As I noted here, I generally don't bother with travel insurance. The two exceptions are medical insurance for America and for developing countries. And as with all insurance, you hope never to claim on it.
Well, this time we have had to claim. And I have been exceptionally impressed. I bought the insurance when I bought the airline tickets, taking the tick-a-box option rather than carefully comparing and contrasting different insurance companies offerings. We ended up with WebJet ETC, provided by Allianz, and they have been brilliant.
From when we contacted them to first advise of the need for medical treatment, through to the present they have been unfailingly helpful. Teresa, the nurse who took the case notes rang back at the end of her shift to see how things were going. Once approval had been granted for our claim (within ten minutes of us contacting them, essentially requiring their doctor review the case notes provided by Dad), they told us not to pay anything. Everything would be sorted through their agent in India.
The hospital clerks and billing/accounts people have been (somewhat) assured by talking to Marie, the claims agent, that our insurance will cover it all. Once those connections are made, I am confident it will all be sorted as seamlessly as everything else to be, and given the woman in the green sari from billing didn't come back, I am sure that is exactly what has happened.
May you never need to claim on travel insurance, but if you do, may your experience be as straightforward as ours.
Well, this time we have had to claim. And I have been exceptionally impressed. I bought the insurance when I bought the airline tickets, taking the tick-a-box option rather than carefully comparing and contrasting different insurance companies offerings. We ended up with WebJet ETC, provided by Allianz, and they have been brilliant.
From when we contacted them to first advise of the need for medical treatment, through to the present they have been unfailingly helpful. Teresa, the nurse who took the case notes rang back at the end of her shift to see how things were going. Once approval had been granted for our claim (within ten minutes of us contacting them, essentially requiring their doctor review the case notes provided by Dad), they told us not to pay anything. Everything would be sorted through their agent in India.
The hospital clerks and billing/accounts people have been (somewhat) assured by talking to Marie, the claims agent, that our insurance will cover it all. Once those connections are made, I am confident it will all be sorted as seamlessly as everything else to be, and given the woman in the green sari from billing didn't come back, I am sure that is exactly what has happened.
May you never need to claim on travel insurance, but if you do, may your experience be as straightforward as ours.
First let me say that the patient is fine, was never at serious risk, just needed something checked and ruled out (which it was). Healh care provision in India is pretty high quality. What is not so high quality is the medical bureaucracy and I suspect Ab will post a somewhat less flattering opinIon of the bullshit we had to go through to get the patient out of the hospital. Pretty annoying even to my placid self, although it was Ab (and Gopa) up had to run the gauntlet - thank the stars I have doctors for parents in law, they were fantastic throughout what could have been a very complex situation, as was Ab.
ReplyDeleteAlso a huge thumbs up to our tour company liaisons Patrick and Philip, and especially to our driver Vencat - who after traveling 350km overnight to obtain an entry permit for Kerala, dropped in to the hospital to look in on Ab and patient at 4am, as he was finally returnIng to Madurai. The man has had less sleep than any of us but he is totally dedicated to his job of helping us have a good time in India. He's spending three weeks away from his own boys, almost the same age as ours and he misses them a lot. He's a charming, capable, down-to-earth and knowledgable guide and he's given us a lot of personal insight into life in India through his own eyes.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, the hospital visit is another experience to be taken on its own merits - while frustrating, it's another window into something I haven't gone through before and the end result could have been much worse. And if anything, I suspect the hospital staff are just as glad to be rid of us as we are to have escaped!
hell Ab I hope everything is alright
ReplyDeleteMatt
Glad to hear your boy is ok! I was worried. Hope the rest of the trip is stress free.
ReplyDelete