Ask Our Specialists

Hello, Thank you very much for posting your detailed experience with Protection America. Most people avoid posting good experiences as they consider that is how insurance should work and it is normal procedure and don't feel urge to report. And as we as a broker, work for you, and not for the insurance company, come to know about the claims experiences (good or bad) only when our customers report. We are glad to know that your claims were processed and the bills were paid. Protection America (IMG) is indeed the best visitors medical insurance plan available in market today. And once again, it has proved itself. I reccommend everyone to purchase it for their relatives visiting USA. drs, if you don't mind, could you please give me your certificate number and name in the private message or through an email, just for my reference purposes? Of course, we will never bother you with phone calls or will never provide your contact information to any one unless you specifically authorize us to do so. We respect your privacy and your time. Protection America is available for instant purchase at /patriot-america-lite/visitor-insurance/ Would you still recommend Protection America for the following instance? My father is 74 and my mother is 64.. they are going to be here for approximately 3+ months from October 2007 to Jan 2008. thanks, -Arun For 70+, if you want $50,000 comprehensive, go for Protection America. if you want $100,000 comprehensive, go for WorldMed. Both available at / Thanks for the information. Just wondering if World Med is as good as IMG as far as claims is concerned. Any positive postings that you have come across? Or any information that you know personally about how they have handled claims? thanks, -Arun Yes, WorldMed is pretty good as well. So it is actually time for my parents to arrive now. For my mother , who is 64 I can buy Protection America and for my father who is 74, I can buy WorldMed and cover upto 100000 correct? Or would you suggest World Med for both of them... any advantage in taking separate plans because of different age group? thanks much, -Arun There is no advantage in putting both parents in the same application. Anyway, policy maximum is per person, deductible is per person, premium is per person. Everything just adds up. If you want to buy $100,000 for both of them, go ahead and purchase Protection America for mother and WorldMed for father. If you want to buy $500,000 for your mother, you can buy WorldMed for both of them as well.

You don't have to contact anyone after purchasing the insurance. Read /patriot-america-lite/visitor-insurance/#precertification to understand the precertification process. In short, you have to contact IMG if you need to get admitted into the hospital or have some major treatment. Thanks a lot for the immediate reply.

If you have $1000 deductible, you will have to pay that first before insurance company pays anything at all. Therefore, you will have to pay that $512 yourself. In my experience, $512 is a very reasonable amount. Most of the times, when people go to the emergency room, the bill is between $1000 and $2000, even if they don't do any treatment. I am telling this based on my personal experience with my own family members and also based on myself being in this business for so many years. Therefore, in my opinion, you should simply pay $512 to the hospital. Having said that, it would be entirely between you and the hospital how you would like to handle that amount.

That is the copay you have to pay if you get your prescription filled at WalMart. That is applicable only for people that comprehensive health insurance. And this only in some state, only for selected generic drugs. Not all drugs. No brand name drugs. It is not for people without health insurance. By no means, WalMart is selling all the prescription drugs for $4. I do have comprehensive health insurance but the co-pay for generic drugs on my plan is $10. So, if the walmart in my area offers $4 generics, how can I get that for $10? I believe that you will have to pay $4 in that case, and not $10. The info on this thread is quite wrong.. Walmart is selling a certain list of generics (lots, maybe not every generic) at $4 . This is the final price, not the copay. I just purchased a prescription for Amoxicillin last weekend for my mother, and paid $4 , no insurance involved. IF you have an insurance that has a copay LOWER than $4 (very unlikely), you can choose to go that route (at Walmart or any other place as should be obvious). But Walmart's $4 prescription drug cost is available to anyone (with a prescription ofcourse) and is the final out-the-door cost.

I assume that your debit card allows you to spend in US dollars. Most likely, your debit card is not allowing you to make an online purchase. I suggest that you call your bank, tell them the amount of insurance is you are purchasing online and ask them to manually authorize it. Then try again. If you are still having problems, please contact us and we will figure something out.

I advise paying off the bills to avoid future trouble. I-134 means general sponsorship and does not mean it needs to list every single type of expense that the visitor may incur. For next visit, I would also advise you to purchase comprehensive coverage plan from US company so that you can get covered completely. Most plans in India are fixed coverage plans above age 55 and that is why they are paying little. Read about different types of insurance plans at visitors insurance types I do appreciate your response. On this forum, people have come across this situation, but no one has added any aftermath about issues from collection or so. Are you aware of such cases where collection got after the sponserer based on I-134. I do keep getting bills from different medical groups, as they contract for the hospital, and am not sure when will that stop. What is the practical way out based on your experience. Hospital, and docs too want to make profit out of money, so how to get down to reasonable level. The bills from these small groups is trickling around 2 -3 K but there are multiple such groups gettign total amount high. So, each group feels the amount too small to not to offer any disccount. Regards. There is no magical way to solve this. You will have to work it out with the hospitals and doctors and do whatever best you can do. Unfortunately, all the information I have is what is posted by people like you. People post questions and look for suggestions because they need help. However, once they figure it out, they don't care any more because they are all set and most don't bother to report back. Therefore, you don't get the complete picture just by reading the forums. I can tell you that providers are continuously finding new ways to get their money no matter what. I will narrate my recent experience. I have a health insurance (Aetna PPO) through my employer that does not having pre-existing conditions clause or anything like that, just like most working people have here in the US. I went to the doctor yesterday for my illness. I was a new patient and I was asked to fill the new patient form. It asked for the social security number. I left it blank intentionally. The receptionist asked to fill indicating that it is a required information. I argued that social security number is for my retirement purposes and it has nothing to do with my Dr. visit. She replied that if I don't want to provide SSN, I will have to pay all the money upfront and file claim with the insurance company. She argued that if the insurance company does not pay and if the patient does not pay, they have to send to the collection agencies. I had no choice other than to put my social security number. Otherwise, I would have to run around taking the Dr. appts and the next Dr. may do the same, who knows. I have myself experienced this several times from different providers. Now, let's come back to the visitors insurance. Visitors don't have social security number. In this case, that same provider I visited would either ask for the relative's social security number (that is, your SSN if you took your mother's to the Dr) or ask you to pay everything upfront, even though you might have PPO insurance and they would otherwise bill the insurance company directly. There is nothing you can do in such scenarios. You simply don't have better choice. Have you had any updates on the situation of your parents pending medical bills? Did you finally have to pay? Would really like to understand how you resolved it finally?