How to claim
for medical expenses on your travel insurance
The insurance industry is paranoid about fraudulent travel
insurance claims and may regard with the deepest suspicion
any claim which does not have the necessary proof to back
it up. It is therefore particularly important to take a copy
of your policy – and any helpline card – when
you go on holiday so that you can check what you have to do
when faced with a holiday mishap. If you fail to take the
action outlined in the policy guidelines, your claim will
be rejected.
Waiting until you get home to see how to claim is not a good
idea since it may then be too late to do what is required.
It is a good idea to read through the ‘How to claim’
part of your policy before you set off so that you do not
throw away any receipts and other back-up material that might
be needed. Guidance on the type of back-up material you will
need to provide – which depends on which part of the
policy you are claiming under – is given below, but
check your own policy for details of exactly what you will
be expected to supply in support of any claim. You should
also claim as soon as possible after getting home. If your
claim is for less than the excess given in the policy, there
is no point claiming.
Medical expenses
Most policies will have an emergency phone number to call
if you have to be admitted to hospital because of a serious
illness or accident and it may be a condition of meeting your
claim that you use the emergency number. This is worth doing
anyway since they should be able to give advice on what to
do and can even arrange for payment to be made directly to
the hospital. If you are treated for a minor illness or accident
which does not involve a stay in hospital, you will have to
pay the bill yourself and keep all receipts to back up your
claim when you get home.
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