Ask Our Specialists

Thank you for your interest in purchasing visitors insurance for your parents or in-laws. The companies you mentioned do not provide visitors insurance. What you see on this web site are all the major companies in the US market that provide visitors insurance. 1. For your father, who is 70+, I would recommend /patriot-america-lite-insurance/ for $50,000 and /patriot-america-platinum-insurance/ for $100,000 policy maximum. Please read /visitors-insurance-for-parents-visiting-usa-70-to-79-years-age-group/ for further details. For your mother who is 68 years old, I would recommend /atlasamerica-insurance/ 2. All the plans I mentioned in #1 are PPO plans. You get an insurance card. There are many doctors and hospitals in the network. You just take the card to them and they can bill directly. More details at /what-is-visitors-insurance/ If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact us at any time.

@insubuy - I want to understand what is the advantage of a comprehensive plan like Atlas over a plan like Inbound Guest for someone above 70 ? Does PPO provide better rates finally in any major incidents ? Thanks

1. Inbound USA is a fixed coverage plan. Fixed coverage plans pay a fixed amount for each and every procedure and you pay the difference. e.g., it will pay $55 for Dr visit, $250 for ER visit, $2750 for surgery and so on. That means, if you have $40,000 surgery, it will pay $2,750 and you pay the difference beyond that yourself. Please read /visitors-insurance-risks-of-purchasing-fixed-coverage/ to understand more. On the other hand, Atlas America is a comprehensive coverage plan. That means that it does not have the individual sub limits for each and every procedure. e.g., if you have $40,000 surgery, it will pay all $40,000 in eligible expense and you will only be responsible for the deductible + coinsurance, if any. You can read about fixed vs comprehensive coverage plans at /visitors-insurance/ Therefore, we always recommend everyone to buy comprehensive coverage plans only. 2. If the plan participates in PPO network (Atlas America does), and if you visit the providers in the PPO network, they will only charge you the network negotiated fees, which are typically lower than their regular fees. I hope that answers your questions. If you have any other questions, please feel free to post them here or contact us at any time.

Thanks for the quick reply. On a different post, you had mentioned 'Even with PPO network's network negotiated fees, you will have to pay a large balance out of your pocket ". Do you have any guideline/rough approximation as to how much it could be for a major surgery for instance, for the Bay Area ?

1. That comment was posted when many fixed coverage plans participated in PPO networks. Now most fixed plans such as Inbound USA etc. don't participate in any PPO network. Therefore, the out of pocket would be even higher. Therefore, we always recommend everyone to purchase comprehensive coverage plans only. 2. Unfortunately, there is no way to make any such approximations as the costs vary a lot and many times, hospitals/doctors charge randomly, whatever they feel like.

Thanks again for the clarification; in your experience with comprehensive coverage plans, does it lower the out of pocket for the portion after policy maximum (say 50 K).

If the expenses are beyond the chosen policy maximum, no insurance company will pay anything any will have to pay 100% out of your pocket. Please note that network negotiated fees (PPO network discounted fees) apply only towards the eligible expenses. They do NOT apply towards ineligible expenses.

To understand better, I want to rephrase my question 1) With comprehensive insurance, in case of procedures that for eg: with network negotiated fees comes to 70 K and the policy max is 50k, is the OOP 10 k ? 2) Is 50 k comprehensive insurance for 70 + person generally considered a reasonable coverage, even with PPO negotiated fees ?

1. If network negotiated fees are $70,000 and the policy maximum is $50,000, you pay $70,000 - $50,000 = $20,000. Of course, within $50,000, you will still pay your deductible + coinsurance (which is 10% in network for first $5,000 = $500). 2. That is OK. However, $100,000 is preferred.