Medical

[CocoCoco 1]

My husband is ready to go for his medical exam here in the US (AOS). Since he's covered under my medical insurance policy, would that be covered, or do we have to pay cash for the exam? It appears he would need a tetanus shot, so I'm wondering if it's better to get that before the exam in advance with our family doctor with coverage. Thoughts?

[Newbie608 103]

Don't do any shotss before because tb test skin is most likely to be positive from it. I had health insurance but you have to pay for the medical out of pocket. I called wll the Civil surgeons in my area and the cheapest was $160. Shots and xrays are not included. I did all my shots at my personal clinic and that was free. I also had a positive tb skin test so I did the quanti-feron instead of the chest x-ray and my insurance covered all that. I would suggest you call and compare prices of the surgeons in your area and go from there.

Goodluck

[Newbie608 103]

Sorry for any typos, I'm using my phone but yeah, go to your surgeon and then they will tell you what shots are required and then you can have your physician do it. Not before though..

[grrrrreat 109]

My husband is ready to go for his medical exam here in the US (AOS). Since he's covered under my medical insurance policy, would that be covered, or do we have to pay cash for the exam? It appears he would need a tetanus shot, so I'm wondering if it's better to get that before the exam in advance with our family doctor with coverage. Thoughts?

It would depend on your insurance policy, but most policies don't cover the civil surgeon. It may cover vaccines; here is a list of the vaccines that are supposed to be covered as preventative care by the new health care law: http://www.healthcare.gov/law/resources/regulations/prevention/recommendations.html

[isa30 4]

My husband is ready to go for his medical exam here in the US (AOS). Since he's covered under my medical insurance policy, would that be covered, or do we have to pay cash for the exam? It appears he would need a tetanus shot, so I'm wondering if it's better to get that before the exam in advance with our family doctor with coverage. Thoughts?

Some clinics charge more depending on how many shots you need. Ask them if they have a flat rate or if they charge per shot...

I figured that when most clinics where giving me different prices. I found one that charged me $200 (4 shots plus tb test) no matter how many shot they still charge $200 which in my area was the cheapest.

[CocoCoco 1]

That's what I thought, but never knew the TB test could give a false positive! Great info. Thanks!

[IPv6Freely 64]

That's what I thought, but never knew the TB test could give a false positive! Great info. Thanks!

I didn't know that either. They did all my shots initially (including the TB test), and then I came back a couple days later for them to check my arm. Then a week after that, they had my documentation ready to pick up.

[Xanax 349]

OP, I am 90% positive you cannot claim the immigration medical through insurance. Remember your medical has to be done by a panel physician.

If you call around to the physician's in your area they will tell you if you can or cannot claim the medical on insurance.

Don't do any shotss before because tb test skin is most likely to be positive from it.

Why would you say that?

My skin test was negative. I have not heard of anyone's being false-positive (I am a nurse) , nor did my doctor indicate a positive result was common or likely.

Edited June 30, 2012 by Xanax

[DandT14 272]

OP, I am 90% positive you cannot claim the immigration medical through insurance. Remember your medical has to be done by a panel physician.

If you call around to the physician's in your area they will tell you if you can or cannot claim the medical on insurance.

Why would you say that?

My skin test was negative. I have not heard of anyone's being false-positive (I am a nurse) , nor did my doctor indicate a positive result was common or likely.

I've never heard of recent vaccinations causing an issue with a PPD. But you definitely can have positive PPD's (skin tests) and not have TB. We do them at my work and people from certain countries ALWAYS have a positive skin test but rarely have TB.

[GlobeHopperMama 95]

Certain countries vaccinate against TB (Mexico and several other Latin American ones come to mind first). Often the vaccine is done in infancy or childhood, but even as adults, the recipients will almost always test positive on the skin test due to the presence of antibodies from the vaccine, even though they are not infected. This is why panel physicians doing the immigration medical in those countries skip the skin test and have intending immigrants automatically do the chest x-ray instead. Anyway, I don't think Canada is one of those countries vaccinating against TB, so this shouldn't be an issue anyway, but yeah, I've never heard of insurance covering the AOS medical, unfortunately.

[Xanax 349]

I guess the reason I have never heard of one being false-positive is because I am not from a country with high exposure, but neither is OP ! So they should not have any problems like the other poster suggested!

Edited June 30, 2012 by Xanax