Healthcare costs when transitioning to Medicare

[FUEGO]

I was getting ready to write a scary but false story related to Obamacare but I see you guys know that Snopes exists. So nevermind.

 

[Tadpole]

Looks like it's time for me to bring back my Rodney Dangerfield avatar...

Oh my!; goodness me!; how humilitating!; duh! stupid! stupid! stupid!; nothing left to do but :

Ah, better....

 

[REWahoo]

Ah, better....

Forget it.

Harry Caray has been committed so many times institutions now refuse to admit him...

 

[Bestwifeever]

`` B

 

[Free_at_49]

I am also with a BCBS PPO and before I went to the UK last year for an extended stay, I called and they told me that I'd be covered and need to pay first unless I went to one of their network providers. I was able to go on the BCBS website and put in the city I was going to be staying in and it gave me hospitals close by that would take my insurance. Fortunately we did not have the need to see how it worked.

Ha, I did exactly the same thing, and I took it a step further. I called BCBS talked to their overseas nurse supervisor, and mentally rehearsed with her the mechanics of using this insurance in EU, even looked at the claim forms.

The trick apparently is to be admitted to hospital for 24hrs (or 48 I forget the details) in which case BCBS has to contact the hospital directly and start paying them. The most likely event would be some emergency like food poising, in which case you don’t have time to hunt down “in-network” providers and ask then to fill forms, etc. My best guess, BCBS will most likely deny most such claims on some technicality. It’s an ugly scam compared to healthcare in EU or Canada.

 

[Alan]

Ha, I did exactly the same thing, and I took it a step further. I called BCBS talked to their overseas nurse supervisor, and mentally rehearsed with her the mechanics of using this insurance in EU, even looked at the claim forms.

The trick apparently is to be admitted to hospital for 24hrs (or 48 I forget the details) in which case BCBS has to contact the hospital directly and start paying them. The most likely event would be some emergency like food poising, in which case you don’t have time to hunt down “in-network” providers and ask then to fill forms, etc. My best guess, BCBS will most likely deny most such claims on some technicality. It’s an ugly scam compared to healthcare in EU or Canada.

I have no doubt that it is extremely difficult. It has to be a nightmare filing from a foreign country. Filing within the USA is stressful enough.