How to Select Health Insurance If You Travel Frequently

shutterstock Of the factors to consider when choosing health insurance, your lifestyle is one of the most important. For the modern-day explorer or business road warrior, your frequent travel should be top of mind. Learning about new cultures and unexpected adventures are part of the thrill of travel, but they also come with risks. Sometimes your destination is not medically equipped, and the unexpected can turn into illness or injury in just the place where you don't have coverage. If you travel frequently for business, getting caught in an unfamiliar city with a medical issue can leave you with a huge bill. Here's how to prevent that by shopping smart during insurance season. Domestic Travelers One of the most important considerations for travelers is the insurance network, or group of providers that your insurance company agrees to cover. For those who tend to travel only within the United States, a national provider network is key, especially if you travel to multiple locations across the country. "You want to be able to stay in-network wherever you travel to," says Cindy J. Holtzman, director of Medical Refund Service in Marietta, Georgia, who's also an insurance agent and patient advocate. If you normally travel to the same locations, make sure your plan includes network providers in those locations. For domestic travelers, this is the best way to save on health care in general, not just emergency care. When you're out of town and have just a mild concern, it's a lot cheaper to visit an independent clinic or urgent care in-network and avoid the emergency room all together. It's important to note that there may not be network providers in every city you visit. In that case, "check out how any plan covers providers outside the network," Holtzman says. Some plans cover a portion of costs if you need health care out of their network, but many plans cover none, except in some emergencies. If you have to go out of your network for care, plans that will cover at least a portion of that care are beneficial for travelers. International Travelers If you travel abroad frequently, you might already be aware that health insurance works differently outside the U.S. In emergencies, some plans may cover a portion of costs, but most cover none at all. "The easy way to address this is to call the health insurance provider and ask them if they will cover health expenses incurred abroad," says Mahmood Peshimam, a travel medicine specialist in Orange County, California. If not, ask if they have a separate plan specifically for travel.

Don't confuse traveler's health insurance with regular traveler's insurance

Supplemental health insurance that covers international travel is available from some health insurers. It's temporary insurance that covers only the length of one trip and may be cheaper through your main health insurer thanks to member discounts. This is a great question to ask any potential insurer when choosing among plans. Don't confuse traveler's health insurance with regular traveler's insurance, which covers incidents such as cancelled reservations and lost baggage. Evacuation insurance, also for Americans abroad, can be long-term or short-term and covers transportation to adequate medical care. This type of insurance can help cover charges if you need to be urgently transferred for medical care from a remote area. Plans often cover air rescue expenses and emergency returns back home. Some evacuation insurance policies also cover emergency health care abroad. Evacuation insurance is available from many health insurers, as well as from independent providers. "Ask your travel agent for companies that will provide overseas health insurance coverage," Peshimam says. He also recommends finding medical facilities in your destination before leaving and carrying that information on your trip. Adventure Travel Thrill seekers, there are special health insurance considerations for you. Evacuation insurance is probably a good idea for when you climb Mount Everest or go on that skydiving trip, but don't stop there. Take a look at any long-term health insurance plans you're considering for two features: emergency care and high-risk exclusions. The reason for emergency care is obvious, and for all Affordable Care Act-era plans, it's covered as an essential health benefit. How much emergency care is covered is as variable as the plans themselves. Whether you travel a short distance or across the globe to seek your adrenaline rush, make sure your health insurance plan has comprehensive emergency coverage. Less obvious is the need for a plan with few high-risk exclusions, probably because you don't know they exist. Many health insurance plans don't cover emergency services due to risky activity or injuries incurred doing activities such as rock climbing and snowboarding. This may not be disclosed on an information sheet when you sign up for insurance, so call your insurer's customer service to ask.

How Sony and Disney Could Both Win Big With Spider-Man

Take heart, Spidey fans. Your favorite web-slinging superhero may still be in line to receive the proper big-screen treatment he deserves. In this case, that could be a huge catalyst for investors in both Sony (NYSE: SNE  ) and The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS  ) .

Despite the fact Disney acquired Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion in 2009, Sony still holds the film rights to Spider-Man. And it's no mystery Sony Pictures has made a bundle in its attempts to capitalize on those rights, generating nearly $4 billion in gross box office receipts from five separate films featuring the character since 2002.

Sony's predicament
Unfortunately, all is not well in Sony's neck of the woods. Despite estimates pegging The Amazing Spider-Man 2's production budget at an enormous $255 million, Sony's most recent effort received not only the franchise's worst critical response with a painful 53% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but also the lowest worldwide box office gross of any Spider-Man film, at $709 million.

Most notably, last year's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 failed to capture the important hearts of domestic audiences; waning stateside interest in Spidey resulted in the addition of a modest $202.9 million to that total. It's unsettling that the largest box-office market in the world couldn't seem to care less about Sony's cinematic vision of this formerly bankable character:

(Hover over chart to see exact dollar figures), Data source: Box Office Mojo.

Following Sony's widely publicized hacking debacle, The Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog reported on leaked emails which revealed that executives from both Sony Pictures and Disney had been communicating as late as Oct. 30, 2014, regarding a number of mutually beneficial Spider-Man crossovers.

Most notably, the WSJ noted that Disney and Marvel had wanted to include Spider-Man in 2016's Captain America: Civil War -- which makes sense considering Spider-Man plays a key role in the corresponding Civil War narrative in the comics. But those talks broke down when Sony Pictures learned such a deal would involve granting complete creative control to Marvel -- and it wanted to essentially start from scratch with its own version of the web slinger.

According to a more recent report from Latino-Review, a source said the proposed deal previously on the table was a co-production agreement under which Marvel would assume creative control, and also finance 60% of the cost of future Spider-Man films, with Sony shouldering the remaining 40%.

This isn't over yet
Everything changed following the hack. Specifically, Latino-Review says, the higher-ups at Sony Pictures parent Sony Japan not only view their subordinates' handling of Spider-Man as "disappointing," but also want Sony Pictures to return to the negotiating table with Disney regardless of whether it involves giving up creative control.

And why not? There are literally dozens of superhero movies already planned during the next several years that pull from the vast character universes controlled by both Disney's Marvel and Time Warner's DC. It's not hard, then, to envision the moviegoing public continuing to sweep Sony's less-compelling Spider-Man universe under the rug in favor of Disney's and Time Warner's more-established, more-cohesive franchises. Disney, in particular, has arguably set an impossibly high standard with regard to confluent storylines, leaving Sony in the unenviable position of trying to keep pace.

In short, if Sony can't beat Disney, why not join forces and share in its success?

It seems doubtful Sony can make such a deal happen in time to include Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War. We already know Marvel has Black Panther effectively filling Spidey's original role in the film, which should segue nicely into Black Panther's own planned late-2017 movie. 

With so many other Marvel movies already in the works, from Doctor Strange in late-2016 to Captain Marvel, Inhumans, and Avengers: Infinity War Part I in 2018, something tells me it wouldn't be too difficult for Disney to make room for a new Spider-Man somewhere in the mix. If that happens, it's hard to imagine any scenario in which it wouldn't have massive positive implications for the financial performance of whichever film Marvel chooses.