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Understanding My Expat Medical Insurance – Part 1

Good Neighbor Insurance provides expatriate medical insurance for individuals, couples, and families moving overseas.  We have over 25 years providing the best expat medical insurance available. The videos below will provide information on how to best use your global insurance while you are residing overseas.

  1. How does my deductible work in the U.S?
  2. How do I renew my expatriate medical insurance?
  3. Who can get an expatriate international medical insurance plan?
  4. What are copays on our expatriate medical insurance?
  5. Why my international insurance member portal is important
  6. Do I have office visit copays on my expatriate medical insurance?

 

Question – Doug, how does my deductible on my expatriate medical insurance work in the U.S?

Answer – Great question, Anna.  Yes, the deductible you choose on your expat insurance will be the deductible amount here in the U.S.

Here are a few other key points to share about your deductible in the U.S, Anna.

  • Do make sure you use your in-network medical network.  This will allow you to save money since in-network providers provide discounts to you. An in-network medical provider is a doctor, hospital or other medical facilities that accepts your global insurance. 
  • Your in-network deductible will be the amount you will pay out of your own pocket before your expat medical insurance starts paying for medical care.
  • You can see your in-network provider information on your insurance web portal and usually it is stated on your medical card.
  • You may see on your in-network provider, PPO.  This means Preferred Provider Organization.
  • Your deductible will start on your policy effective date or start on a calendar year which would start each January 1st, depending on the global medical insurance policy.
  • If your plan runs on a policy year, your effective date of coverage will be the start of your policy year.
  • For example – your expat medical insurance started on June 1st, Anna.  This means that your policy year deductible would start on June 1 and end on May 31st, the following year.
  • Whereas a calendar year deductible would start from January 1st to December 31st, that same year.  Do keep in mind that if your effective date is in August, for example, your deductible amount starts over on January 1st, the following year.
  • Lastly, Anna, to find all your global medical insurance benefits please head over to your expat insurance online portal for policyholders, or you can get a quick snapshot view of your summary schedule of benefits on your expat insurance brochure.

Change is always in the air!  So please check our web page at  https://www.gninsurance.com/health for the most up-to-date information on your expat medical insurance –

  • or call us at 480-813-9100 or toll free at 866-636-9100 here in Gilbert, Arizona, USA
  • or email us at info@gninsurance.com

Your GNI team here in Gilbert, Arizona, wishes you and your family safe and awe-inspiring expatriate travels, Anna.

https://www.gninsurance.com

 

Question – How do I renew my expatriate medical insurance, Doug?

Answer – That is a great question, Isla. If you’ve been living overseas for a year or more, you may wonder how you can keep your international medical insurance up to date without returning to your home country. 

Often, when your expatriate medical policy is close to its expiration, you may receive correspondence from your global insurance provider by email.  Isla, generally, you will be notified 30-60 days in advance, though sometimes you may have to log into your insurance provider’s website or “portal” to finalize your renewal.

If you’ve been working with a broker like Good Neighbor Insurance, we also send out an email about your expat insurance renewal. This way we can also help make sure you receive your renewal information since we may have more than one email address to connect with you.

Good Neighbor Insurance at www.gninsurance.com, is dedicated to helping you understand and use your international medical insurance benefits to their highest potential, so you can stay protected through all of your international adventures.

Learn about the global insurance benefits of your current expatriate plan, or get a quote for a new benefit-rich plan at gninsurance.com.

Change is always in the air!  So please check our global health insurance options on our web page at https://www.gninsurance.com/health for the most up-to-date information on your expat medical insurance –

  • or call us at 480-813-9100 or toll free at 866-636-9100 here in Gilbert, Arizona, USA
  • or email us at info@gninsurance.com

Your GNI team here in Gilbert, Arizona, wishes you and safe and awe-inspiring expatriate travels, Isla.

https://www.gninsurance.com

 

Are you looking for the best international insurance options while you live or work overseas?  How do you know if an expatriate international medical insurance plan is right for you?

International medical insurance plans are designed for people who live and work overseas, outside of their home country, for a year or more.  Whether you’re living overseas for work, or with your family, or you’ve chosen a nomad lifestyle, there are specialized international medical insurance plans designed for your lifestyle.  These expatriate medical insurance plans are designed for people who plan to live outside of their home country for one year or more.

Is an expatriate international medical insurance plan right for you? Find out with Good Neighbor Insurance.  We specialize in helping global citizens protect their lives, their families, and their wallets! We offer education on how to use your expat medical insurance while you are overseas.  We also provide comprehensive global insurance plans that include international health coverage, emergency evacuation coverage, international term life insurance, and much more.

Good Neighbor Insurance is a full-service international insurance broker dedicated to keeping you and your family and also your employees safe on every project around the world.

For the most up-to-date information on our expatriate insurance options please –

Safe Expatriate Travels – from your GNI Team here in Gilbert, Arizona!
https://www.gninsurance.com

 

Morning Doug, this is Cho. My wife Sofia and I are heading overseas for the next few years and will be residing in Vietnam. We are looking at all your expatriate medical insurance plans, https://www.gninsurance.com/health, for our international insurance cover for our family.  One of our questions, Doug, is we need to understand what copays mean on your expat insurance plans.  

Great question, Cho.  A co-pay is the portion of a medical service bill that you are responsible for before your insurance is billed.  Not all global insurance plans have co-pay benefits, Cho and Sofia.  Sometimes expatriate insurance only has a deductible and coinsurance benefit with no copays. This type of global insurance allows for a lower premium, such as our GMI expatriate insurance at https://www.gninsurance.com/health/img-gmi.

Commonly, a co-pay will be a nominal fee for service, such as $30 for a primary care visit and $60 for a specialist’s medical visit. This is just an example of one of our expatriate insurance plans, Cho. Your international insurance plan will specifically list your co-pays if they have this benefit. Typically, a co-pay is collected at the time of service.  However, it can also be billed later if there are questions about what your global insurance may cover.

Cho and Sofia, while you are at your doctor’s office visit, their administration will collect payment for your co-pay in the amount listed on your international medical insurance card.   Cho, sometimes you will be responsible to pay the entire cost of this medical service if the international healthcare provider cannot verify your global insurance or does not take direct insurance payment.  If you are asked to pay for the entire service, don’t worry Cho and Sofia. There is a simple process for your global insurance provider to reimburse you for the covered expenses.  This is called submitting a claim to your insurance.  You may submit a claim by following the directions provided in your expatriate medical insurance documentation, or by visiting your online insurance portal – which we will discuss a little later.

After you visit your medical care provider, you will receive in the mail or on your online insurance portal a document called an Explanation of Benefits, also called an EOB. This document is not a bill. Your EOB is simply a breakdown of what your international insurance company has paid, and what portion of the bill is your responsibility, if any.

Cho, with today’s technology, your online insurance portal will be the best way to retrieve your EOB.  When you purchase your international medical insurance plan, you will receive registration information to get on your online insurance portal.  Your insurance portal, Cho and Sofia, is the best place for you to find plan specific information as well as the best place to get in touch directly with your global insurance carrier.  You may log into your portal by visiting the website of your international insurance carrier and following the instructions provided with your plan documentation. 

Cho, once inside your insurance portal, you will have access to your EOBs and plan documentation.  You may use their self-service features to do things like submit claims and even renew your global insurance policy.

Cho and Sofia, to submit a claim, you will need the itemized receipt you received from your U.S. or international healthcare provider. You will simply fill out the claim form provided within your portal online, and take a picture or scan your receipt in order to be reimbursed for your covered medical expenses. Your international insurance company, Cho and Sofia, will review your medical claim and issue payment usually within 30 – 90 days of your claim (international insurance companies are provided more time to handle claims due to different global processes).  If you do have copays on your global insurance policy, Cho, your insurance portal will also include documentation on where you may use this benefit. 

When considering your co-pay, you may also have questions about your deductible, Cho and Sofia.  A deductible is an amount of money you may pay out of pocket for in a single year while on your international medical insurance plan before your global insurance company starts paying on your medical care.  International insurance does not work like U.S. domestic Affordable Care Act (ACA) medical insurance, Cho. Typically, your co-pay will not contribute toward your maximum out-of-pocket expenses. This means the money you pay as your co-pay does not accrue like the other service costs to meet your out-of-pocket maximum amount.

Cho and Sofia, some of our expat medical insurance plans have an option to choose a $0 deductible, which means you are not responsible for any of your health insurance costs outside the U.S. (up to your expat insurance plan dollar limit).  Some of our international insurance plans have a higher deductible option that even go up to $25,000. Most of our clients, since our founding in 1997, usually choose the $1,000 or $2,500 deductible limit for their global insurance plan, Cho and Sofia. 

It is important to understand how your specific expatriate insurance plan structures international co-pays and deductibles, Cho and Sofia.  Your online insurance portal is a great resource for this and for sure, Cho and Sofia, your team at GNI here in Arizona is always here as your international insurance resource.

We understand insurance terminology can be confusing. We hope this video has helped you learn more about your co-pays with international health insurance plans.  Good Neighbor Insurance, here in Gilbert Arizona, is dedicated to helping you understand and use your global insurance benefits to their highest potential, so you can stay protected through all of your international adventures. Learn about the benefits of your current plan, or get a quote for a new benefit-rich international insurance plan at gninsurance.com.

Change is always in the air!  Check out our global health insurance options on our web page at https://www.gninsurance.com/health for the most up-to-date information on your expat medical insurance –

Your GNI team here in Gilbert, Arizona, wishes you all safe and awe-inspiring expatriate travels, Cho and Sofia!

www.gninsurance.com

 

My wife and I live on our international medical insurance member portal, Doug.  Do you know why?

Why is that Carlos and Annisa?

Doug, our member portal allows us to do many things such as –

  • Review our expat insurance benefits
  • Print or email to us our ID medical cards
  • Allow us to pre-certify a medical procedure
  • It is our claims center which allows us to send medical claims to our global insurance company, see our medical claims in queue, and be able to grab our EOBs (Explanation of Benefits) once each of our medical claims has been completed.
  • Print our email us our visa letter to enter Thailand
  • Update our payment information
  • Update our contact information like our emails, home address in the U.S. and even our Thailand mailing address.
  • And there is so much more we can do on our expatriate medical insurance member portal.
  • It just makes it so nice to have all of our international insurance information for our family in one place, Doug.

So true, Carlos and Annisa. 

  • Your member portal is a great place to know all about your expat medical insurance as well as a great place to track your medical claims.
  • As you have noticed Carlos and Annisa, your member portal is a program you can log into to see and manage all of your international medical insurance-related information 24/7.
  • And when you are stuck and cannot find what you are looking for, you can connect with us at GNI and we will assist you.

Carlos and Annisa, every global medical insurance company that Good Neighbor Insurance (GNI) works with has a member portal for their clients.

Your Good Neighbor Insurance Team is dedicated to helping you understand and use your expatriate medical insurance benefits to your highest potential, so you can stay protected through all of your global adventures, Carlos and Annisa.

Change is always in the air!  So please check our global health insurance options on our web page at https://www.gninsurance.com/health for the most up-to-date information on your expat medical insurance.

Good Neighbor Insurance is a full-service international insurance broker dedicated to keeping you and your family and also your employees safe on every project around the world.

For the most up-to-date information on our expatriate insurance options please –

Your GNI team here in Gilbert, Arizona, wishes you and safe and awe-inspiring expatriate travels, Carlos and Annisa!
www.gninsurance.com

 

My wife and I are on the GMI expatriate policy with you all at Good Neighbor Insurance, https://www.gninsurance.com/health/img-gmi, Doug.

We really enjoy the medical benefits of our GMI international insurance and especially the lower premiums with lower out-of-pocket maximums than our U.S. domestic insurance, Doug.  But we were wondering if our GMI expat medical insurance has any office visit copays?

Great question, Aki and Melissa!

  • Yes, your maximum out-of-pocket dollar amount being really low with your GMI policy
    • Outside the U.S., your out-of-pocket dollar amount is $500 per policy period per each person
    • And in the U.S. per policy period for each of you, it will be your deductible of $1,000 with co-insurance.
  • In fact, today’s maximum out-of-pocket (2022 plan year) with a U.S. domestic insurance plan is $8,700 for an individual and $17,400 for a family.  And the monthly premiums are a lot higher than what you are paying on your global insurance, Aki.

As for your question on medical doctor visit copays

  • You do not have copays on your GMI expat policy.
  • However, your deductible outside the U.S. is $500 each for you and your wife (your deductible is cut in half when used outside the U.S.). 

We do have expat medical insurance options that do have copay coverage. 

  • These international medical insurance plans do come with a higher premium. 
  • Having copays on a medical insurance plan usually causes monthly premiums to increase. This is why some global medical insurance plans do not have copay options.
  • Instead, global insurance plans, like the one you are on now, provide a lot lower deductible and maximum out-of-pocket dollar amount to help keep more of your money in your wallet.

Furthermore, Aki and Melissa, we do provide expatriate medical insurance plans that have doctor office visit copays.  Two of our most popular global insurance plans that provide doctor visit copays are our Cigna Global and Navigator expat insurance options at https://www.gninsurance.com/health.

Your Good Neighbor Insurance Team is dedicated to helping you understand and use your expatriate medical insurance benefits to your highest potential, so you can stay protected through all of your global adventures, Aki and Melissa.

Change is always in the air!  Check out our global health insurance options on our web page at https://www.gninsurance.com/health for the most up-to-date information on your expat medical insurance –

 

Your GNI team here in Gilbert, Arizona, wishes you all safe and awe-inspiring expatriate travels, Aki and Melissa!
www.gninsurance.com