YOUR WINCRAZIEST A PRIZE CLAIM FOR ENTER YOUR WACKY CLAIMS AND WIN A BOTTLE OF CHAMPAGNE (see page 11) Page 22 Page 26 Page 28 Page 32 ITIJITIJITIJInternational Travel Insurance Journal ISSUE 82 • NOVEMBER 2007 ESSENTIAL READING FOR TRAVEL INSURANCE INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS Hospital wars AXA admits payout chaos Milan Korcok updates us on the latest round of British newspaper supplement The Sunday Times Mills kept trying, and had to argue with the insurer and many travellers are negotiations between US hospitals and insurance Money has received hundreds of letters in recent for three months before it backed down. unaware of what they companies weeks from distraught consumers struggling to A spokesperson for AXA admitted that a review are and aren’t get money they have claimed from AXA. Mandy of the terms and conditions of its policies was covered for.” Crushed by uncollectible debt and shrinking profit Aitchison gets involved ‘overdue’: “There are many industry standards margins, many of America’s hospitals – large and small that probably need reviewing. We are attempting – are digging in for a bitter round of healthcare contract Angry holidaymakers, some of whom have been to make the process more customer friendly.” negotiations with insurers and their cost containment waiting months for payouts, have shown their The spokesperson did say that the rate of cohorts. At stake are the substantial fee discounts displeasure with AXA’s claims process by bringing claims AXA is receiving is of a higher volume buyers of healthcare services have traditionally it to the attention of the British media. AXA has volume than normal, and that been able to win and subsequently pass on to their a 31-per-cent share in the UK travel insurance it is doing its best to make affiliates down the line. market, and also underwrites many household sure the reputation of the In South Florida, for example, hospital profits declined names, such as travel operator Thomas Cook, Egg, company ‘is not diminished 26 per cent last year, stripping operating margins to 3.4 Marks & Spencer and Lloyds TSB Travel Insurance. by poor service’. per cent from 4.7 the previous year, forcing publicly- A whistleblower for the company, who did not According to the latest funded hospitals to fall back on their tax subsidies. In want to be named, was quoted as saying: “There figures released by the fact, without the $609 million in hospital taxes collected is a general clunkiness to the claims process at the Financial Ombudsman by Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, moment, which we are trying to resolve. One Service (FOS), 40 per cent South Florida hospitals as a whole would show a loss. way of doing this is to bring the claims handling in- of travel insurance disputes The same story is being reflected by hospitals in New house.” Since January this year, the firm has steadily started by consumers are York, California, the Mid West, and by private, investor- been bringing its claims process in-house, as ‘with upheld, which is slightly owned institutions as well. outsourced firms there is a tendency to pass things higher than the insurance The result, says one national healthcare analyst, is higher up the chain to resolve them’, continued the industry’s average of 33 that hospitals will be pressured to demand higher unnamed source. per cent. Commenting reimbursement rates of managed care plans, especially One consumer had to wait three months before on the present situation, after seeing the nation’s largest health insurers report big her claim was processed and money was paid a spokesperson said some earnings gains. to her. She had booked flights to Turkey for her travel insurers are still Though it may seem paradoxical to hear of not-for- brother’s wedding, but had to cancel them after making exclusions to policies profit or publicly-financed hospitals losing ‘profits’ – or the bride fell ill. “We tried to claim back £700 for difficult for consumers to fully surpluses, they say that without them they cannot the cancelled flights, but AXA said as we were not understand: “The wording reinvest in new programs, maintain or acquire new related to the bride we could not make a claim,” on policy documents still technologies or professional staffs, invest in capital said Ms Janet Mills. However, her sister managed needs to be improved. At the projects, treat poor patients, provide a broad array of to claim back on her travel insurance policy, so Ms moment it is far too complicated healthcare outreach programs, and continued on p.7 Double dip from Oz tax office Australians returning from living or travelling economy many are living and working in foreign nine countries – Ireland, Italy, Finland, Malta, abroad may get an unfriendly welcome from the countries for extended periods. A large number the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, tax office. Miles Clarke gives us the drum from need to suspend their private health cover when Sweden and the United Kingdom – for down under departing Australian shores for extended postings limited subsidised health services for medically overseas. With travel insurance mostly covering only necessary treatment. However, this is cold At any one time, there are upwards of a million emergency situations, they need to obtain suitable comfort for Australian expatriates who find Australians out of the country – around five per cent medical insurance in their temporary new homeland. themselves caught up in an anomaly with the of the population. Most of these are away sunning Australian Taxation Office (ATO). themselves on Pacific islands or exploring the historic Tax surcharge Australians pay 1.5 per cent of their taxable sites of Europe, but in an increasingly globalised Australia has reciprocal healthcare agreements with income for Medicare, the national continued on p.7 2 ITIJCONTRIBUTORS ITIJ ITIJInternational Travel Insurance Journal Stacey Shapiro was international editor of a weekly corporate risk management and employee benefi ts magazine called Business Insur- WHAT’S IN ance. She spent the fi rst four years of freelancing as editor of Informa Group’s space and aviation insurance newsletter, Aerospace Risk, and THIS ISSUE? then continued as an editor and/or freelance journalist for many publi- cations including Insurance Day and now Business Insurance Europe. REGULARS Pete Corbett has been a newspaper journalist, an in-house industry press offi cer, a part time government and local authority press offi cer, News continued a copy writer, a senior public relations executive, manager of a govern- ment publicity unit, translator of ‘offi cialese’ into plain English and Company brief corporate, business and trade magazine editor. Insurance matters 10 Miles Clarke is a Sydney-based writer and has a degree in Journal- Editorial comment 12 ism. He has some 27 years’ media experience in newspapers, radio and for the past 14 years as a freelance contributor to print and online Air ambulance news 1 publications on business and travel matters around the world. Health matters 20 Milan Korcok Travel matters 22 is an award-winning freelance health policy and economics writer who covers travel insurance, public health, and medi- Service directory 0 cal education issues in Canada and the US. He has been writing about health fi nancing and policy issues in these countries since the 1960s Grapevine 6 and is a frequent contributor to leading North American professional Diary dates 6 journals and consumer media. He lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. On the move Roger St Pierre is an avid traveller who has visited 119 countries and rising. He writes and broadcasts extensively on the tourism industry, motoring, cycling and music. He is also fascinated by how the global FEATURES economy works. At 15, he already had fi ve regular newspaper columns covering sport but also happens to be a qualifi ed associate of the Char- Feature: Insurers going green 29 tered Insurance Institute and writes regularly on business and fi nancial Pete Corbett rounds up the latest carbon negative efforts matters for a number if prestigious publications Feature: Travel insurance for the facebook generation 32 Glen Manchester reports on the new market Feature: Cruise insurance 3 Milan Korcok evaluates the insurance offerings currently on the market World markets: Sweden 36 ITIJ TEAM Editor-in-chief: Ian Cameron ITIJ Published on behalf of Voyageur Publishing & Events Editor: Sarah Lee Voyageur Buildings, 3 Colston St, Bristol BS1 5AX, UK Ltd, Voyageur Buildings, 43 Colston Street, Bristol Assistant editor: Mandy Aitchison BS1 5AX, UK Copy editor: James Wallis The information contained in this publication has been published Designers: Eli Butler editorial: +44 (0)117 929 4636 in good faith and every effort has been made to ensure its Steve Annette advertising: +44 (0)117 925 5151 accuracy. Neither the publisher nor Voyageur Ltd can accept US correspondent: Milan Korcok any responsibility for any error or misinterpretation. All liability fax editorial: +44 (0)117 925 2040 for loss, disappointment, negligence or other damage caused by Far East correspondent: Saby Ganguly fax advertising: +44 (0)117 929 2023 reliance on the information contained in this publication, or in the event of bankruptcy or liquidation or cessation of the trade of Conference manager: Denise Clements email: [email protected] any company, individual or fi rm mentioned is hereby excluded. Production manager: Helen Watts web: www.itij.co.uk Advertising sales: David Fitzpatrick design: V Creative Design Printed by Pensord Press, South Wales, United Kingdom James Miller Finance: Karen Campbell Copyright © Voyageur Publishing 2007. Materials in this Jianhua Liu FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR publication may not be reproduced in any form without permission Cartoonist: Chris Duggan INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL INSURANCE JOURNAL ISSN 1743-1522 International Travel Insurance Journal n www.itij.co.uk NEWS Industry statistics revealed THIA tell it how it AIG announces Online US travel insurance comparison site two people travelling alone.