Health insurance and Medicare matters..

[watcharacters]

 

 

I found out some time ago my union  health plan which is world wide coverage requires me to submit a claim first to Medicare before I can submit a claim  to the insurance carrier.

 

This I was told is the procedure.    I submit the claim to Medicare and it will be automatically rejected because I'm outside the USA.   Once that rejection is made I can then  submit  the claim to the ins. carrier.

 

Has anyone else dealt with this procedure?

 

I find this whole thing beyond logic.     If I submit a claim from a hospital in Bangkok, I'm obviously outside the border of the USA.   

 

I called different places in Guam, a US  territory, but was told  my Medicare will not work there.    I suppose it's some kind of closed loophole.    People born in Guam are USA citizens.

 

I pay around 5K USD a year for Medicare and  my union Ins which in the past was free to retirees, but with the complications of all the paperwork,  they win.   I don't bother with claim submissions.       I am  therefore  self paying in Thailand.

 

 

Anyone found a way around this?     I am past the age of buying health insurance from Bupa or anyone else as far as I can find on the Net.

 

What do you do?

 

 

 

 

 

[lopburi3]

Probably better to submit to medicare and then to insurance - only some time/postage involved and you win rather than them.

 

Your insurance appears to act as a Medicare supplicant once of age, rather than a stand alone policy - but having overseas coverage is a big plus so make use of it.  

[gk10002000]

I would be a little concerned about the rejected part.  I mean, I am not sure you can even file a claim, or get past the first stage, so that medicare would then reject the claim.  I mean the online thing may not even let you put anything in?  Obviously to the normal person that would sound like a rejection, but not accepting versus rejecting may not have the same meaning to what your company needs to see

[Pib]

 

Quote

I called different places in Guam, a US  territory, but was told  my Medicare will not work there.    I suppose it's some kind of closed loophole.    People born in Guam are USA citizens.

It works in Guam.  Just use the  Medicare Find and Compare to find medical service providers in Guam that accept Medicare.  For example, for hospitals accepting Medicare it shows:

 

 

 

 

Or use other websites like MedicareList.com to find medical providers in Guam which accept Medicare.  Like below search for Family Medicine providers in Guam accepting Medicare assignment.

http://www.medicarelist.com/family-medicine/gu/