NEWSFLASHES

Emergency assistance call centre can offer expats security

Before you go abroad, you will also, of course, find out as much as possible about insurance. The crucial question is where you should take out your insurances: in your home country or in the country where you will be establishing yourself? When you start to work for a foreign employer you may have to participate in the company’s group insurances. You will not have a choice. Should you, however, be able to choose, we recommend also including providers of expat policies when you make your product comparisons. They always work with an emergency assistance call centre and this gives you important benefits.

You are hoping that your foreign adventure will be perfect. Accidents will, however, happen. An emergency assistance call centre may make all the difference. The most important service is the brokerage when admitted to hospital and being repatriated: the emergency assistance call centre will make all the arrangements and will pay for this for you. This is very reassuring because you will already have to deal with enough things. Should a terminal illness or a death of a family member (once or twice removed) be involved, the emergency assistance call centre will make the arrangements and pay for a return flight to take you back quickly to your home country. And if something should happen to you or one of your family members whilst abroad, the emergency assistance call centre will make the arrangements and will pay for a family member to come out.

Reassuring
If you and your family members need to be admitted to hospital, the emergency assistance call centre will make the arrangements for the admittance and payment. The emergency assistance call centre is fully aware of the hospitals that are available globally. They will always refer you to a hospital that operates based on your home land standards. This is quite reassuring. If your region should not have good healthcare provisions, you will be transported at the expense of the insurer to the nearest hospital where the treatment can take place following Western standards. This will often be by ambulance plane. A expat policy, moreover, offers the option of being treated in your home country if required. You will, however, pay for the travelling expenses unless there is a medical indication due to which you must return to your land of origen for treatment. Many choose to return, in particular, when giving birth. There is, after all, nothing more pleasant than to experience this in familiar surroundings with your family close by!

Emergency situations
The emergency assistance call centres work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In addition to the above examples, the call centre will also often make arrangements related to travelling and accommodation expenses in emergency situations, will check and monitor medical progress when admitted to hospital, will reimburse you for communication expenses in specific circumstances and will repatriate mortal remains. The cover of the various expat insurances, however, is not identical. Compare, therefore, the policy terms and conditions beforehand to determine which cover best suits your needs.

If you need to continue to be insured through the basic insurance, it may also be wise to ask about what arrangements your basic insurer has for people who work abroad in case of being admitted to hospital.

Source: www.wereldexpat.nl
Publicationdate: 12th February 2009

More news