Travel insurance scam

knott59

I had an annoying experience on holiday in Paphos, Cyprus with my partner recently. I believe it's a scam and am interested to find out how widespread it is.

We had both taken out travel insurance but we also each took the new European health insurance card, which enables free hospital treatment. Following a tripping accident my partner was advised to get X-rays. We asked at hotel reception about local hospitals and were told our holiday company only used one hospital but didn't give any further details. We subsequently drove to that hospital where my partner was whisked away very quickly for X-rays before I had a chance to inquire whether treatment would be covered under the European Health Insurance Card. After treatment we were told the hospital was private and that a travel insurance claim was now inevitable as the X-rays had to be paid for. We had to pay a £50 excess on the policy when we could have had free treatment at the local general hospital if we had known about it.

It seems to me that if the holiday company are just promoting one private hospital there must be something in it for them, possibly a backhander to recommend them.

Has anyone else had the same experience and if you haven't please don't fall into the same trap.

Peter

saveapenny

This as been going on for years even the hotels get a cut so do the tour ops they earn commision on it.
This can go add to to thousand in the winter when the 60+ are in the golden years hotel and nly have to sneeze and the hotel cal for an ambulance

richardw

Gosh, what a scam!

Perhaps it is worth doing a quick internet search for the nearest state hospital to your resort and taking it with you just in case.

I had brilliant treatment with my E111 in Italy years ago, I only had to pay for the prescription. The campsite owner told me where to get it.

firespire

knott59 wrote:

I believe it's a scam and am interested to find out how widespread it is.

BBC Watchdog had a holiday special at the end of last series and this was featured so it must be common.

They sent undercover english speaking people to ask at the hotel reception how to get to the hospital and they all seemed to give directions to the private hospital accompanied by glossy business cards. They sent the Spanish speaking camera man to ask and the same woman directed him the the spanish 'NHS' hospital.

More shocking was the privite hospitals giving unnecessary treatment, preventing patients speaking to their insurance companies and carrying on with treatment when specifically told by the insurance companies they would not pay out for it.

IvanOpinion

As saveapenny says this has been going on for years. The onus is really on the tourist to do their homework before they go to ensure they know where the nearest general hospital etc. is.

Is it a scam .. possibly .. they did answer your question and you got the required services .. it is no different to asking a hotel receptionist who the best taxi company is, which tour operator to use, where the best night club is etc. they probably get a few quid back handers for recommending these as well.

Ivan

Ali_UK

Not intending to upset anyone but I think calling it a 'scam' is quite strong. Of course it happens, and yes, there are incentives (monetary and otherwise - the private hospitals almost always take the holiday reps on a jolly at the start and end of each season!) but as Ivan has pointed out the onus is really on you to make enquiries about where you are going and what cost would be involved. Obviously I appreciate this wouldn't be possible in the event of an extreme emergency - however in the case of serious injury you would be sent to the nearest casualty where you could be appropriately treated - this is something most of the private facilities can't offer.

However, for those more minor injuries, consider firstly the fact that you will be seen promptly at the private facility and won't be waiting around in casualty, and secondly the language barrier that you will almost inevitably experience if you visit a 'local' hospital. If none of the staff spoke your language whose job would you consider it to be to translate for you? It's certainly not something your host state should be paying for (imagine the outcry if the NHS had to fund translators!). At the mention of having a dedicated English speaking staff everyone I ever had to assist whilst working abroad plumped for the private treatment and swallowed the excess especially when told that I was legally not allowed to translate for them at a local facility (due to potential misunderstandings and law suits).

I got sick on my last trip to Mexico. I knew there was a doc in town I could see for a few dollars but I couldn't deal with the walk (or even a taxi) in to town _pale_ and was more than happy to splash out to see the private doc in the hotel across from ours. I did also pay an extra £10 to get an excess waiver on my policy which therefore meant I got all my money back - that £10 was worth it's weight in gold to me!

I definitely think it was worth Peter highlighting this though as it will allow people to make more informed choices in future! (p.s. hope your partner wasn't in too much pain and is on the mend/mended!)

budgetflyer

The other thing, just like our NHS you may have to wait all day for treatment.
These private clinics-you can be in and out in 1/2 an hour .
Your holiday maybe cost £2K. Why waste a day of it sitting in a surgery.
My wife had toothache last year. Went to private clinic. I hour later + 60 euro lighter-SORTED.

vfm

In my opinion the private hospitals are not always the best. When visiting Spain my sister had an accident. I had told her prior to her visit to take an E111 (now replaced by EHIC). She hadn't done so, therefore our only alternative was to go to the private hospital. I'd heard all these stories of how good these hospitals were, therefore was even more disappointed with the treatment which my sister received. She had to wait almost 6 hours in the waiting room before she was treated (she had broken her arm and fractured her coxsis). There was people all around, some being sick and some passing out, but none were seen any quicker. The hospital wanted to see her passport, ticket home, travel insurance and credit card before they even examined her. Even though it was a private hospital I still found that I had to revert to Spanish for answers to some questions. I spoke to many local Spaniards who were at the hospital, some had gone there thinking they would be better treated with it being private. They told me that in their opinion the treatment was no better than the local state hospital.
I personally always find out prior to leaving home where the nearest state hospital is to where I'm staying and having experienced the private, would go to the state hospital first, only if I wasn't satisfied would I go to the private one. Also please be aware some insurance companies don't cover you for treatment if there is a state hospital nearby and you have chosen not to use it.

Jays

firespire wrote:

BBC Watchdog had a holiday special at the end of last series and this was featured so it must be common.

More shocking was the privite hospitals giving unnecessary treatment, preventing patients speaking to their insurance companies and carrying on with treatment when specifically told by the insurance companies they would not pay out for it.

I generally agree that unnecessary treatment should not be given but, controversially, my mother owes her life to a private hospital in Benidorn, Spain, just for this reason.

She was admitted with a severe chest infection whilst on holiday 5 years ago, the hospital insisted on undertaking 'extra' investigations which, should she had been hospitalized in the UK, she would not have had. They discovered a cancerous breast lump and a degree of heart failure, more importantly, they succeeded in frightening her enough to give up smoking immediately (something I had tried to do for the last 40 years). She came back to the UK, was treated and is still with us, 75 next month:j .

I honestly believe, if she had not gone to Spain, we would not had known about the breast cancer until it was too late, and her UK medical team could no longer ignore the heart failure/peripheral vascular disease/chronic breathing problems (to name a few), that they had simply chosen not to investigate.

Jays