Cruise Travel With Patient

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Specializes in Pediatric Private Duty Nursing.

Wondering if anyone has experience in this area. 

I have a pediatric patient whose family is taking her on a cruise, and would like to use nursing care as authorized by her insurance company. The insurance company has already stated they will pay for the care regardless of where the client receives care, and that it actually is required for our state that they reimburse for care provided to the patient regardless of where she happens to be at the time care is received. However... the nursing agency is not approving the trip since for a small portion of the trip, the ship is docked in international waters, and they can not allow care to be provided outside of the US. Even if I am not working on those two days (out of 8 days), they will not approve the trip because they say they can not guarantee that I would not be needed for those two days. 

I do know that in my career I have heard of other nurses accompanying patients on trips outside of the country, and am curious what I might need to know to make this trip happen for my patient. 

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Unfortunately, as this is the insurance company's unwillingness or inability to pay for services received outside of the country, I would think there is little that you can do.  

If the family is able to arrange insurance coverage for this, the other question is which states you would need to be licensed in.  

Best wishes.

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Specializes in Pediatric Private Duty Nursing.
2 hours ago, chare said:

Unfortunately, as this is the insurance company's unwillingness or inability to pay for services received outside of the country, I would think there is little that you can do.  

If the family is able to arrange insurance coverage for this, the other question is which states you would need to be licensed in.  

Best wishes.

So it's the nursing agency that is refusing. The insurance company is completely willing to cover, and we have been told in fact that in our state they are required to pay for this service. The problem is the nursing agency is unwilling to provide service on the cruise ship.

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55 minutes ago, NurseOfAGem said:

So it's the nursing agency that is refusing. The insurance company is completely willing to cover, and we have been told in fact that in our state they are required to pay for this service. The problem is the nursing agency is unwilling to provide service on the cruise ship.

My apologies, I misread the initial post.  If the agency is refusing to allow this, I suspect it relates to licensing issues.

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Specializes in School Nursing.

Have you thought of licensure issues as well? You would need to see what your BON has to say about practicing nursing in international waters, and where will the ship be sailing through, will you be passing states that you will be needing to be licensed in? Will it really be worth the trouble and potential problems with our license if something goes wrong? 

A lot of nurses don't realize that if they travel with a patients family on vacations, they are required to be licensed in that state unless you have a multistate license and the states that you travel through and to are part of that compact. I would not be so willing to take the risk with my license. 

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.

The cruise ship has at minimum a doctor, but possibly a nurse on board as well. They could provide emergency support while in international waters.   The cruise lines may have insight in overcoming licensure issues.  Good luck 

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