If you’re an employer providing benefits like health insurance, you’ve already made a positive decision for your employees. Health insurance helps them stay healthy and reduces anxiety about medical expenses. It also aids in attracting and retaining talent in a competitive market, reduces absences, and even boosts productivity. Bottom line – healthy employees are good for business.

But do your employees know if their health insurance covers them while traveling? They might be covered for official business travel, depending on their role and your company’s insurance. Or, they might need personal travel insurance. Both business and personal travel insurance can be offered to your employees.

So you may be wondering if your company’s health insurance covers employees during travel, both domestically and internationally. It might or might not. We’ll explain.

Group Health Insurance While Traveling

Most Group Health Insurance plans provide some coverage for enrolled employees and dependents when traveling. The extent of the coverage depends on the type of health plan selected by the employee during their open enrollment period.

For example, if your employee selects a HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) plan with a nationwide provider network, the employee and enrolled family members can tap into their prescription drug, doctor office visit, and urgent and emergency care benefits both in their plan’s local network and when traveling outside of the plan’s service area. If there is not a national provider network, it’s important to note that benefits outside the health plan’s service area may be limited.

Since 2022, Kaiser Permanente has had a partnership with Cigna that gives Kaiser Permanente members access to Cigna’s national PPO network for urgent and emergency care when traveling outside of Kaiser Permanente’s service areas. (Kaiser Permanente has eight service areas nationwide: Northern California, Southern California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, mid-Atlantic (DC, Maryland, and Virginia), Oregon, and Southwestern Washington.) Kaiser Permanente members using the Cigna PPO network are responsible for cost-sharing within their plan and do not need to pay out-of-network rates to access Cigna providers.

For Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plans, care in and out of network may be broader. PPO networks frequently are nationwide, and access to care may or may not be limited when traveling.

What’s important is that employees who plan to travel – whether locally, regionally, nationally, or internationally – know what their plan may cover, how it may limit coverage, and how to access care when away from home.

Business Travel Insurance

If you or your employees frequently travel for work, investing in travel insurance could be a valuable asset for your business. Policies vary, but typically include emergency medical and trip interruption coverage. Some policies may include missed connection assistance and lost baggage coverage. CNN published a helpful article on travel insurance early in 2024. You can buy coverage online and through insurance brokers. Ask if your broker offers travel insurance or if they can suggest a resource for you.

Other Health Benefits While Traveling

Depending on the types of benefits you provide, employees might be able to take advantage of some while traveling.. For example, CaliforniaChoice members have access to discounted Vision Care, Dental, and Hearing services as part of the many benefits included in our Member Value Suite.

The Dentegra® Smile Club offers reduced fees for dental care through a network of 28,000+ dentists across America. Discounts range from 15% to 50%, and hundreds of procedures are available. It’s easy to find a participating dentist on the Dentegra website.

The EyeMed Vision One Eyecare Discount Program offers savings on frames, lenses, and eye exams at many locations including LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, and Target Optical throughout the country.

EPIC Hearing offers discounts of up to 50% on hearing-related products, hearing tests, and more.

The California Rx Card offers discounts of up to 80% on prescription drugs – often reducing cardmembers’ cost to less than their Rx copay with insurance.

Get Expert Help from a Broker

If you are not offering CaliforniaChoice to your employees, now is the time to explore the program’s offerings. A broker can answer your questions and guide you through the health insurance process. Using a broker doesn’t cost you anything, and it could help you save money. That’s because a local broker will know the health plans available in your area and the providers that are associated with each plan’s provider network.

If you don’t have a current broker, CaliforniaChoice makes it easy to connect with one.