Visitors Insurance

BACKGROUND:

I generally purchase visitor’s medical insurance for my parents and in laws when they visit me in the United States once a year, so 4 plan purchases a year.
I’ve used a couple of other brokers in the past and have been disappointed in product knowledge and level of service, until I found Insubuy.
Since I found about Insubuy from a friend, I’ve been purchasing from them over the past few years.
I’ve never had to invoke the after sales service until my mom fractured her arm and we had to use the visitors medical insurance. This is the specific example mentioned below.

SPECIFIC EXAMPLE THAT HAS PROMPTED ME TO WRITE THIS REVIEW:

The insurance company covered the injury as per the terms of the plan, with the significant exception of the associated physical therapy. You would think that it should be covered if the ER visit was covered as well as the doctor’s visits, even more so if it was in network for everything (I had checked everything out before purchasing the plan, with Insubuy’s help), but it doesn’t seem to work like that.
The insurance company stiffed me for about 2900 dollars’ worth of physical therapy, but covered the 3500 dollars of the ER visit and associated CT scan, X-rays, etc, as well as a few hundred dollars’ worth of doctor’s visits.
I checked with the provider and it turns out they used the correct billing codes. However, although PT and OT are handled the same way by US insurance companies for US residents, visitors medical insurance chooses to only cover PT (which means getting an actual prosthetic, which only reflects about 10% of the cases).
You would think that after an in network doctor takes X-Rays in network and provides PT instructions to an in network PT provider, the associated PT would be covered. Turns out that it’s not, or more accurately, the insurance company chose not to.
I contacted Insubuy and they asked me to send over all the associated paperwork (explanation of benefits, claim denials, provider bills and so on). I also discussed the situation with Jagruti and Fallon. Jagruti is on the sales side, she mentioned they represent the customer (as in, me). Lyle helped me fill out the paperwork. Fallon is the insurance claims person and she connected with the insurance company. A couple of weeks later, the insurance company covered it all, subject to the terms of the deductible. This was Fallon going out of her way to help me get a positive outcome and I am very grateful.

The reason I’ve excluded the insurance company’s name from this review is because it doesn’t matter. What does matter is the fact that Insubuy (specifically Fallon, Jagruti and Lyle) helped fix a very expensive situation for me. I did read reviews about instances of Insubuy helping customers in similar situations (where the insurance company stiffs the customer), but having experienced it myself is frankly awesome.

A US insurance company is unlikely to engage in shenanigans of this sort, for obvious regulatory reasons. However, it seems that providers of visitors medical insurance have greater latitude or perhaps interpretation, of coverage. My only advice to you is to read EVERY word of the benefits agreement. Oh and definitely take the advice provided by the Insubuy sales reps! LOL that goes without saying.

PROS OF INSUBUY:

• Excellent Product knowledge (they know more about the products they sell, that many of the insurance company benefits representatives themselves……this was weird!)
• The representatives I’ve worked with are Russell, Amanda, Lyle and Jagruti. I know I’ve missed a couple of names who were really good as well. I’ve never found any of Insubuy’s reps to not know stuff off the bat; they really do know all the nuances of every plan. This was surprising, when I first connected with them a few years ago.
• Their recommendations were tailored to fit my individual needs (my parents and in laws vary in age and the corresponding plans available varied by max policy coverage, among a couple of other variables)
• A good website that actually can price on the spot; it obviates the need to even call customer service on many occasions
• They work for the customer, not for the insurance company
• Excellent after sales service (as per the specific example mentioned above).

CONS OF INSUBUY:

• I really didn’t find any. In general, with any insurance broker, you can usually find a couple of customer service reps who don’t know as much, or the response time is poor, or perhaps they disappear after the product is sold (a rather common situation).
• However, none of these apply…..I’m frankly surprised at the stellar level of service.
• In short, I’m impressed.

In general, the overall customer service and product knowledge alone is why I have been recommending Insubuy to my friends, relatives and neighbors over the past few years.

However, after the situation I’ve outlined above, this level of after-sales service is the reason why they have me as a customer for life.