Be prepared to have a great time, feel great
Going on vacation? Plan for good health
By DEBORAH STAYMAN and LORRAINE SIMPKINS
To be sure your summer vacation is really relaxing, take time to plan ahead for your family’s health-care needs.
For instance, can you take your health benefits with you?
It’s no fun to have a vacation interrupted by a medical problem. But it can be even worse to discover that your health insurance does not provide the benefits you expected. For instance, HMOs generally limit benefits for care received outside their service area.
If you’re in the Empire Plan, ask your agency’s health benefits administrator (HBA) for the booklet “On the Road with the Empire Plan” which tells how to use your health insurance while travelling outside New York state. It’s also useful for dependent students attending out-of-state schools.
Make sure your Empire Plan ID card has a “YLS” code in the lower right corner. Older cards lack this code which out-of-state hospitals may need for proper billing. So, you could be billed erroneously for thousands of dollars. If your card lacks this code, contact your agency HBA to request a new ID.
If you aren’t sure of the answers to these questions, ask your health plan:
• What benefits are available for emergency medical care and what does your plan consider an emergency?
• What benefits are available for non-emergency, but urgent medical care?
• Do the benefits for urgent and emergency care differ depending on the type of provider?
• Does your health plan have participating providers in the area where you’re going?
Empire Plan enrollees can access participating providers in several states besides New York. To locate a participating provider, call United HealthCare at 1-800-942-4640. To locate a participating pharmacy, call Express Scripts at 1-800-964-1888.
And some HMOs have agreements with other HMOs to allow their enrollees access to each other’s network of providers. Contact your HMO to find out if it has such an agreement.
• What procedures should you follow if you need medical care while on vacation? Who must be notified and how soon? What are the penalties if you don’t?
Empire Plan enrollees must call HealthCall at 1-800-992-1213 within 48 hours after an emergency or urgent hospital admission.
• Will you have to pay for the services when they’re received and, if so, how do you get reimbursed?
Rx for healthy vacation• Have enough prescribed medication for the time you’ll be away by carrying twice the normal supply — half on your person and half in your luggage.
• Avoid climate or altitude changes that could aggravate an existing condition. Higher altitudes can aggravate certain chronic lung or congestive-heart conditions, and cause altitude sickness. And many medications can increase your sensitivity to the sun.
• Make sure local cuisine doesn’t adversely affect your condition or react with your medication; know how foods are prepared and what ingredients are used.
• While traveling abroad, you may want to avoid salad, ice, rare meat and raw shellfish. Carry bottled water and/or water-purification products if water quality is questionable.
• Get all the immunizations required for your travel destination and be sure to allow enough time to receive all of them and develop effective immunity.
• Pack your family’s health-plan ID card(s) and important phone numbers, including your doctors’ names and phone numbers.
• Pack medical information your doctor advises you to take, such as a brief history of your medical condition and treatment, or a list of your food and drug allergies.
• Pack a first-aid kit.
Call your doctor before you leave if:
• You are going out of the
country for an extended time;
• You were recently hospitalized for a serious
condition or had major surgery;
• You have a chronic medical condition or are taking
prescription medicine; or
• You have a minor ailment such as a sore throat or
earache.