Dr visits on the road

[Will_and_Eric]

I am sure we are the only ones with this issue. Medications. Since our Doctors are all here in Florida where we live now, what do we do when we hit the road? Our Doctors are only going to refill prescriptions for so long before wanting us to come in for a check up. Can’t see driving all the way back to Florida for that. What have others done about this issue? Thanks in advance!

[Second_Chance]

Kate and Ed wrote:
What if full timer is on Medicare? See where FL maybe only state will cover you on the road. Gold Star widow wants to full time but WA state health insurance won’t follow her guess like Medicaid.

Traditional Medicare is a Federal program and has nothing to do with the states. Medicaid, on the other hand, is state-administered and the funding is both state and Federal. Some Medicare Advantage plans may be regional, too. I have traditional Medicare and get seen in places other than my domicile state all the time with no issues.

Rob

[BarbaraOK]

Kate and Ed wrote:
What if full timer is on Medicare? See where FL maybe only state will cover you on the road. Gold Star widow wants to full time but WA state health insurance won’t follow her guess like Medicaid.

Medicare covers you anywhere. Now if you have an Advantage Plan (Part C) then you might have trouble which is why most full timers don't have Advantage plans. With regular Medicare and a G Plan Supplemental, you would be good to go.

[Kate_and_Ed]

What if full timer is on Medicare? See where FL maybe only state will cover you on the road. Gold Star widow wants to full time but WA state health insurance won’t follow her guess like Medicaid.

[doclarens]

Lots of threads on this subject, and the answers can be varied.
If you have a set travel pattern, say winters Az, SoCal, and summers Id, Wy, Or, and maybe Wa. You could get a new plan in Nevada, Make the University med center your primary care facility and your electronic records are available both in the southern region from Vegas, and up north from Reno and several small clinics. And from those other states your still always within a days drive to your home system.
If that doesn't help then select your plan based on flexibility in Dr. visits, but with the med insurance industry still evolving it's hard to say where to go, plans change, companies want to force you to their preferred providers, flexibility is the last thing they seem to want to offer.
Fl. has been mentioned here several times as having better plans available for those not on medicare, You may want to look at Escapees.com for some guidance, they have quite a bit of material helpful to fulltiming, and have Fl, along with Tx. and SD as states they follow the changes most closely in.
At any rate get digital copies of your med records before you hit the road, having the information available is a timesaver when you do have to go someplace new.
Cosmetic Dentist

[2gypsies1]

Are you always going to return to Florida every summer or winter? If you plan to stay in the same place during a season or if you can arrange to even drive through the same place once a year then get new doctors at that place then you don't have to keep returning to Florida. You probably need to find a more centralized state to use. Florida is out of the way if you want to travel. For instance, Florida isn't that great in summer so if you want to find cooler temperatures during the summer then establish a new doctor where you'll be going or where you'll be passing through each time to reach that cool place. Plan to spend a couple weeks there in case you need more tests, etc. Then get your prescription written for a year of meds and get them refilled as you travel at Wal Mart, for instance. Many full-timers do this.

[westernrvparkow]

For routine doctor visits,fly. We get requests ever year for us to keep an eye on someone's rig while they go home for a doctor's appointment. We have even babysat a dog or two for repeat guests.

[arhayes]

BTW - if you might check out GoodRX for discounts. In most cities, their discount has been better than our insurance co-pay. It'll also help you select the least expensive location near you to get a refill.

[Second_Chance]

As full-timers, here's how we are set up:

• Legal domicile with the Escapees mail service in Livingston, TX
• Providers we love and have been with for a long time in Augusta, GA (returning twice a year for appointments)
• Routine prescriptions (we're each on several) through Express Scripts for Tricare

When we're in one place long enough (such as the three months we spent this spring in New Mexico with family or the extended time we're getting ready to spend waiting for a new grandbaby near Baltimore), I'll put a temporary mailing address in our Express Scripts account. Otherwise, all meds go to our Escapees mail address and they forward them to us wherever we ask them to. If there's an emergent or one-time Rx, we get it filled at the nearest Walmart pharmacy. Walmart is in-network for Tricare and the prescription goes into a national database if we need a refill down the road.

All of our providers have been excellent working with us this way. We've only had one serious health event in the three years (we both got pneumonia this spring in New Mexico and my wife ended up in the hospital for five days). Of course, everything was handled by local physicians and the hospitalists at the hospital. Records were copied to our regular providers afterward.

Rob

[arhayes]

While we sold our property in Texas, we return once each year and see our doctor for physicals. During the year, he'll have us do blood work every 6 months - we just tell him where we are and the lab we want to use and he sends the order. We have had no issue getting prescriptions filed. I have him send 90 day refill orders to the pharmacy of our choice where we are located at the time. This has worked well for our 4 years of full-time travel.

[BarbaraOK]

Our maintenance meds go through Express Scripts, 90 day with 3 refills each year. We can designate an address if we are going to be in one place for a while as a temporary address, otherwise they get sent to Livingston, they send us an email when meds come in and we get them shipped to us where ever we are in 2-3 days. For short term we use Walgreens. Choice of both dictated by our insurance plan. Since we spend the winters in Arizona, we transferred to new physicians there and spread out our visits over the winter. October and end of March are our time to see physicians.

[MarkTwain]

RVing and medical needs.
1. When I reach a location I plan to stay for an extended period of time, I call the local hospital and get the names and numbers of local Drs. and then set up an appointment. I then have an established Dr. and have all my medical records sent to this new Dr..
2. I created a complete computer spread sheet that lists all my prescriptions i.e. name & generic, dosages, frequency, Dr. who prescribed, list of all my previous surgeries, allergies and name, addresses, phone/fax # all Drs. I carry 5 copies of this spread sheet and just present it to the Dr. or emergency care center where I am located. This spread sheet does not have to done a computer but having it saved on your computer makes it easier to keep it updated and current. I also aways carry a copy inside my vehicles. I also transferred this info to a small flash drive and hang it on my dash after I paint it red so emergency responders can use to down load all my prescriptions.
3. I use a large pharmaceutical i.e. Wall Greens that can fill my prescriptions no matter what state or city I am in.

[Optimistic_Para]

I hesitate to post this here, because I basically agree with the other posters that you need to be monitored by a Dr. if taking certain prescription medication. But many full timers take advantage of Mexican pharmacies, where it is possible to buy many of these prescription medications over the counter. As one example, Los Algadones, in Mexico, has a 3 or 4 block stretch next to the border crossing full of pharmacies, dentists, and eyeglass places which cater to the hordes of Yanqui tourists who cross over specifically to get medicine or to have dental work done.

https://www.dayodental.com/what-are-the-rules-on-buying-prescription-meds-from-mexico/

[2chiefsRus]

It is going to depend upon your health conditions and what conditions the prescriptions are treating. We have been able to work with several different doctors since 2007 as well as our mail order pharmacy. We get blood work done when our doctors want it done and have the results sent back to them. It does require some planning. It also helped that our health care providers know that we are being responsible while we are on the road. We also carry our medical records and test results with us on usb drives in case of emergency which greatly helped when Dave had a heart attack while on the road in an unfamiliar area.

[Dutch_12078]

For a number of years, my wife and I have arranged our travels so that we're near our doctors first once, and now twice a year for physicals, follow-ups, etc. Prescription renewals as said, have been easily handled through a major chain. With most prescriptions done electronically now, filling them anywhere in the country is not usually a problem. Schedule II controlled drugs can be problematic though.