Hi! I’m Sandy Jones, Director of Member Services for SkyMed. I have been with SkyMed International for over six years and will be happy to respond to any questions you might have regarding SkyMed. SkyMed International, founded in1989, provides emergency medical air evacuation and travel-related services to North American travelers who are SkyMed members. Who needs SkyMed? There is a simple answer: anyone who travels more than 100 miles from their home as a vacationer, business traveler, timeshare owner, vacation club member or one of North American’s growing number of RV owners. When members travel more than 100 air miles from home and suffer a critical illness or injury, SKYMED TAKES THEM HOME to their health care providers.

SANDY.....

Fortunately, my health is "excellent" according to my current doctor....

My only home is my MoHo & my traveling companion is my delightful cat.

As I have not traveled at all in the past 4 years & while there is a possibility that I might at any point.... Is there a way to have Sky-Med without having to sign up/pay for every year that would provide for me & my cat?

At my "home-base" our SKP family members take care of each other when there there are health issues....

Thank you for your service...

ELIZABETH

Congratulations on your good health! We do offer short term memberships, which would cover travel ranging from 4 days up to 21 days, and this might be an option for you.
Unfortunately, our short term coverage would not provide coverage for your delightful cat. Only the annual memberships offer the option of pet return in the event you were injured or ill.

While I am interested in learning more abut the short term coverage, I would be very concerned about my companion & what might happen to him....please consider altering your coverage for short term subscribers....and tell me more about that coverage as well...

Elizabeth

SkyMed's short term coverage provides bedside to bedside air ambulance transport, should you become critically injured or ill, to your home hospital and doctors. Should you elect to stay in the admitting hospital, or cannot be stablized and moved, we fly a family member or friend to you immediately to offer assistance. Upon discharge, we would still provide transport home. Either scenario would include returning your RV or vehicles home as well. We cover travel in Canada, Mexico, Caribbean, Bahamas, Bermuda, Belize, Costa Rica and throughout the U.S. The short term membership is $9 per day per person.

Let me present a scenario; I'm interested if your full policy would cover this.

I am a fulltimer - therefore my "home" is wherever my RV is. Right? Or is it my legal residence in Livingston, TX?

Suppose I am in Arches NP and injure myself on a trail. Usually, a bad medical injury in that location results in a helicopter evacuation to Grand Junction, Co about 125 miles away. Lets assume that would happen to me.

1) would that be covered under the policy, or is the fact that my "home" is less than 100 miles from me preclude that.

2) If it is covered would you pay for transport back to my RV after the hospital stay.

3) IF you pay for transport back to the RV, could it be my wife picking me up and you would pay costs, or must it be an ambulance/medical transport of some sort.

4) if the injury requires convalescent time and I choose to do this on one of the deeded RV lots I own, would the policy provide transport of the RV and myself back to that RV lot from my "field" location. This RV lot is a deeded lot, but is NOT my legal residence.

Thanks.

Good Morning!
On your application we ask for two items of information - 1) your mailing address, and 2) your transport preference. The transport preference is extremely important, as this identifies where you would wish to be returned to should you have a critical injury or illness, either for further hospitalization and/or recuperation or following discharge. This is what also determines where the 100 mile radius begins, and where your RV will be returned. It must be a city and state (not the current location of your RV). Most full-timers chose a location where they have family to assist them. To address your specific questions:
1) Dependent on what was identified as your transport preference. If you are more 100 miles from your "transport preference," the answer is yes.
2)After discharge, you have 30 days to decide if you need SkyMed's help returning home. If so, we provide transport to your transport preference, and provide a professional driver to return your RV to your transport preference as well.
3) See above. Typically, in the circumstances you gave as an example, your wife would probably have moved your RV to the hospital so the she would have a place to stay while you were hospitalized.
4) Again, transportation is provided back to your transport preference (city and state). We are not concerned about legal residences, but rather where the member wishes to be transported (city and state).
I hope this has helped explain our services. Please feel free to contact me further for additional clarification on any of the points.

Thank you Sandy. That answered all my questions but the one on getting back to my RV from the Medivac location. In many instances this can be quite far away, and I doubt my wife would have moved the RV in many circumstances.

So, if I am medivaced 150 miles away from my rig is my only option to return to my "evacuation city", or will you assist in transport back to my rig?

Also, how often can the "evacuation location" be changed. If I buy a lifetime membership and seasonally operate from two locations, can I change the "home base" two times a year?

Hello again!

We accommodate the member's needs as much as possible. If you were discharged from the hospital, and ready to drive your RV, then yes, we would return you to where your RV was located. If you were discharged but not able or ready to drive, then we would return you and your wife to your transport preference via a commercial flight, and hire a professional driver to return your RV - whichever worked best for you. You have 30-days from the date of discharge to decide how we can best assist you.

By the way, if either of you are hosplitalized, we provide round-trip commercial airfare for a family member to fly in and help out as needed.

You can change your mailing address at any time by phone. The Transport Preference can only be changed in writing (email or fax is fine) and goes into effect 30 days from receipt. You can change this as many times per year, in writing, as you care to.

SkyMed's memberships are available in annual increments, up to 5 years, and of course you can take multiple 5-year memberships. Statistics show that 10 years is the average amount of time a full-timer is on the road, and because of this we have not seen a reason to offer lifetime memberships.

Thank you Sandy.

Sandy,

While I realize this is to take care of us while we are RVing, I want to know if the daily rate would cover us when we are on a cruise out of the U.S.? Tis would certainly be cheaper than that same insurance offered by the cruise line or the travel agent. And, since we are flying from our winter location to Florida, would it take us back oi our winter location? And, since we are not married, but live together, would it fly us both back?

Thanks so much--I've already learned a lot about what your company has to offer from your answers to previous questions!

Judie

Hi Judie

Actually, SkyMed covers you regardless of your mode of travel, whether RVing, driving or flying someplace, on a cruise, or just visiting relatives or friends.

We would provide coverage when you were on a cruise if you were within our covered areas (the Caribbean, Bahamas, Bermuda,Costa Rica, Belize, Mexico, Canada and throughout the U.S., including Hawaii and Alaska).

When you apply, SkyMed requests two pieces of information - one is a mailing address, and the second is your medical transport preference (where you would wish to be transported to in the event of a critical illness or injury), and they do not need to be the same. And yes, the patient and a companion are both covered.

One word on cruise coverage. While they do provide some coverage we do not (medical, trip cancellation in particular) their medical transport typically has either a set dollar amount of coverage (usually reimbursable), or it stipulates they will get you to the closest available hospital, which could very well be in a foreign country where medical care is certainly not up to U.S. standards, so read the contract carefully.

Hope this answered your questions.

Is there an option to be returned to one's home hospital in a non-critical or semi-critical situation? IE, say one has an infection or is having heart problems but not at the critical stage yet??
What about if one is already in a far from home hospital and a surgery is recomended. Could we elect to be transferred to our home hospital at that point?

As a Life Member of Medical Air Services Association "MASA" I have all this coverage Plus more.
Ron

quote:

As a Life Member of Medical Air Services Association "MASA" I have all this coverage Plus more.
Ron

Same here. Primary reason is they accept pre-existing conditions.

Dale