Insurance company follow-through
Diane Robbins of Penfield, New York, wrote (Dec. ’16, pg. 53), “I would like to hear of the experiences of… travelers who, after having purchased travel insurance, had to cut short their vacations because of medical issues. Did each receive assistance, whether by telephone or in person, from a representative of the insurance company or [if on a cruise or tour] from the cruise line or tour company? Also, from whom did they purchase their insurance?”
We asked readers each to share a recent experience they had had with insurance company follow-through when requiring medical care while on a trip. Here are some of the responses received, and more will be printed next month.
Several years ago, I fell in love with the Dolomite Mountains in Italy. It had been a few years since I last saw them and I yearned to see them again, but the only tours I found going there I had already taken. I decided to go alone, in June 2013, as I was familiar with the two towns I would be visiting: Bolzano and Cortina d’Ampezzo.
On the train ride from Munich to Bolzano, the scenery was straight out of “The Sound of Music.” After a few days of exploring Bolzano and Merano (incredibly picturesque), it was time to depart for the real prize, Cortina. I took two trains and a bus to get there.
My hotel, Hotel Montana (Corso Italia, 94, Cortina d’Ampezzo; phone +39 0436 862126, montana@cortina-hotel.com/old/en), was small, cozy and convenient. After putting my things away in my room, I decided to reexplore my beloved Cortina. I stepped out of the hotel and proceeded to walk, not noticing a step in front of me. I fell.
Two men immediately rushed over and helped me up. It was apparent to me that I was really injured. Aside from a scrape, I had pain and swelling above my left knee. I assumed I had torn a ligament.
The hotel staff provided me with ice, but I soon realized that it wasn’t helping much and that I needed to find something for the pain. The desk clerk told me where the pharmacy was, where I was provided with an over-the–counter pain medication and medicated bandages for my knee.
The next morning, I told the hotel owner that I needed to return to Bolzano to have my knee fixed, but he said that Cortina, itself, had many doctors that specialized in leg injuries. (After all, it is a ski resort in the winter.) He called a taxi, and off I went to an emergency clinic in the pines.
Two nurses greeted me and asked for my passport, and within 10 minutes I was seen by the doctor. X-rays were taken, and then the doctor delivered the bad news, showing me the x-rays of my broken patella. He wanted to put a cast on my leg, but the nurses and I said ‘No,’ since, on certain flights, airlines won’t allow you to fly with a closed cast. We compromised on a brace.
The doctor was adamant about preventing blood clots. I was given an injection of blood thinner and another syringe to self-inject the next day. I asked what I owed, and he said the bursar would send the bill. (It arrived a few weeks later. The total was about $130.)
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Upon returning to the hotel, I decided it was time to notify my trip insurance company. I had chosen Travelex (800/228-9792, www.travelexinsurance.com) and had coverage for trip interruption, medical expenses and emergency medical evacuation.
Several calls and faxes were exchanged with Travelex. It was required that I send the company a copy of the Italian doctor’s report, which then had to be translated.
It was determined that I was unable to travel alone, and I ended up dealing with a subcontractor in Bethesda, Maryland, who would make all of the arrangements to get me home.
In order to stick to my original plan of returning to Bolzano, I had to travel by private car for the 2-hour drive. The driver put pillows in the back for my comfort, and my left leg was extended the whole time. Once I arrived, it was challenging getting up the front steps (no knee bending), but I made it back to the same beautiful hotel room I had before.
It was required that I see another doctor in Bolzano, who would certify that I would be able to fly. He had to provide information on my vital signs, which was then faxed to the company.
I received a call from the nurse who Travelex provided to accompany me home. She flew from Los Angeles to Venice and arrived by private car. She tended to my knee and administered the blood-thinning shots.
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We left for the airport in Venice the next morning, again by private car. We had to fly business class, as my leg had to be elevated at all times. Unfortunately, after we boarded our plane for Munich, problems with another plane shut down the airport, and by the time we were able to depart, we knew we would miss our connection to Washington Dulles. When we arrived in Munich, we were given rooms and meal tickets for a hotel next to the airport.
The trip home was long. After arriving and going quickly through Customs in a wheelchair, another car was waiting. My nurse came with me to my condo in Odenton, Maryland, where my daughter was waiting with another wheelchair. The nurse made one last inspection of my leg and the brace, and then she left for the airport.
The next day, I saw an orthopedist.
After I provided receipts to Travelex, I was totally reimbursed for my expenses.
So the moral of this story is always buy travel insurance with emergency-medical-evacuation coverage. Mine cost $258, and it was certainly worth it.
I always go to the travel insurance comparison website www.insuremytrip.com to buy insurance. Multiple choices are presented, and you are free to phone them and discuss the policies before deciding. All of the travel insurance companies have A++ to A- ratings [as rated by the ratings agency A.M. Best — Editor].
I wore my brace for about a month, at which time it was discovered that I had two blood clots, so off I went to the hospital for about a week, and I was on Coumadin for a while.
It was an unforgettable trip. I met so many kind people, and I did see SOME of my beloved Dolomites.
Teri Egan
Gaithersburg, MD
My husband, Jack, and I took a trip to Berlin in May 2014 to see the Pergamon Museum. After traveling a few days to Dresden and walking to see the sights in cold, rainy weather, a cough and cold that I already had became much worse. I had had a high temperature in Bamberg a little earlier in the trip, and it was apparent I was not getting any better.
On a Sunday, while we were waiting in a line outdoors, I passed out on the sidewalk, awakening to a crowd that had formed around me and to a doctor peering into my face asking if I knew my name and where I was.
Having established that I had not had a stroke, an ambulance was called and I was lifted into a wheelchair and taken to our hotel. I refused to go to the hospital.
However, when my husband checked to see if a doctor could come to the hotel, we were reminded that doctors’ offices are not open on Sundays, so we took a taxi to the hospital, where I was wheeled on a gurney into emergency.
After about an hour I was seen by a doctor, who said I had an infection. He wanted to do tests, but, knowing what I had (I had been taking antibiotics that I had brought on the trip), I said I did not need tests. She wrote a note for me explaining that I had been treated in the emergency room.
That night at the hotel, Jack contacted our travel insurance company, CSA Travel Protection (800/711-1197, www.csatravelprotection.com). He talked to a representative of CSA, who started the process of changing our plane reservations, and within three days we were on our way back to Houston. We also asked the representative to cancel the land tour of Poland that we were to start the next day.
We only ever had to speak to the insurance company representatives by phone. All of our needs were taken care of promptly, and everything involved in the cancellation of the trip was covered. We were fully reimbursed for the canceled portion of our trip as well as for the $100 charged by the hospital and the long-distance calls and faxes we made. We will continue to use CSA.
You may write to me at 3618 Sierra Pines Dr., Houston, TX 77068. If you have more questions, include your phone number.
Marianne Carney
Houston, TX
My husband and I have the United Airlines Explorer Chase Visa credit card (800/537-7783, www.theexplorercard.com). Among its many benefits is travel insurance. We always wondered whether it would really work if we needed to use it. In November 2016 we discovered that it DOES work.
Just before our departure date for a 2-week kayaking trip in Indonesia (which, along with our airfare, was paid for with the Explorer card), I fell and fractured a kneecap. Of course, my doctor advised against the trip.
I immediately set to work on cancellations and reimbursement requests.
To our amazement, one of the airlines we were flying, EVA Air, refunded 100% of our ticket price upon our sending a letter from my doctor. The other airline, Garuda Indonesia, refunded 75% of our ticket price; we submitted the 25% balance as part of our travel insurance claim on the United Airlines Explorer card. The trip fee we had paid to the trip operator was not refundable at all, and so that was also part of our insurance claim.
I quickly called the Explorer card customer-service number to submit a claim (they must be notified within 20 days). I provided some basic information and was told what number to call to reach the subcontractor Broadspire.
Broadspire emailed a long form to complete. Every detail had to be documented (keep receipts!). Because I was also claiming the expenses of my husband (as my travel companion), we even had to include a copy of our marriage certificate (as expenses were covered only for certain relationships); I assume that’s because we have different last names. (There are other documentation requirements for domestic partners.)
We mailed our claim on Nov. 9, a day after our original departure date. The return receipt showed it was signed on Nov. 16. We received our reimbursement check on Dec. 27 — a nice Christmas present.
Another point occurred to me.
We had put all of our expenses for this trip on one card, mine, to add miles to my account (my husband accumulates more miles than I do through business travel), but this might not be the best strategy from a claims-collection perspective.
The Explorer card has a limit of $10,000 “per occurrence. . . for each claim.” In our case, the total claim for both my husband and me came to less than $10,000. However, since we have different Explorer card accounts, in the future it might be best for us to divide travel purchases evenly so we each can maximize our claim limit.
Lastly, while we received full reimbursement, the $10,000 limit may matter for people who have more expensive travel budgets than we do.
I hope this information is useful to others who have the United Airlines Explorer card.
Ann Kruse
Sammamish, WA
*A Chase Bank representative told ITN that, in a case like this, where a couple has separate United Airlines Explorer card accounts, each cardholder is covered for up to $10,000 (but only on trip purchases made with the cards), so if one person charged $15,000 on his or her card and the other charged $5,000, they would not each be reimbursed $10,000.