Final answer:
Mrs. Carter's $15 payment to her physician is known as a copayment, which is a fixed amount paid by a patient each time they receive medical services under their health insurance policy.
Step-by-step explanation:
Mrs. Carter must pay $15 each time she visits her physician. This payment is known as a copayment (co-pay), which is a fixed amount paid by a patient for receiving medical services. The concept of copayment is a part of the cost-sharing structure of many health insurance policies, where the insured individual pays a specified amount for healthcare services with the insurance company covering the remaining costs.
In the bigger picture of health insurance, copayments help manage healthcare costs by sharing the burden between insurers, patients, and society at large. Other cost-sharing mechanisms include deductibles, where patients pay a fixed amount before the insurance benefits kick in, and co-insurance, where patients are responsible for a percentage of the healthcare costs.