Many of us when we travel abroad as individuals may be smart enough to think in advance about the possibility of a medical emergency. For those of us who live in the United States, and are used to a private insurance system it may be relatively easy to conceptualize the need for insurance. However, many people may or may not be aware that some aspects of their private medical insurance will not work, or will not be covered when they are abroad.
Now, if one is traveling in the richer countries of Western Europe, which have national healthcare systems, at least to the quality of care will be competent. Whether or not your insurance will cover it, or how that individual national healthcare systems bills US citizens abroad is another story entirely. However, the idea of needing international medical insurance is relatively well known.
However, if one travels to countries in the developing world such as Mexico or Saudi Arabia, the need for international medical travel insurance and how it may work are problems that are a bit fuzzier. If you are the employer or the person in charge of administering a large system of employees and executives abroad, then you have the issue of coordinating the medical insurance needs of your employees when they are overseas, no matter what country.
- What may not be your problem if it happens in the United States may become your problem if it happens to an employee in an overseas country.
Therefore, you as the administrator of the program may have thought about insurance issues, including up to the evacuation of an employee if he or she is subjected to a medical crisis, and you may have even thought about his or her family. However, prevention is very important, too.
Don’t Let a Small Overseas Medical Emergency Become a Big One for You and Your Employees
If, for example, there is a small medical emergency, with the right intelligence it may be possible to seek out local health assistance at that moment and thereby prevent a small problem from becoming a big one, one that may require medical evacuation. Or, if there is a outbreak such as the recent outbreak of Zika virus, it may be possible to alert employees and their families to do something as simple as use mosquito netting or mosquito repellent when going outdoors.
Insurance, in short, it may not be enough! You may need to have a system of alerting employees as well as a very robust backend that can do everything from push out alerts on medical problems to coordinate with local medical staff and even help evacuate employees in the event of a major medical emergency.
Insurance, after all, is not sufficient to good health care. You need the doctors, the nurses, hospitals, and all the other components. All of this is even more true abroad.
Confused? Reach Out to us for a Consultation on Overseas Medical Assistance for Employees
If you are the administrator of an overseas executive or employee travel program, please reach out to us and we can help you assess your programs feasibility not just in terms of insurance, of course, but in terms of our own expertise which is logistics and information for your overseas travelers. Microphone off