I was wondering if anyone has been able to get their health insurance companies to pay for their airplane tickets to Stanford or other hospitals?  If so, how?

Thank you,  ;)
Stephanie

Stephanie,

I guess I am probably one of the rare fortunate ones that was able to get my airfare paid for along with my brother and mom's airfare paid for when I went out for my surgeries.  I actually had to pay for it first and then was reimbursed for all my travel expenses and my mom and brother's expenses.  

I work for a rather good company, Northrop Grumman, that has excellent insurance.  Through a separate  company (National Health Services) that works directly with Blue Cross Blue Shield I was able to get the reimbursements.  The thing is that I would have never known this if it weren't for one of my bosses knowing a lot about the insurance end of things.  

My one suggestion to you and everyone else on this website that works for a fairly large company is to thoroughly research your benefits at your job and the insurance company that you have insurance with.  If you don't ask all the right questions with your benefits department, then you may miss out on these rarities.  It certainly never hurts to ask the questions.  

If you have any other questions regarding this, I can try and do some more research for you.  

Michelle

Thank you so much for this info.  I will check with my insurance company, but I doubt they will cover it.  They are a very small company.
Stephanie

Have you checked with the airlines?  They may offer some free or reduced rates for medical necessity.

Jenny

Stephanie:

Please check the Medical Air Travel Resources folder under the Moyamoya Related Information and Support folder on this website.  There, call Gene at the number under the reply from kath41.  I got free tickets for my mom and me through him/mercy medical airlift.  They are awesome!!  I was so feeling not deserving of it and grilled him about the process and service, that he finally got to the point where he said, have I allayed your guilty conscience enough to  book the ticket now?  We even had to change our ticket on the way home and he was very helpful in that as well.  In addition, since I was travelling with both parents, he was very accomodating in getting flights that had availability so my dad could buy a separate ticket.  It's a great service, I would definitely call them up!

Trina

I was unsuccessful when I contacted HMSA (Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliate) here in Hawaii......  I even asked why since nobody here could provide me the medical attention I needed.......but no luck. :-[