Case Study - International Travel With Medicare - Medical Emergency in Europe
Published on Tuesday, September 1, 2015
You never know when a medical emergency will occur, and when you rely on Medicare for insurance, understanding your coverage is essential before you travel internationally.
The Medical Emergency
One RoamRight customer was traveling through Europe with his wife. What started as nausea and diarrhea escalated over a few days into being disoriented and unable to walk. He was hospitalized and diagnosed with kidney failure, placed on dialysis and monitored.
Upon receiving the call for help, RoamRight’s 24/7 assistance provider worked with the treating physicians to assess the man’s situation. When his condition did not improve over several days, options for returning him to the United States were investigated. RoamRight’s medical transport specialists were called in to arrange an air ambulance return to the United States. With the guidance and support of RoamRight’s emergency assistance provider, the man was transported back to the United States for further care and treatment.
Paying for Treatment and Evacuation
Between the hospitalization and the air ambulance transport, the traveler’s bills totaled to more than $117,000. Medicare, his health provider in the United States, does not pay to foreign providers. Without a travel insurance policy, the traveler and his family would have to pay that expense themselves.
Fortunately, the traveler had purchased a RoamRight travel insurance policy prior to his trip. With the coverage provided by his RoamRight Preferred plan, he had up to $50,000 in emergency accident and sickness coverage and $500,000 of evacuation coverage. He also had unlimited access to our 24/7 assistance provider, which has a network of more than 4,500 global medical providers in more than 200 countries.
In Summary
The best way to summarize this traveler’s experience is through a quick calculation:
| Hospitalization Costs | $47,000 |
| Air Ambulance Repatriation | $70,000 |
| Total Medical Expenses | $117,000 |
| | |
| Cost of his RoamRight Travel Insurance Policy | $28 |
| Traveler’s Medical Deductible | $50 |
| Total Expenses Incurred by the Traveler | $78 |
Protecting and caring for your travelers is our business. Learn more about how RoamRight can protect your travelers the same way we protected this gentleman.