International Medical and Travel Insurance is Your Assurance.

Unfortunate medical emergencies, including accidents and illnesses, are not planned—they happen.  You will want to protect yourself, your employees and your loved ones as best you can.  Supplemental coverage is not costly and provides you with the reassurance that you will be prepared for whatever occurs. 

Short-term Travel & Temporary Foreign Assignments:

Cowden Associates, Inc. (Cowden) has helped companies and individuals with identifying gaps in current coverage and any risks associated in relation to international travel, including:

• Occasional or frequent business travelers
• Employees in non-U.S. locations
• International visitors to the U.S. (clients, business associates, key vendors)
• Individuals living outside one’s home country ─ whether on temporary or long-term assignments
• Students studying or traveling abroad
• Vacationers outside the U.S.
• Specialized coverage for different circumstances (e.g. group coverage for companies with five or more employees that travel frequently or live abroad)
• Translations into local language (with specific country or regional dialects as appropriate)

In addition to ensuring your employees have competitive and comparable benefits in every region, specialized coverage during travel is a need that has often been overlooked.  Although your employees have coverage through the company-sponsored plans as part of their compensation benefits, traditional sources of private health insurance may not meet your employee’s needs while traveling or living abroad.  For example, for a U.S. citizen living outside the United States, there are geographical exclusions and provider limitations that may restrict or eliminate coverage while not on home land.

The following outlines additional ways in which your insurance may not meet your needs during travel:

Many insurance companies do not have an infrastructure in place to:

• Assure your coverage is accepted by foreign hospitals and other care providers
• Make a payment to care providers or payment in local currency
• Guide you to quality care givers
• Assure you can leave the country, when appropriate, to receive care elsewhere

Geographical exclusions and provider limitations common to these policies may and often do:

• Restrict or even eliminate the coverage available to you while you are outside the U.S.
• Not cover any governmental plans, even in countries with nationalized care
• Exclude eligibility for participation in the government-sponsored plans in the country where you reside

Employees and their dependents may wish to have access to health care in other countries, including the U.S., in the event they become seriously ill.

For non-U.S. citizens, you may need an international medical insurance policy to supplement the coverage available through a plan sponsored by governmental plans or full coverage while outside their home country.

For those wishing to review options available for short-term coverage, please click on the following link: https://www.worldtrips.com/quotes/default.asp?referid=23933

Cowden's International Insurance Consultant Jere Cowden is available to help you with your overall benefits and human resource needs.  You can call him directly at 412.394.9303 or e-mail him at jerec@cowdenassociates.com