Health Insurance for International Travelers

If you are planning a trip overseas then you have probably wondered how your US medical plan will cover you outside of the U.S.

If you have a managed care (HMO) plan, then you might not have any coverage outside of the US. Any coverage you do have with an HMO is likely to be significantly reduced when you travel, with greater out-of-pocket expense for treatment outside of your normal coverage area.

Privately issued medical insurance usually does cover you during overseas travel, but the cost of obtaining records, translating them into the English language, converting the currency, and delivering payment overseas is all your responsibility, not the insurers.

One easy option is to have a short term medical policy specifically designed to cover international travelers to supplement your primary coverage. Fortunately these are inexpensive and easy to obtain. Since these plans specialize in international travel, there are fewer hassles typically associated with health plans. The coverage can usually be issued in about two days with a confirmation sent by fax or e-mail to your travel destination if necessary.

See the FAQs at www.medsave.com for more details.

If you have a managed care (HMO) plan, then you might not have any coverage outside of the US. Any coverage you do have with an HMO is likely to be significantly reduced when you travel, with greater out-of-pocket expense for treatment outside of your normal coverage area.

Privately issued medical insurance usually does cover you during overseas travel, but the cost of obtaining records, translating them into the English language, converting the currency, and delivering payment overseas is all your responsibility, not the insurers.

One easy option is to have a short term medical policy specifically designed to cover international travelers to supplement your primary coverage. Fortunately these are inexpensive and easy to obtain. Since these plans specialize in international travel, there are fewer hassles typically associated with health plans. The coverage can usually be issued in about two days with a confirmation sent by fax or e-mail to your travel destination if necessary.

See the FAQs at www.medsave.com for more details.

Tony Novak, MBA, MT is a writer and financial adviser in Narberth, PA focusing on tax and employee benefit issues. His businesses www.MedSave.com and Freedom Benefits Association provide online benefits enrollment for thousands of individuals and businesses nationwide.

How to Shop for Individual Health Insurance

Thompson

If you find yourself in the position of shopping for an individual health insurance policy, there are certain things you'll want to keep in mind. Whether you are coming out of a job that covered you before, or are at the end of your COBRA benefits, or simply have never had coverage before there are things you can do to get coverage on yourself and your loved ones.

The basic thing to know is that if you have a shot a group health insurance, whether through a job or an association you're a member of, that is usually much more affordable than buying individual health insurance on your own. First you need to figure out your health insurance goals; in other words, what are you after? If you're young, healthy as a horse, no dependents and not attempting Mt. Everest next week, you may want to opt for a policy that covers only the catastrophes, and cover the rest out-of-pocket. On the flip side of that, if you're the sole bread winner with a family to support, the scenario is different.

The basic choices you'll have are Fee-for-Service, Managed Care Plans, and Association-based health insurance. Fee-for-service is the traditional indemnity plan, harder to acquire, more expensive, but usually great coverage. Managed care plans include most HMO's and PPO's. These offer lower costs but your choices are somewhat limited. Another way to get insured is through a group or association you may already be a member of, such as professional, religious or trade organizations. Often they may offer health insurance. It's worth checking out, as sometimes you can strike gold in this vein.

Things to consider when you're looking for any policy are what's covered on this plan, how much are the monthly premiums, what is the yearly out-of-pocket, what is the deductible, how much are office visits, does it cover preventative medicine, vision, dental? And I'm sure you can come up with many of your own. Sit down before you go shopping and make a list of your needs and wants, and decide in advance what you're willing to give to get. Be aware that once you start getting quotes they can vary as much as 50% for the same person! Remember, you're shopping, and nobody's making you do anything. If one insurer isn't cutting it, move on to another. If you're coming at this cold and have no good recommendations it may be wise to use a broker who represents several companies, as he or she wil be more likely to find the best policy for you, as opposed to selling the company they work for.

Shopping for individual health insurance can be frustrating and time-consuming, but if you come armed with facts you'll be able to navigate this highly competitive and ever-changing field.

Keith Thompson is the webmaster at http://www.health-insurance.giftsforbiz.com,a site geared toward helping you find great individual health insurance!

HIPAA Compliance

All entities that process health care data must comply with HIPAA. Such entities mainly include healthcare providers and insurance companies. According to the provisions made under this Act, any entity that transmits or stores the private health care information of an individual must comply with certain security regulations.

To ensure smooth compliance with HIPAA, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has the authority to decide which particular codes should be used to identify administrative and medical expenses. This department, as a part of the compliance strategy, can create a safe identification system for clients, insurance carriers and health-care providers. This ID system is a national system.

HHS also has the authority to implement any other procedure necessary to secure private or personal information. Various organizations comply with HIPAA within certain prescribed time limits. Some of them are given 24 months, and those going for small plans can have around 36 months.

Any employer acting as a health care provider must comply with standards set up by HIPAA. There are penalties for non-compliance of HIPAA standards. The rules and regulations for various procedures set up under HIPAA may not be that easy to understand, for an individual. There are several organizations which can help you to comply with HIPAA standards. The help is available online as well as offline. A number of training courses are available for doctors, nurses and anyone else who is interested in learning easy and simple compliance procedures related to HIPAA. These training courses and programs are useful, especially for administrators, physicians and practice managers. Such programs are available online also. A certificate is provided after you complete the program.



HIPAA provides detailed information on HIPAA, HIPAA Compliance, HIPAA Laws, HIPAA Software and more. HIPAA is affliated with Electronic Medical Record Systems.

No Living Will & Power Of Attorney? HIPAA Law Shuts You Out

What do you mean I can't find out about my husband's accident injuries? Why can't we move my mother to the nice nursing-home down the street? The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA caused two of my clients to live through these very situations.

A husband and wife were involved in a terrible automobile accident. The husband was seriously injured. His wife wanted to make certain that the needed medical attention was given to her husband. The wife could not get any medical information from her doctor. Even though she was the wife, the new HIPAA law and regulations prevents her from receiving medical information without specific written authorization!

In another case, an elderly widow lady became incapacitated. Her two children wanted to place her in a nursing home so that she would receive adequate care. Even though they had a living will and health-care power of attorney for their mother, they were required to go to court and be appointed her guardians so that they could place their mother in the health care facility.

What is the HIPAA Law all about?

The HIPAA Law in a Nutshell

HIPAA took effect on April 14, 2003.

This legislation applies to virtually every physician, nurse, pharmacist, dentist, and health care provider in the nation. It impacts everyone's access to health care information.

What does this privacy act mean? The regulations stress that health care providers must limit health information to those who are intended to receive it. This means health care information cannot be released to any unauthorized person. This may mean you may not be able to receive medical records for your spouse or parent.

HIPAA Violation Penalties

The penalties for health care providers are staggering. For each disclosure violation, there is a $100 fine. If the violation is knowing, there are criminal penalties of a $50,000 fine and up to one year in prison. If information is provided or obtained under false pretenses, there is $100,000 fine and up to five years in prison. If the wrongful sale, transfer or use of the information was for commercial advantage, there is a $250,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison.

How does this affect you? To ensure an easy transition, you must have the appropriate medical release language to comply with HIPAA in three of your estate planning documents.

Documents to Update

The documents which need to be updated are:

 

• Your Living Will and Health Care Power of Attorney
• Your Living Trust
• Your Durable Power of Attorney

 

What if I do nothing?

You may be forced to sign the doctor's or hospitals forms in a stressful emergency situation. These documents may not reflect your choices and may contain confusing legal and/or medical terminology. Or you may be unable to sign anything and may repeat one of the above scenarios.

If your documents were created before 2003 and have not been amended since, have your attorney review them for HIPAA compliant language. Are you missing some or all of these documents? Make an appointment today!

Visit http://www.stevenallen.com for tips and tools on Wealth Preservation. You can also subscribe to his monthly newsletter Secrets To Wealth Preservation. Steven W. Allen has been an Estate Planning attorney for over 30 years. He is a member of the Arizona Bar Association, National Lawyers Association, National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and National Speakers Association. He is the author of four books including the most recent You Can’t Take It With You...So How Will You Leave It Behind?. Go to http://www.EstatePlanningDr.com for your 3 free chapters.

Health Insurance; COBRA; OBRA; HIPAA; Medicare; Definitions, Relationships

Health Insurance; COBRA; OBRA; HIPAA; Medicare. If asked, could you state that you knew that all 5 of these topics had the same thing in common: medical insurance coverage for you and, perhaps, your family? Would you know the qualifications for each? Well, in this article, we will discuss them. For a timeline that depicts, graphically, the time relationship between them, please see the timeline in www.disabilitykey.com.

HEALTH INSURANCE Coverage from Work

If we are lucky, we, and/or our spouse, work for a company that provides, as a benefit, health insurance coverage for us and our family. If so, we are very lucky. Even if that is true, there are some key things that you might want to look at to see if you have ENOUGH coverage.

1) From your Human Resources Department (or wherever else you would go to get information about your health insurance) get what is called a "Summary Plan Description" (SPD). This document should be kept where you can always find it, as it contains all the information you will need about what your insurance covers and what it doesn't.

2) Look up "Coverage" and "non-coverage" in your SPD.

These will tell you what your plan covers and doesn't cover. You need to see if, perhaps, you or one of the covered members of your family has a condition or circumstance that might not be covered, where you need additional coverage. For example, let's say that your family has a history of cancer; perhaps your plan restricts the number of hospitalization days for care; or, restricts the days per condition. In this case, (like my children) you might want to get additional "cancer insurance" (I think that AFLAC might provide this type of coverage).

It would be a good idea to contact a Health Insurance benefit Broker and ask him/her to read your SPD and see if you have any gaps in coverage. They then can help you supplement coverage BEFORE YOU NEED IT!

NO HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE

You might be one of the growing members of our society that, through one circumstance or another, does NOT have health insurance coverage for your family. In this case, I strongly encourage you to contact a Health Insurance Broker and get immediate coverage of what is called "catestrophic" (not sure if I spelled this correctly) coverage. In this type of coverage, you will generally have large deductibles, but will have coverage if, say, one of you has to go into the hospital.

CONTACTING A BENEFITS INSURANCE BROKER

Whenever you call or email a Health Insurance Broker, it is very important to prepare ahead of time. WHAT, specifically are you looking for; how much can you afford to pay every month; what circumstances do you want to make sure that your family is covered for. In this way, you can make sure to focus on your critical needs.

COBRA

COBRA is an acronym ( how can I spell acronym correctly, yet not be sure that I spelled catestrophic correctly?) that stands for: Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. Basically, it is a federal law that allows you to pay for your Company-paid health insurance, as an active member, if you no longer work for that company for, generally 18 additional months.

1) COBRA is "triggered" (that is, you, or a covered member of your family, become eligible for COBRA) by events such as the following: resignation from the company; termination (FOR ANY REASON) from the company; divorce of a spouse; a covered chile's birthday makes them ineligible for coverage. These are the main "triggering" events for COBRA.

2) Now, when eligible for COBRA, you will be asked to pay for 100% to 105% of the company's employee/employee and family coverage amount. You should get a letter from your company explaining what that amount will be. BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO TAKE COBRA, there are some important things for you to consider.

What will be your cost, and what will be the coverage for that cost? Sometimes the cost is too much for the coverage. In these cases, you might want to select HIPAA coverage, instead (see HIPAA below).

Or, you might just want to get catestrophic coverage as was mentioned earlier, and wait for full coverage under your next job.

Part of this decision should be whether or not you or a member of your family has what is called a "pre-exisitng coverage" condition.

Here again, before automatically taking COBRA, it would be wise to contact a Benefits Insurance Broker and give him/her all of your options, and get their input. I have worked extensively with a Benefits Insurance Broker, and he is absolutely fantastic!

OBRA

What, you ask, is OBRA? I've never heard of it, you say, and no one I know has heard of it either! Well, that's because, 99% of Human Resource or Benefit folks that I know have never heard of it! OBRA is a federal law that was passed that extends COBRA for an additional 11 months FOR DISABILITY PURPOSES ONLY!! Why, you ask, is this important? Thanks for asking, let's see if I can explain.

If you are as nieve (did I spell this wrong too? sorry!) as I was when I first started looking to bridge my health insurance from working to Medicare, I assumed that when I got through all of the hoops to qualify for SSDI (Social Security Disabililty Insurance) I'd IMMEDIATELY be eligible for Medicare, RIGHT??? WRONG!!!!

When you FINALLY qualify for SSDI, you have to wait for 5 months before you get your first check. AND, the rules state that, you are eligible for Medicare 2 years (24 months) FROM THE DATE OF YOUR FIRST SSDI PAYMENT. Well, if you add 24 + 5 you get, 29 months between qualifying for SSDI, and Medicare coverage.

OK, I said earlier that COBRA is for 18 months of coverage. Well guess what 18 months of COBRA + 11 months of OBRA equal - 29 months!

BUT, there are two catches to OBRA; first of all, you have a small window of 30 - 60 days to apply ( this window opens the date of your SSDI approval); and, it can cost up to 150% of your plan coverage amount. BUT, if you have a "previously existing condition" this might be the best way for you to proceed.

Again, it is important to contact a Health Insurance Broker to help you with the risk/cost ratio of all of these situations.

It is also improtant to know all of these deadlines as you plan to ensure that you and your family have important health insurance coverage.

HIPAA

HIPAA is a federal law that is called, briefly, the "portability" law for health insurance. What that means is that when you leave a group (read company-paid plan), the carrier that provided that plan, must offer to you, another plan, different from COBRA, when you leave the group coverage. Generally this will be what is called a "bare bones" plan. Again, the best thing for you to do is to call/email a Health Insurance/Benefits Broker with all of your information: SPD, COBRA info, HIPAA info, needs, cost limits, and let him/her help you find the optimum plan coverage for you.

MEDICARE

OK, now, finally, we've reached Medicare! BUT (you really didn't think it would be that easy, did you?) if you have qualified for Medicare because of disability, there are RESTRICTIONS (of COURSE there are!).

First of all, if you are qualifying for Medicare because of disability, you are probably under the age of 65 - normal retirement age.

Medicare coverage does NOT cover prescription drugs, which, those of us with disabilities probably need, and which cost lots.

But, Congress prescribed that states (all but 11) offer what is called "Medicare supplement" plans, some of which do offer prescription coverages. BUT, these plans ARE NOT REQUIRED TO, and do not, offer these medicare supplement plans that offer prescription coverages to folks who qualify under age 65! So, if you are qualifying because of disability, your medical insurance plan doesn't cover one of your primary cost expenditures!

Here again is where you need to contact a health insurance/benefit broker. Again, he/she can work with you, and your specific circumstances, to get you the coverage you need.

Hope that this information was helpful to you. If you have any questions, please feel to ask them by commenting on this blog, and I'll be happy to get you an answer.

About Disabilitykey.com & Carolyn Magura:

Disabilitykey.com is a website designed to assist each person in his/her own unique quest to navigate through the difficult and often conflicting and misleading information about coping with disabilities.

Carolyn Magura, noted disability / ADA expert, has written an e-Book documenting the process that allowed her to:

a) continue to work and receive her “full salary” while on Long Term Disability; and

b) become the first person in her State to qualify for Social Security Disability the FIRST TIME, in UNDER 30 DAYS.

Click here to receive Carolyn 's easy-to-read, easy-to-follow direct guide through this difficult, trying process. If you are disabled, don't let this disabiling process

 disable you. Read Carolyns Disability Key Blog.