Visitors Insurance

Never bur insurance from ICICI LOMBARD. This is just a big scam. We had an emergency and went to hospital for my mom. When the staff tried to confirm the policy, there was no information about my policy with United Health Care. When i spoke to ICICI, they told me that I first need to submit a claim with ICICI LOMBARD then they will send the information to United Health Care which might take upto 24 hours. And I was asked to pay $500 which is the Counter fees for the Hospital.

I dont understnad one thing, if there is emergency will they wait for 24 Hours for ICICI to get the claims and process initiated with United Healthcare.

I called Allianz BEFORE making any claims to ensure that I did exactly what they directed - they agreed that I would be covered, and they still rejected my claim. DO NOT USE ALLIANZ. Read on for full details.

I believe that Allianz's claims department acted in bad faith and that their behavior was unfair and bordering on being unethical coming at such a delicate time for me and my family following my mother's passing.

In early June, I learned that my mother (who lives in London, UK) had Leukemia. The good news was that she was responding well to treatment and her doctors told us that with regular treatment she could expect many months with good quality of life.

On June 20th, 2012, I booked flights via Orbitz for my wife and two children to fly from Boston to London to visit my parents. The trip was booked for July 2nd returning on 17th July. I purchased travel insurance from Allianz. The total price of the travel plus insurance was $2711.61.

Unfortunately, on June 26th, my mother fell down at home and needed to be hospitalized. BEFORE changing my family’s travel arrangements, I called Allianz (this would have been either on the evening of June 26th or the morning of June 27th) to confirm that my insurance covered us to change the tickets from 2 weeks to one week (returning on 10th July instead of the 17th) as my mother was now unable to spend two active weeks with her grandchildren.

I was told that I was covered. Specifically the Allianz representative (who was helpful and sympathetic) directed me to page 5 of the Allianz insurance terms (Trip Cancellation or Trip Interruption):

A family member who isn’t traveling with you is seriously ill or injured.

Specific requirement: The injury, illness or medical condition must be considered life threatening, require hospitalization, or he or she must require your care.

I was advised to purchase the new tickets, then cancel the old ones, which I did.

I filed the insurance claim on 29th June 2012.

The following occurred AFTER my claim was submitted but is relevant as it demonstrates how Allianz's claims department treated me.

While my family was in London, they reported that my mother was back home and doing well. I then booked return flights to London from July 11th to August 8th to coincide with my family’s return to Boston. I planned on visiting my parents for an extended period (so I could also enjoy the Olympics).

Two days after I arrived in London, on July 14th, my mother had a serious setback and she decided she no longer wished to continue with her treatment. Her doctor told us that the consequence of her decision was that she would now only have a maximum of a few weeks to live, rather than months. My mother’s decline was unfortunately quite rapid and on 17th July she passed away.

I called Allianz on 19th July to inquire about the progress of my claim (I had not received a reply to my email or online claim of 29th June). I was told that my claim had been rejected due to “existing medical conditions”. I was shocked and asked to speak to a senior claims supervisor and was connected to one. I explained my situation in detail and the supervisor sounded sympathetic and promised to follow up within 24 hours, which he did.

When the supervisor called me back, he started by stating that he had listened to the recordings of my phone calls to Allianz and that consequently, he had an apology to make. The supervisor apologized that Allianz had incorrectly declined my claim on the basis of "existing medical conditions". HOWEVER, he then went on to say that he was REJECTING MY CLAIM FOR A DIFFERENT REASON! I was literally speechless - I thought that I had misheard him. He said he was rejecting my claim under the clause “any problem or event that could have reasonably been foreseen or expected when you purchased your plan”

To be clear, there was no way that I or my family could have reasonably known more than my mother’s doctors. Furthermore, as I was speaking to the supervisor AFTER my mother passed away, his assumption that mother’s decline was foreseeable was obviously tainted. My mother was NOT declining when we purchased the travel and the insurance, nor was it reasonable or foreseeable that she would decline during that period.
 
I was (and still am) deeply upset and insulted that the supervisor assumed I had more insight into my mother's condition than her doctor. When I reminded him that the recordings he had of my calls to Allianz support that my cover was confirmed and that I was advised to cancel the tickets, he said I’d have to subpoena Allianz if I wanted to prove that point. His attitude (especially considering that I was grieving the loss of my mother) was in my opinion, smug and unfair.

If this is how Allianz treats a serious claim, is it a company you could trust?

MUMBAI: In a significant order, Consumer Redressal Commission has directed New India Assurance Companyto pay Rs 52.07 lakh to a city resident for repudiating her foreign medical claim and deficiency in service.
Presiding member P N Kashalkar ordered the insurance company to pay this amount along with interest at the rate of seven per cent per annum from the date of rejection of the claim, October 20, 2010, till actual realisation, besides Rs 20,000 as costs incurred by complainant Nina Sudhir Thackersey.
The complainant had taken an Overseas Mediclaim Policy from New India Assurance Company for USD 1,00,000 towards illness and treatment for accident for the period April 26, 2010 to April 25, 2011.
While on her trip to in on May 9, 2010 she complained of constant chest pain and upper abdominal pain, following which she was admitted at Klinik Hirslanden in Zurich.
At the clinic, Nina was examined by Dr Med. A Muller, Dr Henry Perschak and Dr Stefano Tresch and was subsequently admitted in the intensive care unit where she was administered dialysis. Nina was indoor patient at the clinic for 19 days, and was discharged on May 28, 2010.
Nina was asked to stay back for four days and called for re-consultation on June 4, 2010. On June 1, she was examined again by Dr Tresch who advised her by issuing a certificate that she should go back to India accompanied by a doctor. She returned to India on June 2, along with her husband and an Indian doctor.

Source: Times of India, June 21, 2012

Thank you for the insurance plans. We lived (in the U.S.) without worrying much about health and thankfully we didn't needed any doctor as there were no health issues with any of us.

Next time we will take same plan and will definitely touch you.

Regards
Panchasheel

This is Bala. Yesterday I have purchased visitor's insurance for my mom. My parents arrived from India a few minutes ago and after looking at your passports I realized that I entered wrong DOB for my mom. In a hurry I have entered my mother-in-law's DOB, instead of my mom's. I just spoke to your customer care representative (Lydia) regarding rhe wrong entry for my mother's date of birth. Lydia asked me to send an email with the corrected DOB. She also confirmed that 50-59 age policy premium still applies to my mom. Please kindly update the information in your database and send me a confirmation email.
 
I truly appreciate your care for the customer. So far I spoke to three Insubuy agents (two before policy purchase and one after purchase) and all three are "EXCELLENT". No wonder you guys get great reviews. Job well done!
 
Thank you,
Bala K

I purchased Inbound USA for my wife and son for a period of 8 months and came to Boulder, Colorado. During 8 months, my wife had the need of going to Doctor three times and son one time. And wherever we went with the Inbound USA card, they refused to recognize it and lastly we managed the problems by buying the Over the Counter medicine by our own pocket after getting consultation from our Indian doctor.
I don't know why I purchased this insurance and what was the benefit of it if no hospital/clinic/doctor accepts it. Unfortunately, this insurance doesn't have any network of doctors or hospital so that you could get the idea where should you go to get the treatment

Hai,

First of all strictly don’t purchase the travel insurance from this company (my suggestion).
When I started from New Delhi India, I took the travel insurance from ICICI Lombard for 5,00,000 (five lakh dollars) with 100 $ deductible and one day I was ill and went to hospital and there the doctors performed my tests and suggested the treatment for it and now they are not paying for those bills and hospital is sending me those bills again and again which is a big problem and secondly I called them to renew my policy (which as per ICICI Lombard is always possible to renew) they quoted the price, took the money, and after few days they said that they cannot renew the policy because I had seen the doctor and they had claimed the money for my tests and everything from ICICI Lombard
.
This is really a b'sht as they cheated me as I am here with a travel insurance from them and at USA I cannot get the new travel insurance as the new company will not cover my problem which has been diagnosed once, as they never cover pre existing disease and now I don’t know what should I do without the health insurance.

But before purchasing travel insurance from ICICI Lombard they never told me that they never extend the policies if some body goes to see the doctor and the medical people claims the money for the treatment from ICICI Lombard and secondly they took the money from me for the extension of my policy and after taking the money they refused to extend the policy (my money is still with ICICI Lombard) and if these companies don’t have the guts to pay the bills of the medical problems of their customers why they do such a big policies for 5 lac dollars equals to 2.5 crores of Indian rupees. But it is really bad as they know that their customer is in medical problem and he will again see the doctor and the doctor will again claim the money from them so they feel better not to give extension to those customers who can seek medical treatment.

The rep's of insurance company also told me to give them in written that I will not see the doctors again and then they will renew my insurance.

Buyer beware ... you are buying overseas health insurance from a desi company, when you buy ICICI Lombard Travel Insurance!! C'mon. You might want to buy a bridge from me that I want to sell. The difference between American/European companies and Desi outfits is that the Desi company will try to cheat you out of every dime - the other companies limit the amounts they cheat out of you. The only way you are gonna get paid is if you know some Neta who will *for a fee* call their boss and threaten political intervention. You are better off buying a policy when you are stateside. BTW - if you are in the USA and you can get your rep on the record saying that your policy issuance is contingent on your not seeking medical help again - THEN you can use that as evidence to go after United Healthcare - which is a regulated insurance provider in the US. You complain in writing to the state insurance commissioner about you being duped by a US insurer (ICICI is a POS desi company - so too bad you can't go after them) ... and then you may see some traction on your case.

I buy Overseas travel insurance from ICICI Lombard. As all knows it can not provide for year you have to issue for six months and then you can extend. When I try to extend website fail. They have some software error. Input string invalid. I am software developer and Know on what situation such error come.

Now I am policy less in foreign land. I believe on ICICI product now nothing for me. By rules I can not issue new policty because I am not in india. I did complaints but no one respond me yet just autogenerated mail.

Be aware of such product while they advertise show you flexibility fo renewal..

Thank you

This is just to WARN people how Reliance General Insurance acts in case of Claims. I bought a Travel Insurance for self and wife. Our baggage was delayed by Airlines and was delivered after more than 36 hours. The Policy document stated $100 in case Baggage is delayed for more 12 hours. Now some points which People should be made aware of:
1.Reliance has outsourced Claims to Third Party like the Medical Insurance which provides excuse to both to make you shuttle between the two. The two make you go between them.
2.Reliance reply to any complaint is the stereo-typed automated reply irrespective of what you write.
3.There is no information on tel no/email of any official on their website(at least I could not find it).There is a Customer Care # but it will ask you to contact TPA.
4.The Policy was purchased directly from Reliance and they send just the one page Policy Document. In small print it says that it is governed by Terms, Conditions and Exclusions .These are NOT SENT along with Policy Document but Claims are subject to those Terms and Conditions which have different meaning than what someone will understand from the Policy Document. This is the SHOCKER that you will get.
5.In this case the TPA linked the Claim to Emergency Purchases which is not stated on the Policy Document but only as part of Terms, Conditions and Exclusions. HERE LIES THE CATCH. Supposing you do not make any Emergency Purchase then you ARE NOT ENTITLED to any Claim as the Company defends itself by saying that you are INDEMNIFIED AGAINST ANY EXPENSES SUBJECT TO LIMIT BUT NOT ENTITLED TO ANY AMOUNT PER SE AS STATED ON THE DOCUMENT EVEN IF THAT IS NOT MENTIONED ON THE POLICY DOCUMENT.
6.The TPA excuse is that because you CHECKED A BOX stating that you have read the Terms and Conditions you cannot claim ignorance of those Terms, Conditions and Exclusions even if they are NOT SENT to you. Just for information of all it was sent to me after the dispute started and it is a 11 Page Document.

I write all this in detail so that Purchaser’s of any Policy know how they can be deprived of any Claim legitimately and can scratch your head. One last thing-when you buy Family Policy which covers all Family Member’s mentioned on the Policy the amount mentioned under each Head is TOTAL AND DOES NOT APPLY INDIVIDUALLY AS ONE WOULD BE LEAD TO BELIEVE. For individual coverage buy separate Policy and PAY ACCORDINGLY. So there is NO BENEFIT in buying Family Plan.