I’ve written about navigating traveling healthcare insurance a few times now, with my most recent post breaking down common insurance questions I receive fairly often.
So I think now is the time to finally share my insurance mistake that led to over a thousand dollars in out of pocket expenses…
My Mistake
My mistake occurred last summer after finishing up my first traveling assignment in Boston. I finished my assignment August 31st and I drove home (back to Wisconsin), immediately that next day.
I arrived home early on September 2nd, and was immediately getting my material ready to begin my next local travel assignment in Minnesota that was coming up in a few weeks. Which was with a different traveling company than I was previously working for.
So I scheduled an appointment that Monday at my local doctors office to take care of a few tests that I needed to get done for this upcoming assignment.
I show up, and pay my insurance co-pay which I was expecting because I knew I was getting an elective test done that day too.
I go back with my doctor, I get my flu shot, run a TB blood test, and take my elective test. All but the elective test would be covered by my traveling company as these were necessary to begin my next contract.
While I’m back there, my doctor (since I haven’t been to my primary in probably 10 years) looks at my chart and sees that their are some elective vaccines that I am up for a renewal on. She says that with my insurance it would be covered and since I was there I might as well just get it done.
I agreed.
4 Months later, I receive a bill in the mail charging me for every test/procedure I had done. It was nearly $1300. I knew that this had to be a mistake so I called the hospital, who then informed me that my insurance said they wouldn’t be covering the bill.
Confused I called the insurance company. They told me that I actually didn’t have insurance when I went to the doctor and that I should contact my employer.
Even more confused, I contact my employer… I find out immediately that with that traveling company, my insurance is dropped at the end of the month that I worked my last shift in. My heart sunk.
It was September 3rd… the last day I worked was August 31st. My insurance was dropped that day…I went to the doctor without insurance.
My prior traveling company that I had worked for had an insurance plan that covered me for 3 weeks after my last day of work. And because this was only my third travel assignment at the time, I just thought that all the companies would work the same…
Instead, I had just made a very costly mistake.
The Lesson
I learned a very expensive lesson that day about the importance of staying very organized as a traveling healthcare professional.
We are constantly working new jobs, with new companies, in new locations, so we have a lot of extra work, documentation, and dates that we are keeping track of all at once. At one point, I am sure I knew this information about my company, but I document this information.
Now, I am extra careful about these important dates and actually have created a spreadsheet that I use to keep track of when my insurance starts and ends. This allows me to always be on top of my coverage so that I avoid this costly mistake in the future.
Conclusion
I tell this story to both show you, that mistakes do happen even to someone who writes about traveling healthcare in his free time but also to point out how costly these mistakes can be.
It might be a little more work up front but it’s important to always ask about insurance when interviewing with travel companies. Then more importantly, to document when your insurance start and ends. Otherwise you may end up with a major bill in your hand at the end of the day.
At this point, I think I have finally moved on from this mistake as I got myself to finally write about it, but it still hurts when I think back about how easily it could have been avoided.
So please, learn from my mistakes and make sure to stay organized while traveling because the rewards of it are unbeatable.
If you have more questions about insurance with traveling, feel free to check out my commonly asked questions post or if you have specific questions, please feel free to comment below or message me directly here
