Travelers Insurance

[herchebar]

Hello All,

 

This is a heads up to all travelers. Make sure you have credit cards with you that can pay hospital bills. You must pay first, then send claim for reimbursement.

 

I was hospitalized in Barcelona from 10/25 to 11/5/2015 and my bill for pacemaker, ICU, and Medical floor ran in excess of 25,500 Euros.

 

Have submitted bills to Leisure care (company insurance sold by travel agency for cruise) over ridden AON insurance company and they are still dragging their feet about my payment. Today is Christmas 12/25/2015. Seven weeks since discharge and they still haven't paid me for the portion of cruise I missed, let alone the hospital costs.

 

Buyer beware.

 

Herchebar

[Linnn]

Cannot first emphasize the importance of buying insurance within that 2 week period where you can buy without pre existing conditions having any bearing because that gives all companies an out otherwise. We buy such a policy always for overseas travel with Allianz sold by TAs and AAA.

Two years ago we could not take an Easter cruise out of Barcelona as I had developed a severely infected ankle blister in the course of two days. I was hospitalized over night( $12,600) including the plastic surgeon's bill attending me at what must have been their best hospital ( sent there by the Hilton's hotel doctor who did nothing but look and arrange for his fee). The same surgeon insisted in his discharge that I must be flowing home promptly business/first class where I could lie down. I even in a panic forgot I should have called Allianz first and they did not know of the situation until I presented my insurance card at the hospital , who recognized it at once and insisted on not bothering me about anything regarding payment. Allianz nurse/team via phone when I got back to the hotel handled everything! Such service ,cancelling tours, making long distance phone calls for us, we willing turned in our return BA economy tickets and my husband and I went home Delta business/ first class . We were totally reimbursed for our HAL cruise as well.They reimbursed us for pharmacy,cabs,hotel doctor Bill ( the only $ we had expended )and got us home quickly. All this took place when everything was closed for four days due to Easter. My ankle did take over a month to heal. I write this because I have seen so many postings regarding how little help travel insurance is and I feel that is not the case. You get what you pay for from a good company.

[Algebralovr]

Yes, quite often you must pay the bill up front, then submit to your primary insurance to see if they will pay. Then, you submit the rest, with proof of payment along with denial from regular health insurance for remainder of reimbursement.

 

It is a hassle. And it takes time.

[GeezerCouple]

Yes, quite often you must pay the bill up front, then submit to your primary insurance to see if they will pay. Then, you submit the rest, with proof of payment along with denial from regular health insurance for remainder of reimbursement.

 

It is a hassle. And it takes time.

 

If you purchase travel insurance that has "primary" medical coverage (automatically or as a paid extra, such as $25), then there is not any need to submit to a regular health insurance provider first.

This can be especially helpful for those in the USA with Medicare, which will definitely deny. So there's no need to wait <how long?> for what is guaranteed to be a denial before one can first submit to the travel insurance vendor.

 

Also, if one has travel insurance that includes a waiver for the pre-existing condition exclusion, that can speed up the claims process also.

That's because although the insurer will obviously need to verify that the claim is valid/etc., they would NOT need to comb through previous medical records to determine if the claim was in any way due to a pre-existing condition such that it wouldn't be covered.

[Keith1010]

And sometimes you need cash.

 

I was taken to a hospital for a series of tests in 2014 in Yokohama. First time in an ambulance. When they took me back to the ship that night (someone who works for the port agent) he said the bill would be bought over the next day (we had overnights there thankfully) and the bill was to be paid for in cash.

 

Thankfully the costs were far less then in the USA but nevertheless a couple of thousand dollars.

 

Keith

[iuki]

If you purchase travel insurance that has "primary" medical coverage (automatically or as a paid extra, such as $25), then there is not any need to submit to a regular health insurance provider first.

This can be especially helpful for those in the USA with Medicare, which will definitely deny. So there's no need to wait <how long?> for what is guaranteed to be a denial before one can first submit to the travel insurance vendor.

 

Also, if one has travel insurance that includes a waiver for the pre-existing condition exclusion, that can speed up the claims process also.

That's because although the insurer will obviously need to verify that the claim is valid/etc., they would NOT need to comb through previous medical records to determine if the claim was in any way due to a pre-existing condition such that it wouldn't be covered.

 

Hopefully this is not a dumb question.

 

At home, Medicare Part B is my Primary insurance, and BCBS is Secondary. Would travel medical insurance which is purchased as Secondary, be filed after Meducare or after BCBS?

 

Thanks.

[GeezerCouple]

Hopefully this is not a dumb question.

 

At home, Medicare Part B is my Primary insurance, and BCBS is Secondary. Would travel medical insurance which is purchased as Secondary, be filed after Meducare or after BCBS?

 

Thanks.

 

[First, the only "dumb/stupid" question is the unasked question! ;) Answering questions is much of what we are all here for... or to ask them!]

 

If you have your own medical coverage for overseas/cruise medical problems, which would be needed as Medicare doesn't cover most of that, then you should probably ask this question from the "extra" travel insurer or broker.

 

We use TripInsuranceStore.com , and they could answer about any *specific* policy they sell, but not "in general".

 

I could take a guess at how this would work, with three tiers of coverage, but it's probably best if I don't!

 

However, IF you get travel insurance that has PRIMARY medical/health coverage, then you definitely would not need to deal with the BCBS, *unless* you exceeded the coverage limits of the travel insurance.

Having primary coverage certainly simplifies things, as one doesn't need to wait <how long!?> until the regular insurance figures out whether they do or don't cover that particular travel, etc.

 

Make sure that you really do need that extra coverage, that your BCBS coverage isn't sufficient. There might be reasons that it is not, or it might really cover whatever would be needed, as far as "regular medical insurance" covers.

Just double check that you DO have the right coverage for whatever travel you are taking, from one insurer or the other, and pay attention to deductibles, co-pays, out-of-pocket maximum amounts, and *especially* any exclusions that might relate to travel/distance.

[iuki]

Thanks Geezer. I did check out insure my trip and find that medical insurance also includes medevac. There, I won't be renewing Good Sam's Travel Assist, as they only cover med evac and no medical expenses. My Chase Sapphire Preferred covers trip cancellation/trip delay and interrupted travel. Therefore, all I need is medical coverage, and I found Travel Guard to be affordable. However, I'm still confused with GeoBlue. I still need to do research on their coverage and cost.