treatment, preventive care, and hospitalization to each participating member in a central health center. HMO

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Etymology

Origin of health maintenance organization

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

Big Medicare insurers are paring back their preferred provider organization designs, known as PPOs, while bolstering their more-restrictive health maintenance organization plans, known as HMOs.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 15, 2025

The organization operates like a health maintenance organization, in which it is paid a fixed sum to care for someone through a closed network of hospitals and doctors.

From New York Times • Apr. 26, 2023

Most Advantage plans work like a health maintenance organization.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 23, 2021

The other study comes from researchers at the Kahn Sagol Maccabi Research and Innovation Center at MHS, Israel’s second-largest health maintenance organization.

From Science Magazine • Sep. 1, 2021

Dr. Fourcroy, a resident of Bethesda, Md., was born in New Haven, Conn., and came to the Washington area in 1974 and became a staff urologist at Group Health Association, a health maintenance organization.

From Washington Post • Nov. 16, 2016