Disabled Veteran

Have not, But have been wondering if I can go to Emergency or if there is such a thing as Urgent Care as have insurance that only covers me for Emergency or Urgent card

ExpatLV20 wrote:

Here in the US the mission act was passed where I can walk into almost any urgent care clinic and be seen immediately.  I can also go to a hospital for an emergency and be covered 100%.  What about Thailand has anyone used this service yet?

There are no such service in Thailand. Not even for Thai people. People out of the social security system only pays 30 Baht for every visit to a government hospital in their province. Others have health insurances. It seems you don't know much about Thailand.

OUAT41 wrote:

Have not, But have been wondering if I can go to Emergency or if there is such a thing as Urgent Care as have insurance that only covers me for Emergency or Urgent card

As a foreigner you need a health insurance covering everything or you pay cash. Don't be naive and think you won't have to pay because you got sick all of a sudden.

ExpatLV20 wrote:

Here in the US the mission act was passed where I can walk into almost any urgent care clinic and be seen immediately.  I can also go to a hospital for an emergency and be covered 100%.  What about Thailand has anyone used this service yet?

The Mission Act is only applicable within the geographic areas where VA care is normally available; meaning, within the 50 United States and the territories.

Outside of those areas you can only use the VA Foreign Medical Program and the problem must either be directly related to a service connected condition or be aggravated by a service connected condition.

Someone is probably going to say it's different if you have Tricare, but you weren't asking about Tricare you are asking about VA Healthcare.

With the VA Foreign Medical Program, you either have to pay for your care up front or you have to find a healthcare provider who will bill the Foreign Medical Program directly.

While that's conceivably possible, I have never heard of anyone, anywhere in the world who is receiving care through the Foreign Medical Program and has a provider who is billing the Foreign Medical Program for them directly.

So if you contract an illness or you are injured, it's virtually certain that the VA Foreign Medical Program will deny coverage for any claim you make.

They did make an exception for the cost of receiving covid-19 vaccinations, but they are not allowing claims for the cost of care for contracting covid-19.

Turn around time for a claim to be processed is estimated by them to be 6 to 8 weeks, but that was before covid-19 hit and they are just as understaffed as everyone else.

So it's reasonable now to expect a claim to take 3 months to be processed.

Be prepared to pay for all care upfront.

There are a couple of links to hospitals which will accommodate or do Direct Billing. I think that is why the FMP issues  an FMP Benefits Authorization Letter. FMP only covers those issues for which a veteran might be service connected for. I have not done or used Direct Billing because the number of hospitals in Thailand which I believe might accept FMP are extremely limited.  The FMP works, but takes a while to process a check.

Hey Piney M,

Welcome to Expat.com

Thank you for the input.

Since you are new, do not forget to say some words about yourself here >  New members of the Thailand forum, introduce yourselves here - 2022 so that we know how to assist you.

Cheers,

Cheryl

Expat.com team