My wife has been hospitalized af FMI Spitaler Hospital in Interlachen. She has been there 4 days and the bill is approaching 20k us. Our travel Insurance says we must pay first and then seek reimbursement. Our Kaiser medical coverage uses a third party payment agent, Falk. Despite the hospital having previously accepted Falk guaranteed payments they now say they won't accept non Swiss agents. Any one else dealt with someting like this? Advice?
Posted by
Ontario, Canada
5487 posts
It is not at all unusual for European health care providers to not accept non European insurance. The usual practice is to pay the provider directly, and then submit all of the required documents to your insurer for reimbursement. Hopefully you have a robust set of credit cards that you can promptly pay off online. I'm sure they will accept a series of smaller payments. I hope your wife is feeling better very soon.
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
734 posts
I’m not sure who you’re travel insurance is with, but I would try calling them back again and just saying that you don’t have the funds to pay them
We had a similar issue with travel guard and a traveling companion of mine and we were able to get them to take over the payments by just calling them and saying look she doesn’t have a credit card that’s going to cover this limit. I’m not sure who your insurance is with so I’m not sure that will work but we were successful. Make sure you call during the day wherever it is you are calling. Don’t call after hours so if your insurance company is in New York, make sure you’re calling during the day, New York time.
Now we were in London I don’t know if that’s gonna make a difference or not. Good Luck
Posted by
Lynnwood, Washington
8913 posts
First of all, I wish your wife a speedy recovery! I know that this must be a very difficult time for you.
Health Insurance. You say you have Kaiser, which tells me you have urgent and emergency care anywhere in the world. This is good. We know at some point you will not be out of pocket. Kaiser has a special phone number for travel emergencies, have you been in contact through that number?
Travel Insurance. Do you have additional travel insurance coverage associated with one of your credit cards? Worth looking into. It might provide a bridge of funds. It is not unusual for travel insurance to be on a reimbursement basis to you.
Set up a payment plan with the hospital. It is all about communication. Temporary funding options as you wait for insurance could be credit cards, personal loans from your bank or credit union, personal loans from family, etc.
Wishing you and your wife the very best.