Post by bickmed on May 6, 2016 9:12:02 GMT -5
Bit of a story, however for those that are interested in how the SURA Colombian Insurance works when travelling overseas, see below.
We have SURA in Colombia, EPS for the wife and child, and I am included on that. For the wife and child, we also have purchased SURA Plan Salud Clasico Familiar (Private).The service for the SURA clasico in Colombia is brilliant and no complaints.
It Includes Overseas Travel Insurance for Three Months as Part of its Services
One area which people may be aware of, is that this plan provides medical travel insurance for three months when going overseas with Assist Card. This is my experience with having to use it on a trip in November to Australia.
Both the wife and child were sick, at different times, so we used the Assist Card service. Initially it was great, we rang the helpline and they found out where we were, and then booked appointments for us at a nearby clinic. This was paid for, upfront, by Assist Card; The response time was great, and adequate follow-up occurred.
The issue started when both had to be referred to specialist / hospital. Assist Card did not have any agreements with the relevant required specialists, so they gave us written permission to attend to appointments, and said we would have to claim back after.
We did that, seeking permissions and updates as the situation escalated and eventually the wife was admitted into hospital. With tests etc, this equated to almost4,000 AUD (1 night). One bill ,for admission/ tests was2,500 aud, which after much back and forth, they agreed to speak to the hospital and pay direct via transfer.
That never actually happened and we were eventually chased by debt collectors. Contacting the helpline was fine, and they always said our situation was in process, however they would say they could not help directly with payments as it was ‘’accounts’’ duty. They would not provide an email contact, and the phone number they gave always ran out. We could never ever get in contact with accounts.
Eventually I ‘’spat the dummy’’ at our representative in Colombia (SURA – as he had sold us this plan based on this cover). He did a lot (he was pretty good actually) and after many months of trying, we finally had the entire situation finalised. Without his intervention though, it would have been much more difficult.
Assist card ended up paying the hospital direct for the 2,500 bill and refunding me the remainder, in pesos, in Colombia. The event happened in November 2015, and we just had it finalised now – so 5 months.
If we didn’t have the money, or the bill was significantly higher, this could be a disaster for individuals or families.
So, GOOD POINTS:
The initial service to clinics they had an agreement with was great; well organised.
There was no excess – we did not have a 100 usd excess like a Worldnomads one we had previously.
BAD POINTS
The claim procedure is non existent, even from the Assist card website, they required a code which the online staff could not help us with.
Took months to get the claim back.
I had to visit the SURA office personally (could not mail / scan / fax) to provide original receipts (this is for claims over 300 USD in value – under andyou can apparently scan. I also had to provide proof stamps of exit their exit stamp from Colombia and entry exit stamps to Australia (no exit stamps there so that also caused delays). Luckily, we had the written approvals to show them for the hospital visits.
We have SURA in Colombia, EPS for the wife and child, and I am included on that. For the wife and child, we also have purchased SURA Plan Salud Clasico Familiar (Private).The service for the SURA clasico in Colombia is brilliant and no complaints.
It Includes Overseas Travel Insurance for Three Months as Part of its Services
One area which people may be aware of, is that this plan provides medical travel insurance for three months when going overseas with Assist Card. This is my experience with having to use it on a trip in November to Australia.
Both the wife and child were sick, at different times, so we used the Assist Card service. Initially it was great, we rang the helpline and they found out where we were, and then booked appointments for us at a nearby clinic. This was paid for, upfront, by Assist Card; The response time was great, and adequate follow-up occurred.
The issue started when both had to be referred to specialist / hospital. Assist Card did not have any agreements with the relevant required specialists, so they gave us written permission to attend to appointments, and said we would have to claim back after.
We did that, seeking permissions and updates as the situation escalated and eventually the wife was admitted into hospital. With tests etc, this equated to almost4,000 AUD (1 night). One bill ,for admission/ tests was2,500 aud, which after much back and forth, they agreed to speak to the hospital and pay direct via transfer.
That never actually happened and we were eventually chased by debt collectors. Contacting the helpline was fine, and they always said our situation was in process, however they would say they could not help directly with payments as it was ‘’accounts’’ duty. They would not provide an email contact, and the phone number they gave always ran out. We could never ever get in contact with accounts.
Eventually I ‘’spat the dummy’’ at our representative in Colombia (SURA – as he had sold us this plan based on this cover). He did a lot (he was pretty good actually) and after many months of trying, we finally had the entire situation finalised. Without his intervention though, it would have been much more difficult.
Assist card ended up paying the hospital direct for the 2,500 bill and refunding me the remainder, in pesos, in Colombia. The event happened in November 2015, and we just had it finalised now – so 5 months.
If we didn’t have the money, or the bill was significantly higher, this could be a disaster for individuals or families.
So, GOOD POINTS:
The initial service to clinics they had an agreement with was great; well organised.
There was no excess – we did not have a 100 usd excess like a Worldnomads one we had previously.
BAD POINTS
The claim procedure is non existent, even from the Assist card website, they required a code which the online staff could not help us with.
Took months to get the claim back.
I had to visit the SURA office personally (could not mail / scan / fax) to provide original receipts (this is for claims over 300 USD in value – under andyou can apparently scan. I also had to provide proof stamps of exit their exit stamp from Colombia and entry exit stamps to Australia (no exit stamps there so that also caused delays). Luckily, we had the written approvals to show them for the hospital visits.