View Full Version : Medical Insurance!!!!!
Just a warning to all you newbies like me,we are currently in florida and are having a tough time,the reason being,medical insurance,our twins(14 months),our 7 year old daughter have all developed very bad D+V,and we arent feeling to good,i took one of our babies to a medicentre because she was very poorly and was treated like an animal and then charged $340 for a antibiotic injection for her because they wouldnt accept the medical insurance as it was based in the U.K,i called my insurance company and was told that it was up to the doctor if they accepted insurance or not and that basically there was nothing they could do.I wasnt happy with the doctors diagnosis,mainly because i couldnt understand him,i later found out this medicentre was notorious for ripping people off,so i went to another one,this cost $120 but the doctor was very good and said that there was nothing we could really do apart from buying electrolites etc.Now maybe i had over reacted and didnt really have to take the baby in the first place but when your child turns blue and shivers uncontrollably while throwing up and pooing you seek advice.
SO my warning is this before you leave see if your medical insurance people have any allocated doctors where you are staying,allow a fortune($500)for us for medical emergencys and be very careful which medicentre you go to,get advise from here(unlike us[V])or go to a pharmacy when you arrive and be prepared,we are now stuck in the villa with 5 days to go while this works its way around us,and nearly 400 pounds worse off!!!
yours
Sean and unhappy clan:(:(:(
steph_goodrum
13-02-2003, 18:45
I'm really sorry to hear how poorly you've all been Sean, and you were so looking forward to the holiday, hope you get a couple of days of holiday before it's time to come home again. I'm really surpirsed at the attitude of the doctors, most of the insurance companies give you a phone no and can authorise treatment over the phone. Make sure you get receipts for any treatment prescribed so at least you can claim it back when you get home, not much compensation for the loss of your holiday I know.
I hope you all feel a bit better soon.
Oh dear, I hope you're all feeling a bit better by now. Your medical insurance may still pay out so keep all the receipts from your doctor's visits and contact them when you come back and ask. Most insurance companies will pay out on receipts up to a certain limit but it will tell you what your limit is on the policy documents.
I've never heard of a doctor who didn't accept insurance, even if it was issued in the UK. I think you should have called your insurance company and got them fax the doctor to the effect that they would be responsible for your medical bills but it's easy to say that now and you were probably in a panic if your child was doing that!
If you're still ill, then do go to see a Pharmacist and see if they can recommend anything for all of you but it's important to keep hydrated and carry on drinking bottled water, even if you feel you don't want a drink, at least sip one glass an hour. You can buy Dialyte (don't know what it's called in USA but the Pharmacist will know) which is for kids and babies to provide essential hydration and electrolytes if they're sick or have diarrhoea.
Hope you're all better soonest!
My insurance company offered to send a garantee to the doctors but neither of them would accept it,i will get my money back but $500 is a lot to us and it means even if everyone is better by the weekend we are restricted to what we will be able to do[8)],but hey next year!!
Often insurance companies insist you call their free help line where they will recommend a doctor to you. We didn't do this for an eye infection and the insurance co wouldn't pay the $200.
However, I agree when you have sick children the last thing you are going to worry about is that, you just want to get straight to a doctor.
It may be interesting for us all to know what medical center will not accept insurance so we know to tell guests to avoid it.
Hope the children are feeling better soon. The pharmacists are very helpful and will often suggest a doctor as well. Do as Blott suggests, lots of water and try and get the US equivalent of dialyte. A little chilling out by the pool won't do anyone any harm.
Century medical centre 2611 west vine street is a family run medicentre and in my opinion has got to be the worst place to take anyone,i wouldnt take a dog there,the second place was the Florida Hospital CentraCare 4320 west vine,they were excellent although they still wouldnt accept my insurance even though i offered to get my company to fax them a gaurantee, the doctor had had 2 people come to him from Century medicentre that day,which suggests that century is really bad.I had called my medical insurance people before going to a doctor,they just told me to see any doctor and then to ring them back,they didnt mention any designated doctor??.when i rang them and told them i had to pay they said sorry but until i get home and fill in a claim form thers nothing they can do,i have all relevant receipts etc but it still bugs me that even though you think you are covered you arent:),but hey i will know next time!
On all the medical insurance I have had it is standard procedure for us to have to pay our medical fees and then make a claim later. I think they would only step in to make direct payment if hospitalisation was involved. Correct me if I am wrong someone.
I think you'll find your insurance co will cough up when you make the claim, and you have done the right thing in contacting them first.
I think you are right Fiona and I think I might warn renters of this in my information. Can anyone suggest any medical facility that they know takes insurance [?]. Sean luckily had funds available but I hate to think what would have happened if he hadn't.
I'm very sorry that your holiday was spoilt and I hope for speedy recoveries.
Jeff
steph_goodrum
13-02-2003, 20:22
This is one of the reasons we always advise people to carry a credit card, just in case. At least hopefully if you have to pay the bills on there, then you will hopefully have been reimbursed before you have to pay interest charges on there.
Looking on the bright side Sean, aren't you glad you've got the comfort of a villa when you're feeling so rough rather than all cooped up in a hotel room.
And you've got all of us for company.:D:D
Most insurance companies are similar although have slightly different rules. Normally, they allow you to get your own treatment without reference to them if this is going to cost less than $xxx (in the case of our insurance it's £200 or its equivalent in foreign currency).
If your care is going to cost more than their minimum, then you normally have to contact your insurance company first before having any treatment so that they can arrange your medical care themselves. This would include contacting doctors, hospitals, etc or, in an extreme case, arranging an air ambulance to get you back to the UK. Obviously, if you have an accident and need immediate treatment or are unconscious, then you wouldn't be able to do that although they usually expect that another person on holiday with you would do it for you.
As Steph says, always make sure you've got a credit card (or two!) handy for an emergency with some spending limit left on it (even better if you have an American Express or Diners card with no preset spending limits) - you never know when you're going to need it.
Thanks everyone,we are just a bit niffed, this was a holiday of a life time,our 10 year old has heart probs and is due for an operation in june and our 7 year old has epilepsy,so this holiday was for them because they had had such a **** year,so we are all feeling a bit sorry for ourselves:(but like i said plenty of overtime and who knows perhaps we can all come to Florida next year and do all the things weve missed,but hey at least the sun is shining heh??
The best thing for rehydration is coca cola, just leave it open to the air so that it loses all its fizz, then drink by the gallon. It's so much easier to get children to drink it too rather than dioralyte. Don't get the diet or other strange varieties. They need all the sugar and other salts it will provide.
If you're dubious don't worry, I'm a trained chemist and used to work for the company who makes dioralyte. My job was to attack it in all ways I could think of to make it change and go off and become useless.(You have to do that to determine a drug's shelf-life)
The only claim we've had to make on insurance was when we were skiing in France. My son got a twisted testes so had to go to the nearest hospital 60 miles away for an emergency op! Glad to say they managed to save it.I handed in my E111, collected all the receipts etc and rang the insurance co as soon as he'd gone 'under'.They were excellent. They spoke to the surgeon to find out if we needed to extend the holiday for him to be fit to travel home. I didn't realise I was supposed to pay for the hospital treatment and claim it back as no-one apart from one nurse and the junior doctor spoke English! Consequently I kept getting bills for the next year but the insurance paid up everytime. This was all with Airmiles insurance.
steph_goodrum
14-02-2003, 02:17
At least if you haven't used your Disney passes they will still be valid for next year.
You'll feel much better in that sunshine than you would at home at the moment, the temperatures dropped right down again. Take it easy by the pool and build your strength up.
Have given the babies flat coke,Georgina perked right up although shes still on 20 a day(nappies that is),elouise im afraid isnt a happy bunny but sally is on the mend slowly,so thanks for that tip,thanks to everyone for their help and general support ,who knows everyone may be better by the weekend,that will make jackie happy she will have time for some last minute shopping :)when we get home i will give you a breakdown of what we did manage to do[8D]etc as requested
Sean and trying to smile clan
PS Thanks for the weather report steph it did make me smile
steph_goodrum
14-02-2003, 11:38
I'm glad I'm not the only one that tells people about the flat coke, when I've told people before about using it for rehydration when children have prolonged D&V, they have all thought I was mad.
athurstance
14-02-2003, 15:15
One of the waiters in our hotel in Turkey recommended the flat coke for me when I was sick on holiday there. It helps settle the stomach aswell as rehydrating. It goes flat quicker if you tip it into a large bowl rather than just leaving the top off the bottle.
Hello sean i was very sorry to hear that you lot are unwell.I hope you are all feeling much better now.