Never thought I would need it.

[Patty2005]

I was only going on a 4 day coastal cruise with my mother, husband, and daughter. We all boarded happy and healthy. On the second day my mother was having trouble breathing. I called medical and they brought down a wheel chair and took her to the onboard hospital. She had developed a very bad pneumonia in her lung and was not getting enough oxygen. She need oxygen and IV antibiotics. Luckily they did not make her leave the ship. First day charges were $2500. Second and third day were $500 each so about $3500 charged to her credit card.

 

I did purchase insurance for her in case she were unable to make the trip. I never thought I would need it for medical. I believe Medicare may pay as we were within 6 hours of a US port. (LA, to San Diego, to Ensenada). Do I bill medicare and the trip insurance both? I bought from tripinsurancestore. Is my vacation insurance primary or secondary? Hoping someone can help.

 

ALWAYS BUY INSURANCE!!!!

[klfrodo]

Your first call is to the insurance company, not us.

We have no idea what policy you bought or from whom.

Tripinsurancestore probably sells 50 policies.

 

Second call would be to Tripinsurancestroe to see if they will help you with filing the claim.

[Patty2005]

It was travel insured. And my, aren't you friendly and helpful. Office is closed until Monday and I thought someone who had "been there" could chime in. But thanks anyway. After expericencing the cruise from hell, I guess I was not thinking clearly.

 

"us"

"we"

 

Speak for yourself.

[caa]

Sorry to hear about your mother and hope she's doing better now.

 

Your trip insurance could be either primary or secondary, but it's most likely to be secondary. The only way to tell for sure is to read the policy.

 

You should submit your claims to both Medicare and the insurance company. As you say, Medicare may pay because you were in/near the US, and even if they don't, the travel insurance company is going to need denial to settle their part of the claim. Unfortunately, it's likely to take several months to unwind all of this.

[GeezerCouple]

I was only going on a 4 day coastal cruise with my mother, husband, and daughter. We all boarded happy and healthy. On the second day my mother was having trouble breathing. I called medical and they brought down a wheel chair and took her to the onboard hospital. She had developed a very bad pneumonia in her lung and was not getting enough oxygen. She need oxygen and IV antibiotics. Luckily they did not make her leave the ship. First day charges were $2500. Second and third day were $500 each so about $3500 charged to her credit card.

 

I did purchase insurance for her in case she were unable to make the trip. I never thought I would need it for medical. I believe Medicare may pay as we were within 6 hours of a US port. (LA, to San Diego, to Ensenada). Do I bill medicare and the trip insurance both? I bought from tripinsurancestore. Is my vacation insurance primary or secondary? Hoping someone can help.

 

ALWAYS BUY INSURANCE!!!!

 

First, so sorry about your mother's sudden onboard illness, but thank goodness she is okay.

... and second, glad that you had insurance (in case Medicare doesn't pay).

 

Yes, as suggested, call TripInsuranceStore, as they *are* open on weekends.

(If they are "closed", leave a message, and they will probably call back in a very timely fashion.)

 

We've had two claims now with TravelInsured,purchased through TripInsuranceStore, who helped us with the first claim.

We had "primary" coverage, so we didn't have to submit to our regular insurer first (we still have employer health insurance until DH retires, and then we'll have some combo of Medicare and retiree benefits, so *that* will be quite a maze if we don't have primary travel insurance!).

 

Once we sent all the documents (nothing unreasonable was requested/required), we had a check quite soon.

 

--> Did you mother have a waiver of pre-existing condition exclusion?

If not, there will probably be additional hoops to jump through so insurer can satisfy themselves that what happened wasn't at all related to some previous underlying condition.

We *always* get that waiver (especially at our ages, with assorted medical "events" in our backgrounds as time goes on).

 

If you don't have primary coverage, then you'll need to submit first to Medicare, even if it's a guaranteed "no", so that can be sent to the insurer.

(We've paid the slight extra for the primary coverage.)

 

Good luck, and hope your mother remains well.h

 

Added: TripInsuranceStore also helped us with the second claim. We were overseas, and not sure how to characterize it, or even if the costs would be covered. (They will be!)

Edited January 9, 2016 by GeezerCouple

[klfrodo]

It was travel insured. And my, aren't you friendly and helpful. Office is closed until Monday and I thought someone who had "been there" could chime in. But thanks anyway. After expericencing the cruise from hell, I guess I was not thinking clearly.

 

"us"

"we"

 

Speak for yourself.

 

Well,,, aren't you a sweetheart.

I'll just assume your kind of stressed and don't mean to be a

 

Anyway, I was trying to be helpful with straight information given the lack of information you provided. I don't do unicorns and fluffy kittens

 

A quick Google search shows that Travel Insured has 24/7 assistance via 1-800-243-3174

So don't tell us the office is closed until Monday

Edited January 9, 2016 by klfrodo

[6rugrats]

It was travel insured. And my, aren't you friendly and helpful. Office is closed until Monday and I thought someone who had "been there" could chime in. But thanks anyway. After expericencing the cruise from hell, I guess I was not thinking clearly.

 

"us"

"we"

 

Speak for yourself.

 

That's a rather uncalled for response. You purchased the policy, and hopefully read it. No one else here has. If you don't even know if your policy is primary or secondary, how would anyone here know?

 

iTravelInsured sells several different plans, and these can vary, depending on your home state. They all appear to be secondary unless you purchased the XL plan, and they all have pre-existing condition exclusions, unless you purchased within the required number of days after putting your deposit down on this cruise.

 

 

This poster gave correct advice - call the insurance company. They all have 24 hour staffed lines to call to start a claim.

 

Not sure why you take such umbrage to that good advice.

Edited January 9, 2016 by 6rugrats

[Happy2cruise]

We always purchase our insurance directly from tripinsurancestore and have always found Steve and his reps more than helpful. I would strongly suggest calling them and speaking directly to them about you concerns.

 

Good luck!

[ChucktownSteve]

I bought from tripinsurancestore. Is my vacation insurance primary or secondary? Hoping someone can help.

 

I purchased a Travel Insured policy from Steve at the tripinsurancestore. He suggested/recommended that I pay a little additional to make my policy Primary payor. Don't you know if you bought the primary coverage policy?

 

Look at your Confirmation of Benefits receipt you received when you purchased the policy. Mine says "Optional Primary Coverage Upgrade." You don't need to call someone to answer whether you have primary coverage unless you don't want to bother reading your receipt and policy document.

Edited January 9, 2016 by ChucktownSteve

[LHT28]

the insurance policy should have an emergency hotline number you can call

My company gives me a card with numbers to contact

 

If the problem is medical you usually have to submit to your home insurance (Medicare) then if/when they do not pay then submit to the insurance company

It is a good idea to get the claim started with the insurance company as soon as you can

 

Sorry to hear about your mom & hope she is doing better