Travel outside the U.S.
Medicare usually doesn’t cover health care while you’re traveling outside the U.S. but there are some exceptions
Description
The 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa are considered part of the U.S. Anywhere else is considered outside the U.S.
Coverage details
- In some cases, Medicare Part B (Medical Insurance) may pay for services that you get on board a ship within the territorial waters adjoining the land areas of the U.S.
- Medicare may also pay for inpatient hospital, doctor, and ambulance services you get in a foreign country in rare cases, if you’re eligible.
- Medicare may cover medically necessary ambulance transportation to a foreign hospital only with admission for medically necessary covered inpatient hospital services.
- Medicare drug plans don't cover prescription drugs you buy outside the U.S.
-
Medicare drug coverage (Part D)
covers all vaccines that the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends, including certain vaccines you might need to get before you travel outside the U.S. (like yellow fever, chikungunya, and Japanese encephalitis). Your Part D plan won't charge you a
copayment
or apply a
deductible
for vaccines ACIP recommends. Contact your Medicare drug plan for details and talk to your provider about which ones are right for you.
Who's eligible
- You're in the U.S. when a medical emergency occurs, and the foreign hospital is closer than the nearest U.S. hospital that can treat your medical condition.
- You're traveling through Canada without unreasonable delay by the most direct route between Alaska and another U.S state when a medical emergency occurs, and the Canadian hospital is closer than the nearest U.S. hospital that can treat the emergency.
- You live in the U.S. and the foreign hospital is closer to your home than the nearest U.S. hospital that can treat your medical condition, regardless of whether an emergency exists.
Costs
You pay all of the costs, in most cases.
If you’re eligible and in rare cases, Medicare pays only for services covered under Original Medicare:
- Medicare Part A (Hospital Insurance) covers hospital care (care you get when you've been formally admitted with a doctor's order to the foreign hospital as an inpatient).
- Part B covers emergency and non-emergency ambulance and doctor services you get immediately before and during your covered foreign inpatient hospital stay. Medicare generally won't pay for services (like return ambulance trips home) in either of these cases:
- Medicare didn't cover your hospital stay.
- You got ambulance and doctor services outside the hospital after your covered hospital stay ended.
If you’re eligible, you pay the part of the charge you would normally pay for covered services. This includes any medically necessary doctor and ambulance services you get in a foreign country as a part of a covered inpatient hospital stay. You also pay the coinsurance , copayments, and deductibles you'd normally pay if got these same services or supplies inside the U.S.