Karen Snedeker was traveling in Brazil when a car accident nearly killed her. Brazilian hospitals provided great care in stabilizing her, but Snedeker knew she needed to return home to California to continue her recovery and access other services. So she reached out to her health insurer, Blue Shield of California, for help. She was struggling to communicate with medical staff in another language. She worried medical bills from the foreign hospitals would mount. And she didn’t know how she’d get home in her condition: in a wheel chair and too uncomfortable to sit for a long flight. She and her family needed options. They learned their insurance plan included access to emergency hospital stays outside the U.S. But they didn’t know how far Blue Shield of California would go to simplify her trip back home and connect her with the continuing care she needed.
Read more about how the team of international healthcare experts from Blue Shield of California got Karen Snedeker back to the U.S., and the 29 hour flight she endured to make it.
Blue Shield of California is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, an association of independent, locally operated Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies.