Escapees March/April 2016

Utilize Teladoc’s handy smartphone app! Discounts on dental, vision, hearing devices, prescriptions and more are included in the monthly membership fee.

wait in a local government-run med- ical center on the Mexican border. This ordeal could have been avoided if we had been Teladoc subscribers. So when Kyle suggested the service, I immediately signed us up. Within one month of registering, Teladoc came in handy while we were camped out in Death Valley, and I was hit with a sudden illness that scared me into thinking I needed urgent medical attention. I panicked when we learned the closest medical clinic was one hour away, but then I remembered: Teladoc! Our ¿ rst-time experience had some lessons that I hope you’ll learn from, so that, if you decide to enroll, the process will be easier for you than it was for me. Activating Your Teladoc Account Some things should never be done at the same time, like activating a Teladoc account when you actually need to use it. I was proud of myself for being proactive enough to enroll, but that’s where I dropped the ball. Our account activation paperwork

tivity, but we did have our new RV Datasat Satellite Internet system that enables Voice Over Internet Proto- col (VOIP) phone calls. Jim was able to make a

taking at least 20 minutes, a

VOIP call to Teladoc to obtain the necessary code (CAREVIP) for completing the process. Without DataSat, I’m not sure what we would have done. I have since learned the best way to activate the Teladoc aspect of the Ca- reington plan is by the smartphone app (under Teladoc) whenever you have phone service. It only requires a name, date of birth and the CAREVIP code. Be aware that activation of a plan may require that you pick a nearby medical provider so that the plan can route you to the nearest facility if nec- essary. Jim was required to indicate our nearest hospital and pharmacy and, since we were straddling Cali- fornia and Nevada with no idea where we would go, he had to randomly pick

phone connec- tion and patience to sit through a long list of legal disclaimers read by a customer service representative. Once You’re In Teladoc works great after you get into the system. They promise a return call in about two hours, so we were pleasantly surprised when we received a call back in about ¿ ve minutes. The doctor spoke clearly and compassion- ately, taking about 15 minutes to go over my symptoms and ¿ nally giving me a tentative diagnosis: food poison- ing from leftover crab salad! She gave me spot-on suggestions for managing my symptoms, and by the next day I was ¿ ne. It’s important to complete the regis- tration process before a medical issue arises. Once you’re in the system, it works beautifully. And the best part? We avoided an unnecessary, expen- sive trip to the emergency room. I had peace of mind knowing I wasn’t going to drop dead, and it saved us a lot of money. If that’s as good as medical care gets for full-time RVers with lousy health insurance, I’ll take it. The monthly fee starts at $12.95 (or $129 annually) plus a $20 enrollment free with no pre-consultation fee. I feel this is a small price to pay for the con ¿ dence in knowing we have some form of health care when we’re far from civilization.

“It’s important to complete the registration process before a medical issue arises. Once you’re in the system, it works beautifully.”

sat on my desk for weeks. The day I started feeling sick, I remembered the registration brochure sitting on my desk. “Oh! We have the Teladoc plan, so let’s try it!” I said to Jim. I was in no condition to activate our account myself, so Jim volunteered. Unfor- tunately, since you’re dealing with medical care, liability issues and so forth, going through the process can be an ordeal. At ¿ rst glance, it appears

providers in the same state as our lo- cation. This ¿ nally made the database happy and allowed him to proceed to a medical consultation request screen. Adding a Dependent A dependent can be added simply by providing the dependent’s name and date of birth at the time of enroll- ment. If added after the enrollment, you must repeat most of the registration process,

you can activate your account entirely online, but that wasn’t the case for us, and we needed to call in at a certain point. Unfortunately, we didn’t have cell phone connec-

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Rene Agredano #103274 has been full-time RVing since 2007 with her husband, Jim, and their dog, Wyatt. They love teaching others how to hit the road before retirement at LiveWorkDream.com .

www.escapees.com | March/April 2016 | ESCAPEES . 35