February 17, 2008
Skiing accident, medical helicopter bill, and travel / medical insurance question
The following is an email I received from a reader who wants to remain anonymous. Any helpful comments would be appreciated:
So one of my wife's classmates went snowboarding with her boyfriend this last weekend. Her boyfriend had some kind of mishap and fractured his cheekbone against a tree. They took him down to the bottom of the mountain and elected to send him to Reno via helicopter. 5 days later he gets the bill -- 30,000 dollars.
What the hell!??! The total time that thing spent in the air couldn't have been more than an hour. I hope the dude has insurance, though they probably won't cover all or even much of that cost.
Pretty outrageous. The reason I am writing in is to see if any of your readers know about this stuff. Travel insurance, medical insurance, travel medical insurance, medical evac (domestic) insurance, etc. What do we do to protect ourselves from these $30,000 bills? What should my wife’s classmate’s boyfriend do if he doesn’t have the right insurance?
Posted by James Trotta at February 17, 2008 12:14 AM | TrackBack
Similar situation happened to me a few years ago. Fortunately I had insurance that covered a big portion of the bill. It seems to me that as soon as they call the helicopter, they are taking you no matter what, someone has to pay for that bill.
There's an insurance you can get through calstar. It's $50 for the year and if you are ever in an accident, it will cover the flight to the hospital.
Check out the web site insuremytrip.com before buying any travel insurance policy. Lists numerous insurance companies, allows you to customize the types of coverage you want, does side by side comparisons and includes ratings from Best!
Posted by: Don at February 18, 2008 5:43 PMUnfortunately, it is too late to help your friend with their bills now. It would be like waiting until you're in a car accident before getting auto insurance. Check out www.WorldWideMedical.com and look at the rates. You can get coverage from an A+ rated carrier for 5 days up to 3 years, and its very affordable. Your friend would have gotten 50,000$ for that helicpter trip, plus a million dollars of medical coverage for under 2 bucks a day. I would never take a vacation without it!
Posted by: kina at February 19, 2008 1:14 PMIf he was taken safely down the mountain, and wasn't an emergent case, why didn't his wife offer to drive him to Reno, or a closer hospital? Often, at the bases of mountains, they have some of the best orthopedic medicine around (knee surgeons, especially). He could have requested to stay there. But even an ambulance ride will cost him, and most insurance companies only cover a certain amount of transport.
If he's still a student himself, he can get great coverage from STA travel that covers up to $250,000 of emergency evacuations (though that might only be the number for international trips) and also provides a huge amount of medical and material coverage.
The bottom line is that we're always allowed to refuse medical care and transportation. All he'd have to do (or his wife if he were unconscious) is say no, and sign a form. If he DID need to get to the hospital in Reno as fast as possible, he should be thankful that there was a helicopter to take him, and may begin to look at the $30,000 bill as the best money ever spent if it saved his life.
Posted by: Lily at February 19, 2008 5:08 PMIt's important to make sure that your travel insurance covers the specific activities you're participating in. If the policy deems that the activity is considered "adventure travel" and you are not specifically covered for that, they may refuse to reimburse you. Read your policy and/or talk to your broker to make sure you are covered BEFORE leaving; you may need to get Adventure Travel coverage.
Posted by: Carin at March 30, 2008 10:10 AM