Partner ill abroad we have separate travel insurance

lisyloo

Kath26 said:

My partner's insurance have come back with a full declined but won't tell me why as I am not authorised (dpa/gdpr). My partner can't talk to them for obvious reasons. I'm now looking at funding repatriation and hospital costs myself. Again does anyone have advice for doing this without incurring undue cost?

Does anyone hold an LPA (lasting power of attorney) for your partner?

Was he being treated under a reciprocal arrangement e.g. like NHS? which country are you in?

eskbanker

Kath26 said:

My partner's insurance have come back with a full declined but won't tell me why as I am not authorised (dpa/gdpr). My partner can't talk to them for obvious reasons. I'm now looking at funding repatriation and hospital costs myself. Again does anyone have advice for doing this without incurring undue cost?

I can understand why third parties aren't generally allowed to discuss policies with insurers but surely in the context of insurance for medical events, it has to be possible for a partner to act on behalf of the insured if the policyholder is incapacitated?  I don't know exactly how this can be initiated though, perhaps if you name the insurer it'll help someone identify a way forward?

DullGreyGuy

eskbanker said:

Kath26 said:

My partner's insurance have come back with a full declined but won't tell me why as I am not authorised (dpa/gdpr). My partner can't talk to them for obvious reasons. I'm now looking at funding repatriation and hospital costs myself. Again does anyone have advice for doing this without incurring undue cost?

I can understand why third parties aren't generally allowed to discuss policies with insurers but surely in the context of insurance for medical events, it has to be possible for a partner to act on behalf of the insured if the policyholder is incapacitated?  I don't know exactly how this can be initiated though, perhaps if you name the insurer it'll help someone identify a way forward?

They can to a degree, hence they have taken the notification of the claim from the OP. 

On the basis they have declined the claim it would suggest there is something in the partners medical files that have caused them to or general background checks. They wouldn't be allowed to disclose that to the OP, particularly if it's a medical issue. I know I can sometimes be a little flippant and I am sure the OP is feeling very sensitive and therefore want to highlight the following is purely for illustration and not an accusation levelled at the OP's partner. So for example if they discovered they'd been made bankrupt and hadn't declared it or had a major illness like cancer and not declared it then under CIDRA they can void the policy and avoid the claim but wouldn't be for them to tell the OP that their partners had cancer or HIV or whatever. Similarly if the hospital had reported high blood alcohol levels or illicit substances on admission it could be grounds for denying the claim and again they can't tell the OP their partner had a cocaine habit. 

Obviously hopefully the parter will recover in which case they can contest it themselves, if they dont recover then power of attorney is going to be needed anyway in which case once granted the OP can challenge or if they dont make it then DPA doesn't apply to the deceased and the Executor could get the further information. 

lisyloo

I have dealt with an insurer before (on my Dad's behalf) by creating him a gmail account.
They said they would not be able to deal with me on the phone but they would be able to deal with "his" email.

If he is able to speak on the phone he should be able to give them authority to deal with you over the phone.
This can be as simple as saying "yes".
I've had to deal with this before with elderly parents who were hard of hearing.

Bicycleman22

GHIC will cover the hospital as long as you are not in a private hospital. make sure you are in public hospital and the care will covered as a local. Even without the card you will be covered althgough it can be more complicated. Talk to the administration at the hospital. With GHIC you might have to pay locally and claim back when you are back home. 

Grumpy_chap

Kath26 said:

My partner's insurance have come back with a full declined but won't tell me why as I am not authorised (dpa/gdpr). My partner can't talk to them for obvious reasons. I'm now looking at funding repatriation and hospital costs myself. Again does anyone have advice for doing this without incurring undue cost?

It is unclear to me whether this is the claim for the partner's care and repatriation, or for the OP's rearranged travel that has been declined.

Does the partner have medical fit to travel?

Voyager2002

Kath26 said:

My partner's insurance have come back with a full declined but won't tell me why as I am not authorised (dpa/gdpr). My partner can't talk to them for obvious reasons. I'm now looking at funding repatriation and hospital costs myself. Again does anyone have advice for doing this without incurring undue cost?

Nightmare: so sorry for you!

Have you made contact with the embassy?

NoodleDoodleMan

DullGreyGuy said:

NoodleDoodleMan said:

Surely the OP's policy is also relevant ?

Per my original post... it would depend what the OP wants to do. Come home early? Then yes it would be. Stay there longer to be with them, no it wouldn't (unless they happened to lose their purse or such whilst staying there)

My comment was in reply to the OP being unable to get a meaningful response from her insurer, as separate from the relevant provisions of her partner's cover.

katejo

I am interested to know whether having a power of attorney would result in the sick partner's insurance being obliged to give a reason for the refusal to pay out. I am in the process of setting up my own p of a now and have asked quite a few questions.
Also would it be different if they had a joint travel insurance policy instead of separate policies? 

DullGreyGuy

katejo said:

I am interested to know whether having a power of attorney would result in the sick partner's insurance being obliged to give a reason for the refusal to pay out. I am in the process of setting up my own p of a now and have asked quite a few questions.
Also would it be different if they had a joint travel insurance policy instead of separate policies? 

With a full PoA, that has been registered with the insurer, they will treat you like they would treat their customer. In most cases then yes they will tell you, if it was for anti-money laundering checks failing etc then they cannot tell anyone other than the authorities. 

With joint insurance the policyholder is their customer and the one that will have full disclosure so making claims is certainly easier, if they'd give the reason to the second named person would depend if they are considered joint policyholders or not. 

Obviously the risk on joint policies is there is more chance that someone won't want to tell the buyer about embarrassing or incriminating medical conditions... remember a while back a moderate sized claim was declined because the policyholder hadn't declared that their partner had recently had chlamydia as clearly they'd been cheating on them so they didnt know to declare it but still resulted in the claim being declined.