Post cruise question:Father used medical facility onboard

[HappyGilmore]

We sailed on the Dream on a 5 day cruise and had to see the Dr onboard because my Father, who is diabetic, forgot to pack his injectible daily insulin. The cost for the DCL Dr was a little under $200.00 for what he needed (care and medication). I used my credit card for the onboard charges for everyone in our travel party (all family) so when he paid at the medical facility with his room card it billed to me. We had DCl trip insurance not sure if there is anything applicable with that policy that could help us but thought I would throw that in just in case.

I have asked my father (retired) to do what he could to talk to his insurance company to find out what needs to be done in order to get re imbursed for the charges. I work full time and then some and since he is retired and his insurace etc it would be easier for me if he could take care if it.

I dont know if it is even possible to get the insurance (whatever policy) to pay for this bill since this happened due to his own doing (not a medical emergency type illness/issue). I think he has medicare and some kind of insurance that he actually bought through his car/home insurance agent but I don't know what type of insurance it is. He told me that he took the paperwork out to his insurance agent. I told him I thought he needed to call like Aetna or whoever he has medical insurance with. Something tells me that a company like State Farm/Allstate/Progressive doesn't have much to do with medical insurance but I may be mistaken and he doesn't elaborate easily as to what product he has.

My Father doesn't communicate well and can be stubborn/difficult to deal with. The info he has given me about who he talked to and what he/they are doing to find out if this can be submitted for reimbursement is very limited. I thought I would post here to see if someone has encountered a similiar situation such as needed onboard medical care/ medicine that was forgotten at home and if/how to go about getting paid back if it is even possible.

My concern is that there may be a time frame that we have to get this taken care of and he may be heading in the wrong direction. Can anyone share any experiences that may help me figure out what if anything I could or should be doing to get the bill submitted to be paid by his medical as if he were on land?

 

[mattmommy]

I broke a toe while on an excursion (beach day) and had to have an x-ray. I had to submit the bill to my insurance first and whatever was leftover went through the extra insurance I paid for.

Luckily for me, my husbands insurance paid for the whole thing.

It seems like the only way this will get solved is if you do the legwork.

 

[Gigi22]

My experience with making claims through travel health insurance policies is that you often have to contact the insurance company first, and then get the treatment. For our current policy, failure to do so results in a 30% penalty on the reimbursement. Not sure if this would apply in your father's case.

 

[lpereira]

Medicare will only pay for it if you were within a certain distance of a us port. I don't remember the exact wording. the other policy may be some sort of medigap policy that picks up where medicare leaves off. The general rule with them is the only pay if its a medicare covered service. You're going to have to get a look at his policies for sure to see what he has. The sooner the better.
The other thing you can do is call it the price of being raised by a loving parent. Lord knows I've had to pay some medical bills for my mother that hurt coming out my wallet.

 

[MTmomma]

On the bill, there should be ICD-9 and CPT, or HCPCS codes listed, along with the charges, and the amount paid, etc. This needs to be submitted to his health insurance first, then to medigap coverage, THEN to the travel insurance company. It would not hurt to call the travel insurance company NOW, just so they have a heads up. Not sure exactly how Medicare would handle this as I have never run across this billing scenario