Secondary/primary

[ontheweb]

So, DW went to medical and when I went to file a claim, I see our Travel Guard policy wants information on our other insurance. The other insurance will probably pay most if not all of the claim. And that is fine, but not that long after we got home we discovered her condition was much worse, in fact she is in the hospital now as I type this. The visit to the medical center onboard was on a sea day going from Norway to Iceland, and I cannot even imagine the expense if she had needed emergency transportation back to the USA. I am sure this would not be covered by our primary insurance, and is in fact the reason we buy travel insurance.

 

So my question is would Travel Guard immediately help out on this, or would we have to hope maxing out our credit cards would be enough to pay for it before we would be able to be reimbursed?

[iamtrustworthy]

11 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

So, DW went to medical and when I went to file a claim, I see our Travel Guard policy wants information on our other insurance. The other insurance will probably pay most if not all of the claim. And that is fine, but not that long after we got home we discovered her condition was much worse, in fact she is in the hospital now as I type this. The visit to the medical center onboard was on a sea day going from Norway to Iceland, and I cannot even imagine the expense if she had needed emergency transportation back to the USA. I am sure this would not be covered by our primary insurance, and is in fact the reason we buy travel insurance.

 

So my question is would Travel Guard immediately help out on this, or would we have to hope maxing out our credit cards would be enough to pay for it before we would be able to be reimbursed?

Hi ontheweb,

 

You need to call Travel Guard's 24 hour assistance department at (715) 345-0505 (Call collect outside the USA).

 

Steve Dasseos

[Babr]

Your travel insurance would pay to transport your wife to the nearest appropriate facility. If necessary, most would advance payment to enable your wife to be admitted. After that, the patient is usually treated in place until she is able to be repatriated by commercial air, with a medical escort if needed. 
 

Evacuation coverage provides for transfer to the nearest appropriate facility if medically necessary for a higher level of care, but repatriation by air ambulance is reserved only for extreme cases and must be approved by all physicians/hospitals involved as well as the insurance company. All that is pre-arranged by insurance.

If you are concerned because it was a sea day, it is likely that she would have been disembarked at the first opportunity, but air/sea rescue is performed only for life or death situations that require immediate medical attention beyond what the ship can provide. That function is provided as a service by nearest country to aid ships at sea. There is no charge to the patient.

 

Short answer: No you would not have to pay out of pocket for everything, but be prepared with a high-limit credit card for things not covered immediately or arranged by the emergency contact department.

 

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, iamtrustworthy said:

Hi ontheweb,

 

You need to call Travel Guard's 24 hour assistance department at (715) 345-0505 (Call collect outside the USA).

 

Steve Dasseos

We already contacted Travel Guard and were sent a form by e-mail. We are waiting to see how much our other insurance reimburses us for an obviously out of network physician as the Travel Guard form asks what we will be reimbursed.

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, Babr said:

Your travel insurance would pay to transport your wife to the nearest appropriate facility. If necessary, most would advance payment to enable your wife to be admitted. After that, the patient is usually treated in place until she is able to be repatriated by commercial air, with a medical escort if needed. 
 

Evacuation coverage provides for transfer to the nearest appropriate facility if medically necessary for a higher level of care, but repatriation by air ambulance is reserved only for extreme cases and must be approved by all physicians/hospitals involved as well as the insurance company. All that is pre-arranged by insurance.

If you are concerned because it was a sea day, it is likely that she would have been disembarked at the first opportunity, but air/sea rescue is performed only for life or death situations that require immediate medical attention beyond what the ship can provide. That function is provided as a service by nearest country to aid ships at sea. There is no charge to the patient.

 

Short answer: No you would not have to pay out of pocket for everything, but be prepared with a high-limit credit card for things not covered immediately or arranged by the emergency contact department.

 

Would not have been life or death, but even waiting until we reached Iceland would have made it a long repatriation trip. Thank you for the information you provided that we would not have had to pay everything right away. And luckily we do have a lot of credit we could have used in an emergency.

[iamtrustworthy]

21 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

We already contacted Travel Guard and were sent a form by e-mail. We are waiting to see how much our other insurance reimburses us for an obviously out of network physician as the Travel Guard form asks what we will be reimbursed.

Which Travel Guard plan do you have?

[ontheweb]

3 hours ago, iamtrustworthy said:

Which Travel Guard plan do you have?

I forget what it is now called, but it should be basically the equivalent of what used to be gold.

 

Wait, just found it---protect assist.

[philbird]

8 hours ago, iamtrustworthy said:

Hi ontheweb,

 

You need to call Travel Guard's 24 hour assistance department at (715) 345-0505 (Call collect outside the USA).

 

Steve Dasseos

Yes, call TG.