Pleased with travel insurance coverage
During our “Discover Thailand” tour (including pre-trip to Cambodia) with Overseas Adventure Travel (Cambridge, MA: 800/221-0814, www.oattravel.com), Jan. 14-Feb. 2, 2008, I slipped and fractured my ankle within 24 hours of our arrival in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Our OAT program director, Savon, and the local operations coordinator, Chrek Rith, efficiently took care of my transfer to the Royal Angkor International Hospital in Siem Reap. I am pleased to report that the hospital facilities, the medical and administrative staff and my treatment (by Chittima Tiyapun, M.D., Orthopedics) were as good as — or perhaps better than — those in the U.S. would have been.
Luckily, we had purchased (through OAT) travel insurance with Trip Mate (Kansas City, MO; 800/888-7292, www.tripmate.com).
This insurance allowed cancellation for any reason prior to departure (with full travel credit) and also had higher limits than most policies. Including airfare from Seattle, the per-person cost of the base trip was $2,395; the pre-trip cost $895; taxes/fees, $111, and the OAT/Trip Mate insurance, $294.
From Cambodia, we contacted Trip Mate’s 24-hour medical assistance service, On Call International. On Call monitored the care I received while in Cambodia, kept us well informed and made expeditious arrangements for our “non-emergency medical evacuation” return home. On Call also followed up with us at home to make sure everything went well. I definitely found them to be a first-class and well-run company!
Our experience with the Trip Mate claims-and-benefit process also was positive. There were three benefits associated with my injury: emergency assistance, post-departure trip interruption and medical expense.
As noted, On Call International arranged for our evacuation home. This entailed airline business-class seating, efficient wheelchair transfers and the use of frequent-flyer lounges. (I’m not sure if the airport treatment was due to On Call’s influence or just the great service of China Airlines.) Trip Mate calculated this emergency assistance benefit (reimbursement to On Call for two business-class tickets) at $3,287.40.
We received a post-departure trip-interruption benefit check for $1,468.85 per person ($2,937.70 total). Initially, the amount seemed low to me, but in accordance with the policy, benefits are limited to reimbursement for unused land or water travel. (Air travel, including our unused domestic Thailand airfare, is not covered.) Also, trip-interruption benefits are figured on a per-diem basis for unused nights, not from the time your trip was interrupted by injury. I won’t bore you with the math, but I did conclude we received all we were entitled to receive.
Under the terms of the policy, medical expenses must be submitted to your insurance provider for determination prior to submittal to Trip Mate, and coverage is limited to expenses incurred within 30 days of the scheduled return date.
We received a medical expense benefit payment of $1,092.66 that covered all medical expenses in Cambodia and follow-up medical expenses in the U.S. (except for durable medical supplies).
We did learn two lessons that are worth sharing.
Before leaving on a trip, make sure you know how to call the medical assistance company from wherever you are going to be. The OAT travel insurance certificate contained incorrect instructions on how to telephone On Call International when outside the U.S. This was frustrating and took some time to figure out.
If you have any medical issues during your trip, contact the medical assistance company right away. We didn’t consider my broken ankle a “medical emergency” and so read our insurance certificate as saying that we should simply keep our receipts and file a claim after our return. Not true! If you have any medical issues during your trip, you need to call the medical assistance company as soon as you can or your claim could be denied.
VICKY WOODS
Richland, WA