Travel insurance claim 'accepted & cover confirmed'

ednamode104

Hello,
I need help with a complicated travel insurance issue.

My partner broke his arm in Bangkok and was taken to one of the major hospital to have complicated surgery.
The hospital and myself contacted the travel insurance in the uk who started a claim which was dealt with by a zurich office in canada for 7 months.
His recovery took ages due to the complex fracture and we ended up staying in thailand 6 months. The insurance office followed the claim through and on the 10th of september 2023 sent us an email formally confirming our cover, accepting our claim and then gave us a link to a different part of zurich stating 'please complete the claim form on the link and the local team WILL reimburse your self paid costs'  . They even told us the excess was settled .
This seemed odd as this was the first time they mentioned a uk team and a claim form, But I duly followed their instructions and completed the form on the new website and this is when things got really messy:
the office in the uk asked for receipts to be sent all over again and acted as if the acceptance letter didn't exist. We are now 7 months in and it appears, starting the process all over again.

I will add that the uk office was copied in the acceptance emaill by the canadian office and already had all the receipts but are so far ignoring this and i smell a rat.
My question is can the 'new' company refuse to pay out if the claim has already been accepted and cover confirmed in writing?  

Thank you

DullGreyGuy

Which entity does your insurance state is the insurer/underwriter?
What is the relationship between the two entities?
How did you end up dealing with the Canadian company?

ednamode104

Hello, the insurance was taken with annual travel insurance, It was renewed automatically. They directed me to blue insurance in ireland when the accident happened and within a couple of days the  canadian company contacted the hospital and myself, the claim got rolling both and canadian office took over for the duration of our stay. I had no reason to doubt them as they were also in direct contact with the hospital  throughout our stay. Zurich is the name that comes up the most in all the correspondence. The email from the canadian team are from WPT (world travel protection in toronto), the emails from the uk are from CSAL and they are part of the same organisation as per the email extract below:

Our local claims team in the UK, CSAL (ccd in this email), will reimburse all self-paid expenses. We note your policy excess has been paid (proof of payment on first attachment).