Planning to travel abroad this summer? Before you go, keep in mind that Medicare usually does not\u00a0cover health care services or supplies while you\u2019re traveling outside the United States.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean you have to travel abroad without health coverage.\u00a0Here are 3 ways you can get health coverage outside the U.S.:<\/p>\n
If you have a Medicare Supplement Insurance (Medigap) policy, check your policy to see if it includes coverage when traveling outside the U.S.<\/p>\n
If you have Medicare Advantage or another Medicare health plan (instead of Original Medicare), check with your plan to see if it offers coverage outside the U.S.<\/p>\n
Consider buying a travel insurance policy that includes health coverage. <\/p>\n
In some cases, Medicare may cover\u00a0medically necessary\u00a0health care services you get on board a ship within the territorial waters adjoining land areas of the U.S. Medicare won\u2019t pay for health care services you get when a ship is more than 6 hours away from a U.S. port.<\/p>\n
Medicare also may pay for\u00a0inpatient hospital,\u00a0doctor,\u00a0ambulance services, or\u00a0dialysis\u00a0you get in a foreign country in these rare cases:<\/p>\n
You\u2019re in the U.S. when a\u00a0medical emergency\u00a0occurs, and the foreign hospital is closer than the nearest U.S. hospital that can treat your medical condition.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re traveling through Canada without unreasonable delay by the most direct route between Alaska and another state when a medical emergency occurs, and the Canadian hospital is closer than the nearest U.S. hospital that can treat the emergency.<\/p>\n
You live in the U.S. and the foreign hospital is closer to your home than the nearest U.S. hospital that can treat your medical condition, regardless of whether an emergency exists.<\/p>\n
Medicare drug plans (Part D) don\u2019t cover prescription drugs you buy outside the U.S.<\/p>\n
If you get sick or injured while abroad, in most cases you\u2019ll pay 100% of the costs. In the situations described above, you pay 20% of the\u00a0Medicare-approved amount, and the Part B\u00a0deductible\u00a0applies.<\/p>\n
In the situations above, Medicare pays only for services covered under\u00a0Original Medicare:<\/p>\n
Medicare Part A (Hospital Insurance)\u00a0covers hospital care (care you get when you\u2019ve been formally admitted with a doctor\u2019s order to the foreign hospital as an inpatient).<\/p>\n
Part B covers emergency and non-emergency\u00a0ambulance\u00a0and\u00a0doctor services\u00a0you get immediately before and during your covered foreign inpatient hospital stay. Medicare generally won\u2019t pay for services (like return ambulance trips home) in either of these cases:<\/p>\n
Medicare didn\u2019t cover your hospital stay.<\/p>\n
You got ambulance and doctor services outside the hospital after your covered hospital stay ended.<\/p>\n
You pay the part of the charge you would normally pay for covered services. This includes any medically necessary doctor and ambulance services you get in a foreign country as part of a covered inpatient hospital stay. You also pay the\u00a0coinsurance\u00a0, copayments, and deductibles you\u2019d normally pay if you got these same services or supplies inside the U.S.<\/p>\n
The 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa are considered part of the United States.<\/p>\n
Foreign hospitals aren\u2019t required to file Medicare claims for your medical costs. You need to\u00a0submit an itemized bill\u00a0to Medicare for your doctor, inpatient, and ambulance services if both of these apply:<\/p>\n
You\u2019re admitted to a foreign hospital under one of the situations above.<\/p>\n
The foreign hospital doesn\u2019t submit Medicare claims for you.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Safe travels!<\/p>\n
Greg Dill (Special to the Saipan Tribune)<\/strong> Planning to travel abroad this summer? Before you go, keep in mind that Medicare usually…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[122],"class_list":["post-303872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nGreg Dill is Medicare\u2019s regional administrator for Arizona, California, Nevada, Hawaii, and the Pacific territories. You can always get answers to your Medicare questions by calling 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"