My employer offers several health insurance coverage options. I've always gone with a well-known HMO, and haven't run across any issues until recently. I'm traveling for work this week, and a couple days ago I ended up with a nasty case of food poisoning. I'm on the mend now, but for awhile I was worried I might need to seek medical care for an IV, since dehydration is the biggest threat with that type of illness. I was looking for an in-network or affilliate provider, but it turns out the HMO doesn't operate - at all - in this part of the country.

My question is, had I needed to seek emergency medical care, would I be no better off from a financial standpoint if I had no medical insurance at all? From what I can gather, it seems I would have been stuck with the entire medical bill out of pocket simply because my HMO doesn't operate here. Is that right?

If that's the case, I'm relieved open season is almost here.

My wife needed care once while we were traveling. Coincidentally, it was in Hawaii. It turned out her health HMO has a relationship with an HMO over there. She was able to get care and it was covered normally.

Other than that... I think you can usually get emergency coverage and/or it may be available under your out of network coverage. I am not sure if there is any requirement that one or both of those be true... I have certainly seen plans on open enrollment menus that didn't seem to have any out of network coverage at all. So, I would love to know the answer to the same question!

Have you tried calling your health plan and asking?