Medical expense whilst on business trip

getmore4less

If travelling on business.

Make sure you have Medical/repatriation travel insurance, carry the details with you.

Make sure you know the expences policy for minor stuff.

Call the insurers not HR when you have a serious medical issues.


For other aspects of travel cover, like baggage, delays etc check if the cover is provided by travel insurance or if the company self insures that might require company approval but beware the risk that they won't pay so make sure it is in the contract of employment/handbooks so you have a route to make a claim.

Don't accept self insurance for medical/repatriation(unless the company has loads of money helps if they have a history of paying up).

If in doubt get your own cover it is usualy not that expensive as an extention to a standard holiday policy.

SarEl

j.e.j. wrote: »

So, just to recapitulate (for the sake of anyone reading this), if someone's going on a business trip abroad they should check that they have adequate health insurance cover themselves, and not assume that the company will cover them for this?

No. Personal insurance is unlikely to cover business travel, and is also unlikley to offer any better cover. The problem here is that people are interpreting "adequate" as meaning "what they want". No insurer covers that! Personal insurance almost certainly wouldn't cover elective treatement of this sort either. Better advice is to check what your insurance does cover and what the terms of that cover are - the OP would very likely have ended in the same situation if they had popped over to visit family. Had they known that treatment was coming out of thei pocket instead of assuming that somebody else would pay, they might have made different choices.

A slight tangent, but not much of one, is to also remember that travel insurance - whether personal or business, does not cover all sorts of pre-existing conditions either, and you should always check with the insurer that you are covered at all, and what for, if there is any danger of requiring treatment abroad. Just because you are travelling on business does not mean you get better insurance - or worse insurance. It means you get the same insurance pretty much. So, for example, if you had a heart attack six months or a year ago - any insurer will want to know. It may increase the premium, or it may mean they refuse insurance completely. But assuming you are insured is never a good idea.

SandC

Well the OP did do the right thing in contacting his company HR department. They decided not to do what anyone with half a brain would have done and contact the insurance company and ask them.... they chose to leave it to the OP to decide.

I suppose it's a lesson learnt that anyone travelling on business should request beforehand a copy of the insurance policy and be prepared to treat it as they would personal travel insurance and be prepared to make contact themselves rather than leave it to the office.

It was perhaps the wrong decision to make having not had clearance but the OP was in pain and was told that a 10 hour flight could make things worse. Also, his company have since admitted they had inadequate insurance for UK travellers.

I think the only thing you can do is go over the heads of the ones who deal with 'insurance' and to your own Manager who may be able to take it higher up and cough up out of company funds - senior management/directors may be unaware that they have not been holding adequate insurance for their staff going on company business and it needs highlighting!

j.e.j.

jdonice wrote: »

At the time I tried to speak with my HR in Dallas but they were unable to give me any clarity on the process for going for surgery.

I had to make the decision so I opted for the surgery.

SarEl wrote: »

This is a matter for travel insurance, and it is a general policy stipulation that you must have the insurers agreement before incurring costs for "elective surgery" - anything which you do not have to have.

(my bold)

I'm sorry it looks like your company have got you over a barrel, OP. You weren't given clear information, so you made the decision to have the treatment without getting the OK from the insurance company first. I don't have much experience of medical insurance, but I do know the no 1 rule of thumb is to always, always, get it in writing from the insurance company that they will cover you for the treatment beforehand.

Dunroamin

It's frightening to think that a company (with HR in the US) can send its staff there with inadequate medical insurance. I'd take this as high as you can and make sure that other staff members know the risk they're taking in this position.

skintandscared_2

Surely a strong course of antibiotics would have dealt with the infection enough to safely travel home and be treated? In fact, when I have had dental surgery in the past for an infected tooth, the dentist would not operate until I had completed a week's course of antibiotics. It is more dangerous to operate while the infection is still present.

SarEl

I think we are making a lot of assumptions about the company, what "adequate" means and what "inadequate" means, and who might or might not have admitted what. Based on the fact that it would not, at this stage, be at all difficult for someone to identify the OP and the company!!! They may take a less than charitable view of the thread - and the OP.

Russe11

skintandscared wrote: »

Surely a strong course of antibiotics would have dealt with the infection enough to safely travel home and be treated? In fact, when I have had dental surgery in the past for an infected tooth, the dentist would not operate until I had completed a week's course of antibiotics. It is more dangerous to operate while the infection is still present.

Its not a simple case of antibiotics and the infection subsides all the time, many antibiotics are becomming less and less effective overtime.

Miss_Havisham

"at the end of the day" it was OP's responsibility to reassure her/himself that he/she had cover at least equivalent to that on a personal travel insurance policy, with added cover for any expensive equipment/sensitive info/company credit/ expenses cards they took with them for work.

It's wise with any travel ins to take a copy of the policy doc with you, the policy number and claims contact number. As a belt and braces person I also scan them and e mail to myself so I can access them wherever I am.

PS - OP I hope your mouth has recovered and you are now pain and infection free. Pain from abscesses is horrendous.

Miss H

skintandscared_2

Russe11 wrote: »

Its not a simple case of antibiotics and the infection subsides all the time, many antibiotics are becomming less and less effective overtime.

Yes I saw that on last week's news too. But that was based on many individual factors such as chronic over-use. I don't know any of my family or friends who have been immediately operated on with severe dental infections without being told to take antibiotics before AND after surgery, to reduce the infection, then reduce the risk of re-infection. I would have insisted on it, if only to save $000's in surgery costs.