Sunday, November 4, 2012

Health Care on the Road…

Mayo Scottsdale Clinic

Health care seems to be the largest concerns keeping early retiree dreamers from pursuing their wanderlust to travel in RV’s. It would be great if one could simply walk into any medical facility and have all their medical needs taken care Mayo Scottsdale 010of while knowing they are receiving quality medical care. We are a long way from that in the United States so each of us must figure out the best medical insurance plan for our needs.

For those of us retirees fortunate enough to receive affordable insurance that is accepted at most medical care facilities, it is still a challenge finding quality medical care. The high cost of medical insurance does not necessarily guarantee that you will be able to receive the best standard of care while traveling on the road. We were very comfortable with the doctors and specialists at home in College Station so we needed to figure out how or where we'd receive care once we were traveling across the USA in our RV.

Mayo Scottsdale 002When we were due for our first yearly physical it happened we were in Florida. When I discovered there was a Mayo clinic in Jacksonville, I thought what a great place to try given their stellar reputation.  We called to inquire about appointments and discovered that luckily our Blue Cross Insurance was more than welcome there. The big key in insurance coverage is whether the facility is an In Network Provider or an Out of Network Provider. In Network means you will spend a ton less money. The Mayo is In Network for us so all we pay is our 45 buck co-pay.

Mayo Scottsdale 004Out of Network is bad…for example while we were in Oregon we experienced some out of network charges for Sharon’s surgery for her broken wrist. Instead of a small co-pay plus our larger deductible, it cost us over $4,000 dollars out of pocket after insurance… a lot of money for people who are retired and don’t make any money…

We came to the Scottsdale area this week mostly because there is also a Mayo Clinic nearby and we were due again for our annual physicals. We continue to be impressed at how the Mayo efficiently performs way more tests than a typical physical. For example in one day I had 3 shots, blood work, urinalysis, a chest X-ray, an EEG and a stress test all sandwiched between appointments with the Doctor I was assigned to. It did take all day but by the end of the day the results were summarized to me by my doctor who also provided me with printed copies of results and clinical notes for me to keep. All that would never happen that quickly where we use to go back home in Texas…

Teddy Bear Cholla CactiThe appointments we were scheduled allowed adequate time for lunch and we found that they have a fantastic interpretive nature trail on the clinic’s campus. This small loop trail may be one of the best interpretive trails I have hiked on and the pictures from todays blog are from that trail.

So for the last two days we each had our normal major medical checkups and once again we passed all the tests… Woooohoooo! Looks like we are good for another year of traveling around the great USA. There is yet another Mayo in Rochester Minnesota that we may need to visit for our next physicals….

11 comments:

  1. Mayo sounds like the way to go as there are a few of them spread around the country. Pretty impressive services!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good deal, glad you got a clean bill of health.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Welcome to Scottsdale, you picked a great time to be here. Glad all of your tests went well.

    ReplyDelete
  4. We really wanted to use Mayo in Jacksonville but once you are on medicare they told us that they take medicare for payment in full (minus your deductible of course) for some things but not for others. It turned out to be a good thing we didn't go there given the health issues that began for David shortly there after.

    Good for you two to be retired BEFORE 65. Those seem like the best years to us.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Very thoughtful blog about healthcare choices. Great news that you are both good to go for another year!

    ReplyDelete
  6. We're also considering setting up our medical stuff with the Mayo ... good to hear how efficiently things work ... you're the second or third person to say as much.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I wonder how the do with Medicare plus the Supplemental insurance. If they are an HMO thy probably do an Advantage type plan, and we don't fit with those. We will have to do more research when the house is ready. Someday!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Mayo in Rochester is their home, and I can attest to their greatness. I'll see how it goes for me at Mayo in Jacksonville on Wednesday...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Mayo Clinic sounds like they have their act together. Glad you got such good care and speedy care from them.

    ReplyDelete
  10. just casually John it sounds like you are making a good argument for why market forces will never be able to address our countries growing medical problems. the economist in me would ask... how difficult is it to be rational when you are in discomfort due to health problem? how reasonable is it to 'shop around' when you are totally disable from pain? I have witnessed at least two occasions in recent times where having 'exceptional health care benefit' actually encourage behavior that was detrimental to the individuals own health. the victim in both cases did walk out alive and the doctors in both cases did walked away with a lot of cash after destroying their clients health.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thank you so much for your thoughts on Mayo clinic. We thought we would have to got to emergency walk ins for our physicals. Glad to know about Mayo! We also have Blue Cross.

    ReplyDelete