How Travel Assistance Helps You
Isaac Cymrot:
Welcome to the third installment of DisasterMan. Last month, we spent some time with our Claims Supervisor David D'Agostino, detailing the claims process. If you ever need to know how to file a claim, please go back and watch Episode 2. This month, we have another one of our star claims analysts with us, Sarah Raymer. Sarah's been with us for three years. She started in customer service and has now moved on to do some of our very best claims work. Today we are going to be talking to her about some of the little know, but very important pieces of the coverage, the 24-Hour Worldwide Assistance. Sarah, welcome.
Sarah Raymer:
Thank you.
Isaac Cymrot:
Let's roll right into it. First of all, can you just give a brief overview for everyone, what are the travel assistant services?
Sarah Raymer:
Well our travel assistance company, On Call International, provides services such as medical evacuation, medically necessary repatriation, repatriation of remains, if you were pass away on a trip. They also provide other - some people may not see them as important services, but they can provide you with translation services, lost baggage retrieval, ID theft resolution and there's several other - the list goes on an on.
Isaac Cymrot:
It's a pretty detailed list. All of the benefits are provided in your Description of Coverage when you purchase your policy. So if you're ever interested to know what exactly you have available, please refer to the policy document, as with any piece of coverage within our policy. I guess the first question, everybody knows assistant services - as you mentioned off the bat, as the medical assistance, what happens if there's an emergency while traveling. Could you just give a brief over of - I'm in Europe, I fall down, I break my leg. What happens?
Sarah Raymer:
Well first thing, you probably want to go to the doctor or the hospital. And then you can contact On Call, they would be able to assist you. We have a 24 hour physician on call at all times. They would be in correspondence with your treating physician. There would be paperwork that would need to be completed so they can assist you in quicker repatriation home. If need be, they can hire a nurse to come assist you home or if you have a family member that's willing to take on the responsibility. But all in all, they're there to help you, to make you feel safe and secure and if you have any questions, they're always there 24 hours.
Isaac Cymrot:
And you had mentioned that you should contact On Call immediately upon getting - basically at the earliest possible point that you can -
Sarah Raymer:
Right.
Isaac Cymrot:
- contact them. How do you contact them?
Sarah Raymer:
You would contact them by phone. They do have a collect number so you don't incur any fees on your phone. You can call them 24 hours, they're there and they can assist you, or you can fax them as well. They communicate by fax or e-mail.
Isaac Cymrot:
And if anybody's interested, that information is available in your Description of Coverage once you purchase your policy. And kind of also like you had mentioned, there's some other stuff that these services provide that are just as important as the medical assistance. Can you give some other examples and some details on some of those services?
Sarah Raymer:
Well they provide like the ID theft. If your wallet or pocketbook got stolen while on a trip, it's not the end of the world, they'll help you. They'll contact the three major credit bureaus and advise them of the theft. They can help you in contacting your bank or credit card companies. They're there to lesson the chances of someone being able to run up your credit card or take off with your ID. They also have the concierge service. If you're in a foreign country and you need to - you decide you want to eat pizza, they can help you find a pizza shop, or if you want to order your wife some flowers, they can find a floral service for you.
The can provide upgrades if you want upgraded seating or if you need restaurant reservations. We also have - with the baggage they have the business concierge, where if you're on a business trip they can help you find a place to copy reports or if you need help in finding an internet cafe or - they have a lot of perks.
Isaac Cymrot:
There's definitely a lot that the assistance company can assist with aside from the emergency medical situations. One piece that I always like to mention to my clients is that prescription drug and eyeglass replacement.
Sarah Raymer:
Right.
Isaac Cymrot:
Would you just detail that for a second?
Sarah Raymer:
Yep. If you loose your prescription on the trip or if your glasses become broken, they can assist you in contacting your physician back home and having those refilled for you or having a new pair of glasses made for you while you're on your trip.
Isaac Cymrot:
And I think one of the key pieces to point out here is that unless it's a medical situation or emergency evacuation, most of these services are just what they are, services. There's no real actual coverage or dollars that will come back in the policy. There's only a couple pieces in this that there's actually coverage in the policy to pay some of this. So most of these services are - it's a way to facilitate the service and the client still has to pay for, like the prescription drugs.
Sarah Raymer:
Correct.
Isaac Cymrot:
If there's event tickets stuff like that. That's not actually covered in the policy, type thing.
Sarah Raymer:
Right. You have to pay for the actual tickets or the prescription drugs, but they're there to assist you -
Isaac Cymrot:
Right.
Sarah Raymer:
- in finding them.
Isaac Cymrot:
And I think that's an important difference that everybody should understand.
Sarah Raymer:
Right.
Isaac Cymrot:
The last question is to delve a little bit more into some of the other things you mentioned, like the ID theft, the concierge services, some of the political evaluation services. Really, specifically with the ID theft, can you give an idea and a little bit of a description as to how that works? What it does? What services are available?
Sarah Raymer:
Well, as I stated, if something gets stolen, your pocketbook or your wallet, or even if it's just a credit card, you contact them right away and they can e-mail all of the bureaus or they can e-mail your credit card company directly or your bank. They can contact people back home for you because a lot of people don't carry their bank information with them, like the phone number or anything. So they do all that for you. They help in assisting you to stop any damage that may occur.
Isaac Cymrot:
I think these services are definitely something that are expertly important. They're included for free within the policies. Certain things like ID theft, business concierge, political evacuation that we mentioned are only available on certain policies.
Sarah Raymer:
Correct.
Isaac Cymrot:
So definitely make sure that you're speaking with your travel agent about where these services are available, if you're interested in them to make sure that you're purchasing a policy that has these services available. And Sarah, I appreciate your time today. I hope everybody found the information informative and we will look forward to the next installment of DisasterMan.
Sarah Raymer:
Thank you.