Wednesday, 29 June 2016 11:23
Do Your Employees Travel Abroad for Business?
Written by Juliet FitzgibbonsTraveling abroad for work can be an exciting experience but anything can happen while you're away from home. Losing your passport, malaria, auto accident, food poisoning – it's important to be prepared for any unexpected illness, injury or medical emergency. Unfortunately, most domestic medical plans reimburse after the fact for emergencies only, and simply are not designed for regular international travel.
It’s no secret that the quality of healthcare can vary widely around the world. The quality of care your expatriate employees experience in their new country may not be to the standard they were used to back home, nor are they likely entitled to any free or subsidized national healthcare. As an international employer, it’s important to provide the proper type of medical coverage for your employees. You want to ensure that they receive worldwide access to quality care, superior international claims administration, and 24-7 translation, logistics, and medical evacuation service.
Global group medical coverage will provide a solution to these needs. Some carriers require a minimum of 51 employees at the company and two or more employees participating to get an international medical benefits plan, which is typically a better value than individual plans. Plans may include office visits, prescriptions, inpatient, outpatient, accommodation costs, and medical evacuation if needed, as well as cover for cancer, mental health care and other services such as routine maternity. In addition, you can add vision and dental benefits, if needed. The cost of these global health insurance policies will vary by plan and insurer.
There are several types of global medical coverage:
- Expatriate Coverage: Several carriers can carve out your international employees who are stationed abroad for at least six months to provide them with U.S.-style benefits and worldwide coverage. Some carriers require a minimum of 51 employees at the company and two or more employees participating on the expat medical plan.
- Business Travel Accident: These highly economic plans are purchased in “weeks of coverage” that cover any employee of your company traveling abroad, as long as they are outside their home country typically less than six months at a time or less than 270 days a year in total. For example, if you have five different executives that each spend about four or five weeks abroad on various trips, a policy covering up to 25 weeks of travel would suffice.
- Individual travel insurance: If international business travel is a rare event, the company may wish to just purchase an individual policy for each trip. For example, a two week trip to South America for a 45 year-old can be insured for less than $40, including medical evacuation, 24-hour translation and logistics assistance, and up to $50,000 of medical bills covered. Be sure to check your ancillary coverages, though, as some life or disability policies include some travel benefits as well.
If you are interested in learning more about global medical coverage, please contact us.
Published in
Best Practices
Juliet Fitzgibbons
Juliet joins Fall River as an Account Executive and brings over 15 years of prior broker and account management experience. Her experience brings extensive knowledge on employee benefit programs, account management and creative cost-saving strategies and compliance solutions for employers of various sizes.
She is responsible for new business proposals, client renewals including plan benchmarking, rate analysis and mid-year reviews. She helps clients navigate healthcare systems and educates employers and employees through open enrollment meetings and day-to-day service requests. Juliet joined Fall River in 2015.