Medical expenses while onboard

[My~Rumbly~Tumbly]

My insurance company will pay for all medical services needed while onboard and would even cover the expense of an emergency airlift should that ever become necessary, but from what they said (and from what I recall reading on these boards), I would likely need to pay Disney out of pocket and the insurance company would then reimburse me. We elected not to buy any other cruising insurance because our insurance in the end will pay for all these expenses, but I will be honest in saying that we are NOT wealthy people. In fact, we for the most part live paycheck to paycheck. We only afford the luxury of this vacation by my working a second job. There is no way I would be able to afford shelling out a ton of money to pay for medical expenses in advance, so tell me, worse case scenario, what is going to happen?! What happens when one cannot take care of a bill prior to leaving the ship (an unexpected bill- like for medical). My bet is that there have been people who have been stuck not being able to pay for things they should have controlled (like drinks, etc.), but what about the unexpected?

Thanks. Can you tell I'm really stressing now! It doesn't help that my child has been sick for two days with a fever of 103.

 

[Michelle]

Tammy, the actual visit to the med center is about $75, not that bad. And if you needed medicine that is VERY reasonable, I think I got antibiotics for about $6 on one cruise and they even gave me a few extra for free.

Hope your little one feels better soon!

 

[My~Rumbly~Tumbly]

Well that amount is certainly doable, it was just the bigger things- like I remember when Barb injured her leg? I was thinking that had to of cost a good amount of money.

 

[Michelle]

In instances like those, when you have medical insurance that covers it, I'm pretty sure they will work with the insurer for payment and you would pay anything not covered out of pocket.

 

[My~Rumbly~Tumbly]

whew- thanks Michelle. I feel better now

 

[LarryC]

A friend's wife needed to be evacuated from Cozumel due to food poisoning (incorrectly diagnosed on the ship as appendicitis). She was forced to disembark in Mexico. After looking at the sanitary conditions of the "hospital", her husband called for an air ambulance to take her to Houston. Charged it to his American Express card.

Total cost was around $10,000.

(This was not a Disney cruise, BTW).

 

[mom2tiggers]

My son fell on another kid out at the water playground at CC & smacked his jaw. By the time my husband got my son back to shore, my son had an injury the size of an orange sticking from his jaw. We immediately went to first aid & then back to the ship to see the doctor. The doctor had to take xrays. Our total bill (including medicine) was $90! They don't seem to be out to try to make a killing on medical bills there. That same visit would've cost me $300- 500 if we went to ANY E.R.!

The amount was charged to our room tab, and we put it on our credit card. I'm still waiting for my insurance to reimburse me (this was October). This would be hard to do if you had a huge medical bill (& the finance charges would be enormous). If you have a credit card though, you could always increase the limit for a short time if you had to.

 

[taswira]

I'm glad I read this thread. From now on I will make certain to use my American Express card for DCL check-in for my KTTW. My Visa and MasterCard have limits. My AmEx does not. I could easily put $10,000 or more on it IF necessary. I never travel without insurance, but if something MAJOR happened, it would be comforting not to worry about negotiating payment! For lesser medical problems, it sounds like the ship's doctor is quite reasonable.

 

[inkkognito]

The leg injury cost $700, and we put it all on our charge card. Thankfully, we always carry a spare card with enough "charging power" for emergencies, but I was wondering what they would have done if we didn't have it! Maybe they refuse to let you off the ship...hmmmm, maybe if I play my cards right, I can pop that kneecap off again on our Thanksgiving cruise and stay on the Wonder permanently.
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[DawnL]

This past July on the Western Cruise my DD came down with pink eye our 2nd day out - a visit to the Medical Unit including the antibiotics drops came to $95.00. They automatically charge it to your KTTW card and was paid with our credit card on file. The medical unit gives you copies of everything you need to submit to your insurance carrier. We were reimbursed 100% by our insurance because we had already met our deductible. The only issue was it took over 3 months to receive reimbursement because it is considered an OUT OF COUNTRY submittal and goes into a more lengthy review process.

 

[Debbie H]

Three months is the amount of time it takes for most insurance companies to reimburse. That is about average for paying physicians also. Some try to make it in 14-21 days but they (insurance co) always find a reason to hold up a claim. Also, when you submit a bill yourself, it is usually called "a dirty claim" because it wasn't electronically submitted. That means a real person has to open it up and read it and decide what to do with it at that point. That's why it takes so long.

 

[myfourkitties]

We were just on the Halloween Magic cruise and I had an asthma attack (the first one in 20 years!) the night before CC. Some crew members were painting the lockers in a maintenance area directly across the hall from our room. Although Disney didn't offer any reimbursement for the bill, they moved us to a different room for the night. But most importantly, the doctor and nurse were really great. I had a nebulizing treatment (smokin' the peace pipe!), a steroid injection, and an inhaler, plus the office visit charge, all for $133. Not bad considering the auto charge for an ER visit is $50. And they give you all of the necessary paperwork to turn it into your insurance after you get home. The staff was great!

 

[Donald's#1Fan]

I must post one more reply to bolster the services of the Medical Staff on board. On a recent cruise my son was treated for ear infections in both ears, total for the bill was about 160$ which included an pain meds, numbing ear drops and a very expensive antibiotic as well as much needed TLC for my son! We had continuous follow up calls from both the doctor and nurse that treated him and they even stated that they tried tracking us down one afternoon in person to see how he was doing, we felt very well cared for!