I can help you obtain a nationwide PPO privately in Maryland. If you keep a Baltimore apartment or rowhouse while working travel contracts, here's how to handle insurance during your weeks back home and the months you're assigned elsewhere.
Hi, I'm Sam Jaber. I'm licensed as a health insurance broker in 36 states, and I particularly enjoy helping travel nurses navigate coverage because their circumstances are unusual. We can discuss your choices and arrange everything by phone.
Picture a nurse who studied and worked in East Baltimore before beginning travel assignments three years ago. She still owns her Canton rowhouse because it's both an investment and the place she considers home. This year included a fall assignment in Phoenix and winter work in Minneapolis, with New Orleans scheduled for spring. Her agency provides insurance only while each contract is active. Between assignments, she returns to Maryland and needs to purchase her own coverage to avoid being uninsured. When she checks Maryland Health Connection, she discovers that most of the available medical plans are HMOs.
Baltimore City residents have 43 marketplace medical plans to choose from in 2026, including 39 HMOs and only 4 PPOs. Maryland uses the same insurance rates across all rating regions. For a 40-year-old receiving no subsidy, the lowest-priced silver PPO costs 64% more than the lowest-priced silver HMO.
You don't have to rely solely on marketplace networks. I can help you purchase a private nationwide PPO in Maryland, with the premium calculated from your health questionnaire. Its provider network can include doctors and clinics in Phoenix and New Orleans, giving you in-network care there as well as back home in Baltimore.
Marketplace financial assistance is based on your household's income during the coverage year, and eligibility ends above four times the federal poverty level. Travel nursing makes that estimate tricky. One assignment might include substantial stipends, another period might involve no work, and occasional per diem shifts back home may generate 1099 income. Calculate your estimate using the contracts you know about, then update it as additional assignments become definite.
After employer-sponsored insurance ends, you normally have 60 days to enroll through Maryland Health Connection. You can continue the agency plan through COBRA, but voluntarily ending COBRA later or failing to pay premiums won't count as a new qualifying loss of coverage. That means another special enrollment window won't automatically open. Compare your options before submitting the COBRA election.
Many travel nurses eventually decide they'd rather keep personal insurance for the entire year instead of repeating enrollment after every contract. Their coverage then continues even when an assignment finishes.
Next step: Call me a few weeks before your assignment ends, and I'll help make sure you have insurance ready for the time between contracts.
If you're eligible for a premium credit, you'll need to enroll through Maryland Health Connection to use it. The subsidy is tied to a benchmark silver plan, so the PPO's extra 64% becomes your responsibility. An HMO costs less, but it generally limits out-of-network benefits to emergencies when you're outside Maryland. For nurses working away most of the year, the PPO's out-of-network benefits might be worth the added premium. If you're mainly at home, an HMO may be the better value. I'll calculate both possibilities.
Next step: Tell me your contract schedule, and I'll show you how a Baltimore HMO compares with a marketplace PPO after your premium credit is included.
Without financial assistance, a marketplace PPO means paying its entire premium while much of the country remains outside its network. That's a good reason to compare private nationwide PPO coverage. The insurer evaluates your health questionnaire and may approve you, approve coverage with one specific condition excluded, or decline the application. Healthy nurses frequently find premiums below unsubsidized marketplace rates while gaining in-network care near their assignments. We'll examine what each policy covers before you make your choice.
Next step: Give me a call and I'll compare nationwide PPO premiums with the full marketplace prices available through Maryland Health Connection at your address.
In Maryland, open enrollment begins November 1 and continues until January 15. To have your coverage begin January 1, complete enrollment no later than December 31.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
In most situations, emergency treatment is the only exception because HMOs generally don't cover other services outside their network.
Baltimore City has four marketplace PPO options, all substantially more expensive than HMOs. The lowest-priced silver PPO costs 64% above the lowest-priced silver HMO.
When that insurance ends, you qualify for a special enrollment period that lasts 60 days.
Yes. If you're a nurse in good health, I can arrange private nationwide PPO insurance for you.
Tell me your home county in Maryland, your assignment dates for the year and where you think you'll work next. I'll help you cover the breaks between contracts and explain the costs of plans that work while traveling.
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