Travel insurance late night illness claim

cymromanchester

Daughter had a 6am flight as part of a package holiday. She was ill in the early hours ahead of the flight (gastro/food poisoning?) and was unable to travel, and so cancelled her holiday.  She has submitted an insurance claim, pointing out she could not get medical advice at that time of the morning, as evidence required by the insurer. Will she have to get a retrospective GP certificate confirming this illness? Given the difficulties getting a GP appointment, is there any alternative?

heatherw_01

Usually the insurer will require evidence for things like this otherwise people could just say there were ill just to claim on insurance, so they usually require proof you sought medical attention.

She would need to have seen someone so that you could have shown via a doctors letter or copy of medical records saying that she saw someone for that illness.

You could try calling your doctors to see what they suggest, but not sure they could do it after the fact. Maybe someone else will be able to advise.

saajan_12

cymromanchester said:

Daughter had a 6am flight as part of a package holiday. She was ill in the early hours ahead of the flight (gastro/food poisoning?) and was unable to travel, and so cancelled her holiday.  She has submitted an insurance claim, pointing out she could not get medical advice at that time of the morning, as evidence required by the insurer. Will she have to get a retrospective GP certificate confirming this illness? Given the difficulties getting a GP appointment, is there any alternative?

Maybe not in the early hours of the morning, but she could have during working hours that day? Even if that's after the flight, If a doctor said she was ill at 8am, then its reasonably likely she was also ill at 3am, compared to no doctor's note. 

cymromanchester

Should have posted it was a Saturday morning.  In addition, not that easy to get a same day appointment in this area, even on a weekday. 

cymromanchester

heatherw_01 said:

Usually the insurer will require evidence for things like this otherwise people could just say there were ill just to claim on insurance, so they usually require proof you sought medical attention.

She would need to have seen someone so that you could have shown via a doctors letter or copy of medical records saying that she saw someone for that illness.

You could try calling your doctors to see what they suggest, but not sure they could do it after the fact. Maybe someone else will be able to advise.

Appreciate the rogue insurance claim dimension, but she has the confirmation from the travel company that the package holiday was cancelled that morning. She just lacks medical confirmation that she was too ill to fly, and couldn't get it at the time. 

Hoenir

The insurance company is going to require proof before entertaining any claim. They won't backtrack if that's the terms of the policy. 

cymromanchester

Hoenir said:

The insurance company is going to require proof before entertaining any claim. They won't backtrack if that's the terms of the policy. 

And the best way to get that proof? A broken leg, or a heart attack, would have a record .... this situation, when it is an illness you would not normally visit a GP with, and with the time of day, you couldn't anyway ... having never made a claim in the past - was thinking this can't be a unique occurrence and if there is an approach to take?

katejo

You have my sympathy but I don't know a solution. It hasn't happened to me yet but my practice would refuse to see me with anything potentially infectious. 

elsien

I’m sorry, but I don’t think you have any chance of getting a GP to do a retrospective gastro travel insurance claim a week after the event. 

They would only have your daughters word to go on so they can’t actually genuinely confirm that she was ill at that point. 

If she was still ill on the Monday and had been able to get in then, perhaps slightly more of a chance, but you’re not going to get an appointment now until next week sometime so into the second week. 

TELLIT01

I have to agree with other posters that it's unlikely that a GP will issue a retrospective certificate when there is no evidence that an attempt was made even to contact the surgery or 111.

JennyDavis

I hope it will work out for her. Did she try talking to the insurance company’s customer service? We always stay in touch with united concordia for cases like this. They are quick to react and provide support, which can make a big difference in resolving issues efficiently. If she hasn’t reached out to them yet, it might be worth trying.