Feature – International PMI
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International PMI Counting the cost of medical evacuation
Medical evacuations are one of the main expenses faced by international private medical insurance providers – and therefore their clients. Peter Pallot reports on how some insurers are taking steps to keep a lid more firmly on costs.
Assistance companies are very good at saving life. But are they as good at saving the pennies? Probably not, they might reply, but what’s more important than human life? Growing numbers in the insurance industry believe there are economies to be made in the tricky field of medical evacuations. Tricky because medivacs essentially involve life-threatening situations, while the cost of just one case can run to £100,000.
As a random example, international private medical insurance (iPMI) provider ExpaCare last year reported the case of a medivac from Equatorial Guinea at a cost of US$131,000; medical costs were unusually low at US$ 5,845. The Bracknell- based insurer also paid out US$45,000
August 2011
www.hi-mag.com
to evacuate a car crash victim from Angola to Johannesburg, plus US$21,000 for treatment.
Very exceptional cases, such as cancer with multi- pathologies with costs topping US$500,000 in treatment fees usually also involve air transport, even if it is non-urgent. All established expat insurers can quote such cases, with transport costs arising from the need to access a specialist tertiary referral unit or to get the patient back to his home country after a long a period of treatment. Several such instances can seriously dent a small company’s finances. So, as the industry wrestles with ever rising claims – and their clients complain of ever rising premiums – any workable initiative is welcome.
INSURER STRATEGIES
This month, InterGlobal, the iPMI provider, announced it had set up its own medical assistance company. We are not talking here about a squadron of Lear jets and helicopters
on standby to hoist an accident victim from Zambia’s Copperbelt and fly him to Johannesburg. Or deliver a heart attack patient from a Russian oilfield. In fact, as the Farnham-based insurer now
acknowledges, an assistance “team” rather than “company” would be a more accurate description of its new offshoot, InterGlobal Assistance. It consists of less than 10 office- bound staff in UK to cover the European end of operations on a 24-hour basis. They perform a planning and supervising role. They link with New Zealand-based First Assistance to give global cover.
With hundreds of medical assistance companies – many small – dotted around the globe, the assistance industry
HealthInsurance
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