CruiseCare - Medical Evacuation

[cruisewiththekids]

I have some personal experience with this topic. We booked a family cruise in 2011 to sail in Oct 2012. My mother in law died on that cruise and we learned a lot about insurance coverage. My mother in law was 85 and in fair health when we booked. In Sept she was diagnosed with lung cancer. She decided not to treat it as the cemo would have been to hard on her. The Dr. told her that many people choose to go on a family trip and spend as much quality time with family. We already had this cruise booked and Dr. advised that she should be fine as the cancer was in early stages. We took the trip and she was fine through the 5th day. Formal night and Family pictures and show. When she laid down for the night she was having difficulty breathing so we took her to the infirmary on board. They advised thagt her lungs were filling with fluid and she would have to get off the ship as soon as we docked in Halifax Nova Scotia in the morning. Ambulance was waiting at the pier. There were seven of us and we all got off. She was admitted to Hospital and I started working on Med Evac. We used the Cruise lines travel insurance RCCL Berekely Care. I quickly learnd that Med Evac did not apply as she was already at a treating facility. (READ tHE FINE PRINT) So I started working other angles to get her home. The hospital advised that Angel Flight just flew someone in and if we were interested we could get a discounted rate because they were already in town and we would not have to pay for them getting here. The discounted rate was $36,000 From Halifax to Southern Calif. We had a family meeting and decided to go for it. (It’s had to make those big decisions in a time of turmoil). It turned out that she refused to fly without a family member. They were going to pull the nurse and put my wife in that seat. The doctors were fine with that. I said that if you pull the nurse its no longer a Med Flight and why couldn”t we charter a private Jet so we could all fly together. They advised that they would sign off on that. I arranged for was able to locate a plane but before final arrangements the Dr advise that she could not fly at all as her lungs would not handle any flight. We then arranged for a motorhome to drive all of us home. Hurricane Sandy put a stop to that plan and the Dr was not real comfortable with it anyway as she would probably die in the middle of the trip and we would be held up in an unwitnessed death investigation. We decided to rent an apartment and wait it out. She died the day we moved into the apartment. That’s the story now for the coverage. We had trip interruption through RCCL Berkely Care. I already covered the MED EVAC issue.

RCCL sent a local rep to the Hospital to ensure that I had all contact numbers that I needed and a local contact if needed. All their offices on east coast were closed due to Hurricane Sandy so they gave me the Care Team contact in London. I must say that all my phone contacts with Berekely Care and RCCL were professional and supportive. Berkeley Care advised that they were a secondary policy and all medical claims needed to be submitted to her primary insurance first and anything they did not cover would be covered by them. They told me to keep track of our expenses for the trip interruption claim.

The bills were as follows. Ship infirmary $5,000 for treatment from 1am to 7am. We were not aware of this until we got home and canceled her credit cards. RCCL simply billed the card on file and did not let us know they did that. $1,200 for ambulance ride from pier to Hospital about 4 miles, $25,000 for the Hospital stay. Her primary insurance covered all of that 100% so we did not have to submit any of that to Berkeley Care. Upon her death Berkeley advised us to pick a local mortuary and they would handle to rest. We picked one and they covered all transportation from hospital to our mortuary of choice back home. This included body prep, embalming and a casket or shipping container. That all went very smoothly with no problems. The problems arose on the trip interruption portion. It turns out that Berkely Care limits the interruption payout to 1 and ½ times your original airfare. Well needless to say that was nearly maxed out with our return flights so they covered our return airfares, and a small portion of food, lodging, and car rental. We were able to get a voucher from the airlines for our missed return flights. After all of this my point is if we would have taken out a MEDJET Plan for Med Evac. I could have made one call. Chose a hospital of our choice back home and we would not have had to go through all of this, and she would have died at home. Needless to say we are taking out a Med Jet plan on our upcoming cruise. (www.medjet.com)

Hope this helps, John and Lynnea

 

 

So sorry for your loss, but it is gracious of you to inform others of your experience.

 

I'm wondering if we could purchase the cruise line insurance for my grandmother and then buy a Medjet plan in addition to that?

[stretchcruz]

Medjet's regular memberships are up to age 75 and the Diamond from age 75 to 85 for people in good health.

[cruisewiththekids]

Medjet's regular memberships are up to age 75 and the Diamond from age 75 to 85 for people in good health.

 

Sounds like that wouldn't work for us then, as my grandmother is older than 85. Although she is in good health.

[pcur]

Deleted. What I was recommending only goes up to age 75.

Edited January 26, 2014 by pcur

[EviesCruisin]

I second this. It's not aged based. I believe it is $55 per person (at least for my parents 7 days cruise) and has pretty good coverages. Medical is $50,000 and emergency evac is $250,000.

 

We use travel guard, if you have costco it is really not that expensive also if you purchase before final payment pre existing conditions are covered.

[SpokaneDan]

John and Lynnea, thank you for posting your personal experience. It was very helpful. I have a couple further questions if you don't mind:

 

1. the $5000 bill from ship's infirmary (for 6 hours of service?) sounds exorbitant. Did your late MIL truly received very intensive care on board (meaning ICU, advance life support type of care which I did not think any cruise ship could provide) or did you have an explanation from RCCL on how they come with this number?

 

2. Given she was 85, I assume MIL had medicare + supplemental insurance. When you mentioned the primary insurance paid for the hospital /ambulance cost, you meant the supplemental insurance, not Medicare part B or something else?

[SpokaneDan]

I am sailing on a Norway Fjords cruise with my elderly grandmother. She is in good health, but still am concerned about medical evacuation coverage. She wants to purchase the CruiseCare thinking that she'll be covered, but the coverage is only $25,000, and then $25,000 for repatriation, heaven forbid. That seems awfully low. But at her age, private travel insurance is so very expensive. And I'm not sure if the coverage will just take her to a hospital in Norway, or if it will pay to bring her home.

 

I used insuremytrip webite and created a fake profile - traveler's age 89, 2 weeks Norway trip, at $10000 cost. There are 39 plans available with varying degree of coverage ranging from <$100 to $3500. It seemed there are options for anyone at any age.

[Photofinish4]

John and Lynnea, thank you for posting your personal experience. It was very helpful. I have a couple further questions if you don't mind:

 

1. the $5000 bill from ship's infirmary (for 6 hours of service?) sounds exorbitant. Did your late MIL truly received very intensive care on board (meaning ICU, advance life support type of care which I did not think any cruise ship could provide) or did you have an explanation from RCCL on how they come with this number?

 

2. Given she was 85, I assume MIL had medicare + supplemental insurance. When you mentioned the primary insurance paid for the hospital /ambulance cost, you meant the supplemental insurance, not Medicare part B or something else?

 

The infirmary visit consisted of chest xrays to determine her lungs were filling with fluid and they put her on oxygen might have had an IV but don't think so. We sat with her so there was not much monitoring and she was the only one in the infirmary. They had no way to drain the fluid so they had ambulance standing by.

Her primary insurance covered it Health Net not Medicare and not ships insurance.

[EviesCruisin]

I encourage travel insurance for everyone sailing out of the country. One cruise. I fell and hurt my ankle hiking in Antigua. Ship medical bill (x-rays, etc.) was $500. Travelex is a primary so sent them the bill and it was covered. Same cruise my husbands new watch was lost/stolen and we got $200 back for that. Had a few cruises where it wasn't used. Last cruise, my son developed croup at 2 am the last night of the cruise (6 mo old baby). Luckily we already were back in Tampa. $300 ship bill plus $600 ambulance ride plus $150 ER copayment ... since that was in the US I filed for what our insurance didn't pay. Usually it costs us $100-150 so we have come out ahead in the long run.

 

89 she could fall and break a hip or be fine. But trust me - You don't regret buying it and not needing it... That means a fun in eventful trip. You would regret not buying it and needing it. Any coverage is better than no coverage.

[pcur]

HealthNet is a Medicare Senior Advantage plan that is integrated and seamless with Medicare, so there is only one provider to deal with. They process the claims for Medicare and then pay the extra benefits according to what plan you buy with them.

[misty57]

John and Lynnea, thank you for posting your personal experience. It was very helpful. I have a couple further questions if you don't mind:

 

1. the $5000 bill from ship's infirmary (for 6 hours of service?) sounds exorbitant. Did your late MIL truly received very intensive care on board (meaning ICU, advance life support type of care which I did not think any cruise ship could provide) or did you have an explanation from RCCL on how they come with this number?

 

2. Given she was 85, I assume MIL had medicare + supplemental insurance. When you mentioned the primary insurance paid for the hospital /ambulance cost, you meant the supplemental insurance, not Medicare part B or something else?

 

 

$5000 would not be out of line for emergency department level care, which would be what this would be considered to be. If you have ever seen an itemized hospital bill it is staggering. The final bill you get is after insurance and contract deductions have been applied.

[SpokaneDan]

$5000 would not be out of line for emergency department level care, which would be what this would be considered to be. If you have ever seen an itemized hospital bill it is staggering. The final bill you get is after insurance and contract deductions have been applied.

 

Misty: you are right, American Hospital Bills are literally "out of this world", and there are growing complaints against how Hospitals set their prices, but that is a different topic.

 

Base on the description, RCCL did not provide the American equivalent of emergency room care. They provided at best an urgent care clinic level of care (using Medicare rate, I am guessing the bill comes to $300 -$400 in an average American clinic).

Part of the reason why an ER charge so much is that they have large contingent of professionals in-house 24/7, 365 - qualified doctors, nursing staff, security, radiology tech., social workers, etc, and high tech equipment/set up that are available for use literally in minutes - MRI, CT, procedure rooms + supplies stocked to perform all sorts of procedures). ER also have specialists, cardiologists, orthopedists, interventional radiologists to name just a few, on call who are frequently paid per diem to be available at moment's notice. Moreover, ER cannot turn away patients based on insurance, so they absorb substantial loss over uninsured. Even with all that if Mass. General's ER charge me $5000 for a doctor's exam, oxygen, a Chest X ray, checking a series of vital signs over 6 hours. I'd call that unreasonable.

 

So what does RCCL or any cruise line have in their infirmary to justify this kind of charge and get away with it? It alarms me.

[Tucker in Texas]

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So what does RCCL or any cruise line have in their infirmary to justify this kind of charge and get away with it? It alarms me.

 

It's called "captive audience."

 

I've heard too many stories about people that have gone to sick bay with a cough just wanting some cough medicine and ended up paying over $1K because they insisted on doing chest x-rays, etc. I got charged $179 to have ear wax removed. On top of that, the doctor/staff was in a hurry to close down and eat lunch so they gave it a "lick and a promise" and, while it did give me some hearing back, I had to have it re-done at home where they got a lot more out. Cost at home? $50.

 

Consequently, people tend to "self medicate" rather than be subjected to the outrageous charges at sick bay and end up spreading their germs all over the place plus getting sicker. I never leave home without pain killers, antibiotics and OTC medicine to, hopefully, treat the noro should it occur. So far, knock on wood, I haven't needed any for noro. I believe that RCI said that OTC medicine was successful in treating the outbreak on the Explorer. They do treat noro for free, though.

 

My nephew got some bad food in Mexico (and pretty much knew it was bad right after he ate it) and went to sick bay for something to treat diarrhea. They immediately quarantined the whole family for 48 hours because it could have been noro.

 

Tucker in Texas

[pcur]

A little perspective: my elderly father went to the emergency room recently for a bad fall. The total was just shy of $9,500 if he would have had to pay full price.