Category: Policies & Claims

• A
• B
• C
• D
• E
• F
• G
• H
• I
• J
• K
• L
• M
• N
• O
• P
• Q
• R
• S
• T
• U
• V
• W
• X
• Y
• Z

A

Accident

A sudden, unexpected, unusual, specific event that occurs at an identifiable time and place, but shall also include exposure resulting from a mishap to a transport in which you are traveling.

Accidental Injury

Bodily injury to a covered person as a direct result of an accident.

Accommodation

Accommodation

Actual Cash Value

The purchase price of an item, less depreciation of the item’s value since you bought it.

B

Baggage

Personal property you take on your trip and the suitcases or other kinds of containers you use to carry them.

Bankruptcy

The filing of a petition for voluntary or involuntary bankruptcy in a court of competent jurisdiction under Chapter 7 or Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code 11 L.S.C. Subsection 101 et seq.

Bodily Injury

Identifiable physical injury which is caused by an accident and is independent of disease or bodily infirmity.

Business Partner

An individual who: (a) is involved in a legal partnership; and/or (b) is actively involved in the day-to-day management of the business.

C

Common Carrier

Any land, sea, or air conveyance operating under a valid license for the transportation of passengers for hire.

Covered Reasons

The specific situations and events that are covered by a specific coverage or policy.

D

Deductible

The dollar amount you must contribute to the loss.

Default

A material failure or inability to provide contracted services due to financial insolvency.

Dependent

Your lawful spouse or unmarried children under 19 years of age.

Destination

A place more than 100 miles from your primary residence where you spend more than 24 hours of your trip.

Domestic Partner

A person who is at least eighteen years of age and you can show: 1) evidence of financial interdependence, such as joint bank accounts or credit cards, jointly owned property, and mutual life insurance or pension beneficiary designations; 2) evidence of cohabitation for at least the previous 6 months; and 3) an affidavit of domestic partnership if recognized by the jurisdiction within which they reside.

E

Economy Fare

The lowest published rate for an economy ticket.

Effective Date

The date and time your travel insurance coverage begins. This varies based on the type of plan purchased.

Elective Treatment and Procedures

Any medical treatment or surgical procedure that is not medically necessary including any service, treatment, or supplies that are deemed by the federal, or a state or local government authority, or by us to be research or experimental or that is not recognized as a generally accepted medical practice.

Epidemic

An outbreak of a contagious disease that spreads rapidly and widely and that is identified as an epidemic by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Exotic Vehicles

Expensive cars that may not be covered by a policy, including cars such as Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Auburn, Avanti, Bentley, Bertone, BMC/Leyland, BMW M Series, Bradley, Bricklin, Cosworth, Citroen, Clenet, De Lorean, Excalibre, Ferrari, Fiat, Iso, Jaguar, Jensen Healy, Lamborghini, Lancia, Lotus, Maserati, Morgan, Pantera, Panther, Pininfarina, Rolls Royce, Rover, Stutz, Sterling, Triumph, TVR, Yugo, Corvette, Mercedes Benz, Porsche, and MG. If you are renting a car on this list or similar to cars on this list, you should contact the provider before purchasing the policy.

F

Family Member

Your dependent, son or daughter (including adopted and those who are in the process of becoming adopted, foster, step or in-law), domestic partner’s son or daughter (including adopted and those who are in the process of becoming adopted, foster, step or in-law), brother or sister (including step or in-law), parent (including step or in-law), grandparent (including step or in-law), grandchild (including adopted and those who are in the process of becoming adopted, foster or step), aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, guardian, or ward.

Financial Insolvency

The total cessation or complete suspension of operations due to insolvency, with or without the filing of a bankruptcy petition, whether voluntary or involuntary, by a tour operator, cruise line, airline, rental car company, hotel, condominium, railroad, motor coach company, or other supplier of travel services which is duly licensed in the state(s) of operation other than the entity or the person, organization, agency or firm from whom you directly purchased or paid for your covered trip. There is no coverage for the total cessation or complete suspension of operations for losses caused by fraud or negligent misrepresentation by the supplier of travel services.

H

Hazard

(a) Any delay of a common carrier (including inclement weather); (b) any delay by a traffic accident en route to a departure, in which you or a traveling companion is not directly involved; (c) any delay due to lost or stolen passports, travel documents or money, quarantine, hijacking, unannounced strike, natural disaster, civil commotion or riot; (d) a closed roadway causing cessation of travel to the destination of the trip (substantiated by the department of transportation, state police, etc.).

Hospital

A facility that (a) holds a valid license if it is required by the law; (b) operates primarily for the care and treatment of sick or injured persons as in-patients; (c) has a staff of one or more physicians available at all times; (d) provides twenty-four (24)-hour nursing service and has at least one registered professional nurse on duty or call; (e) has organized diagnostic and surgical facilities, either on the premises or in facilities available to the hospital on a prearranged basis; and (f) is not, except incidentally, a clinic, nursing home, rest home, or convalescent home for the aged, or similar institution.

Host at Destination

A person with whom you are sharing pre-arranged overnight accommodations at the host’s usual principal place of residence.

I

Illness

Sickness, infirmity or disease. It doesn’t include conditions you already had or knew about when you purchased your plan.

Inclement Weather

Any severe weather condition that delays the scheduled arrival or departure of a common carrier.

Injury

Bodily harm caused by an accident which: 1) occurs while your coverage is in effect under the plan; and 2) requires examination and treatment by a physician. The Injury must be the direct cause of loss and must be independent of all other causes and must not be caused by, or result from, sickness.

Insured

An eligible person who arranges a covered trip, and pays any required plan payment.

Inpatient

Someone who receives medical or dental treatment while registered as a bed patient in a hospital or other licensed provider. Room and board is charged for the patient’s stay, in addition to charges for medical treatment and care.

L

Land/Sea Arrangements

Any activities undertaken by you while in the individual coverage term.

Loss

Injury or damage sustained by you in consequence of happening of one or more of the occurrences against which the company has undertaken to indemnify you.

M

Maximum Benefit

The largest total amount of covered expenses that the company will pay for your covered losses.

Medical Condition

A physical condition you have, or have symptoms of, that you have seen or been advised to see a doctor about; have symptoms of that would cause a prudent person to see a doctor; and/or are taking prescribed medication for.

Medically Necessary

Treatment that’s appropriate for your illness or injury, consistent with your symptoms, and that can safely be provided to you. It meets the standards of good medical practice and isn’t for your convenience or the provider’s convenience.

N

Natural Disaster

A large-scale extreme weather or environmental event that damages property, disrupts transportation, or endangers people. Examples include: earthquake, fire, flood, hurricane or volcanic eruption.

O

Outpatient

Someone who receives medical or dental treatment but doesn’t have to stay at a hospital for overnight care.

P

Pandemic

An epidemic over a wide geographic area that affects a large portion of the population.

Physician

A licensed practitioner of medical, surgical or dental services acting within the scope of his or her license. The treating physician may not be you, a traveling companion, or a family member.

Pre-Existing Condition

Any injury, sickness or condition of you, or your traveling companion, your family member booked to travel with you for which within the 60-180 period prior to the effective date of Trip Cancellation coverage under the policy (a) first manifested itself or exhibited symptoms which would have caused one to seek diagnosis, care or treatment; (b) required taking prescribed drugs or medicine, unless the condition for which the prescribed drug or medicine is taken remains controlled without any change in the required prescription; or (c) required medical treatment or treatment was recommended by a physician. The Pre-Existing Conditions exclusion is waived for you if you enroll in the plan at the time you pay the deposit required for the trip (or within 10-30 days of the initial deposit) and you purchase the coverage under the plan for the full cost of the trip.

Q

Quarantine

Mandatory isolation or restrictions on where you can go, intended to stop a contagious disease from spreading.

R

Reasonable and Customary Costs

What customers would usually be charged for a specific service in a particular geographic area. The charges are appropriate to the availability of the service, and of skilled and licensed service providers.

Refund

Cash or a credit or voucher for future travel that you get from a travel agent, tour operator, airline, cruise line or other travel supplier, or any credit, recovery or reimbursement you get from your employer, another insurance company, a credit card issuer or any other entity.

S

Scheduled Departure Date

The date on which you are originally scheduled to leave on the trip.

Scheduled Return Date

The date on which you are originally scheduled to return to the point of origin or to a different final destination.

Severe Weather

Hazardous weather conditions, like fog, a hailstorm or severe rainstorm, a blizzard, or an ice storm.

Sickness

An illness or disease which is diagnosed or treated by a physician after the effective date of insurance and while you are covered under the policy.

Strike

Any unannounced labor disagreement that interferes with the normal departure and arrival of a common carrier.

Subrogation

Steps the travel insurance company takes, after paying a claim, to collect from other available sources such as other insurance plans or travel suppliers.

T

Travel Supplier

A tour operator, airline, cruise line or other travel service provider.

Traveling Companion

A person booked to accompany you on your trip. A group or tour leader is not considered a traveling companion unless you are sharing room accommodations with the group or tour leader.

Trip

Prepaid land or sea arrangements and shall include flight connections to join or depart such land or sea arrangements provided such flights are scheduled to commence within one day of the land or sea arrangements.

U

Unlawful Acts

Felonies committed by you, a traveling companion, or a family member, even if the family member isn’t covered by your plan.

Uninhabitable

A natural disaster, fire, flood, burglary, or vandalism causes enough damage to make a reasonable person find their home unfit for use.

Correctly calculating trip cost is vital to finding the right travel insurance plan. Your final trip cost will have a hand in determining the price of a plan. Sometimes, travelers get tripped up when they hear trip cost because they assume it includes every expense made while traveling. However, the “insurable” trip cost is not the same as “total” trip cost.

What Does Insurable Trip Cost Mean?

Essentially, you can only add prepaid, non-refundable expenses to a travel insurance plan. In other words, you can only insure the amount of prepaid costs that will not be refunded entirely in the event of a covered cancellation.

Typically, these expenses comprise of airline tickets, cruise costs, and even hotels, tours, and prepaid excursions. Almost all plans insure expenditures like event tickets or theme park admissions too. Expenses like tuition or class fees and popular expenses for business trips are also insurable, but only with specific companies.

How Do I Calculate Trip Cost?

Calculating trip cost may not be as straightforward as we would all hope. For instance, costs that you do not have to pay before traveling, but will be assessed in the event of a covered cancellation, can be insured. Any money that you would lose if you have to cancel your trip before departure, or on the day of, is what you want to insure.

If you are booking a flight using frequent flyer miles, understand they cannot be added to your trip cost for a travel insurance plan. Only the government taxes and fees associated with the frequent flyer miles can be insured, but the miles/points may not. This is because the credit card or airline will have a way of reimbursing the points or miles.

The price of a travel insurance plan and the benefit eligibility rely on trip cost. Remember, you must insure 100% of your prepaid, non-refundable expenses to be eligible for certain benefits. Don’t forget that you can always add trip cost to your plan after purchase. The key is to purchase a plan as soon as you make your first trip payment or book your flights. If you add costs as you get closer to your departure date, you can add this to your insured trip cost, but know those additions to your trip cost may result in a higher premium due to some benefit levels increasing.

In the simplest terms: the start date for travel insurance coverage.

The day your policy goes into effect is what travel insurance companies (and us!) refer to as the Effective Date. This date will vary based on the dates of your insured trip and the type of plan you purchased.

Comprehensive Plan

These plans offer all inclusive coverage, from trip cancellation to medical evacuation. Because of this, the effective date of the plan will be one minute after midnight the day after you bought the plan.

If you purchased your travel insurance on April 26th at 4:13pm, your plan will go into effect on April 27th at 12:01am. This will allow you to utilize your trip cancellation coverage if needed.

The remaining benefits, or post-departure benefits, included in your plan will not be available for use until you actually leave on your trip.

Travel Medical, Medical Evacuation or Accidental Death Plan

None of these plans have trip cancellation coverage, therefore they will not go into effect until the day of departure for your trip. If you purchased a plan on April 26th for a trip beginning on May 15th , your coverage will commence on May 15th .

Multi-Trip Plans

The effective date for multi-trip insurance plans typically coincide with the departure date of the first scheduled trip the plan includes. This can vary by company, so we recommend clarifying this with the insurance company you choose.

Still a little confused? You can clarify this date one of two ways. First, you can double check with the insurance company you chose. Or, you can read the plan information that InsureMyTrip sends out post-purchase; it will be in that documentation.

The review period is a defined period of time, usually about 10 days, within which travelers can review their travel insurance policies after buying. It’s essentially a grace period that allows you to get acquainted with the policy you have purchased, make sure that you fully read and understand your coverage, and make any adjustments necessary. Generally, if your policy allows a review period, you can also cancel your policy during this time and receive a refund.

Rights and Responsibilities

Yes, you have the right to amend and even cancel your policy during the review period; however, you also have the responsibility to be sure you truly understand the terms of the policy in full. If you don’t understand something to your satisfaction, you should contact the company and ask as soon as possible. Being diligent about your own research now can save you from frustration due to a misunderstanding about your coverage later.

Changes to your policy

While there are some changes that you can make to your travel insurance policy up until the day you depart on your trip, there are other changes that cannot be made once you’ve purchased; for example, you can’t add or remove a traveler from your policy once you’ve bought it. Make sure you give information as accurately as possible when you purchase a travel insurance plan so that you don’t have to go back and amend things. Also, some changes – like a radical change to your destination – may actually change your premium cost.

A travel insurance plan with emergency medical coverage, whether a comprehensive plan or a medical plan, will refer to the emergency medical coverage as primary or secondary. Sometimes this terminology is confusing to travelers. Ideally, you’ll want to understand your travel insurance plan fully so in the event of a claim, there will be no confusion or frustration.

Secondary Travel Medical Coverage

When emergency medical coverage is secondary, the provider will reimburse you after any other collectible benefits, such as your primary health insurance. If your plan benefit is secondary and benefits from primary sources have been exhausted, or your primary health care provider will not cover you in your destination, the secondary benefit on your plan will act as a primary benefit. Secondary coverage on a plan is most common.

Don’t assume that because you have a primary health coverage here in the United States that you are limited to only secondary emergency medical coverage on your travel insurance. You can use primary coverage, and it may be better for your circumstance.

Primary Travel Medical Coverage

Simply, if you purchase a plan that has primary coverage, you may file a claim first with the travel insurance company. This allows you to file one claim and receive one conclusion. It’s often simpler for travelers to only file one claim, rather than two.

Annual, multi-trip medical plans and some single-trip medical plans require travelers to have primary health insurance. For most plans, any health insurance company would be considered a primary health care provider aside from Medicaid. These details will be specified on the plan certificate and under the “Additional Benefits” section of the quote for review prior to purchasing.

For instance, Medicare is considered your primary health insurance, so a travel insurance plan with secondary coverage may have extra steps to see a conclusion. Generally, the company will require you to file a claim with Medicare first. Once you are denied that claim, you can file a claim with them. Medicare will send a “refusal to reimburse” letter that will be crucial in your claims process with the travel insurance company.

Does Medicare Cover Travel Insurance?

Original Medicare does not cover emergency medical care for travelers outside the U.S. There are supplemental plans such as Medicare Advantage and Medigap that can provide limited additional coverage. For more details on Medicare and travel insurance visit Medicare.gov. Here’s some other important information to know about the limitations of Medicare when it comes to traveling abroad:

• Original Medicare does not provide emergency medical care coverage or emergency medical evacuation for travelers outside the U.S.
• There are supplemental plans such as Medicare Advantage and Medigap that can provide limited additional coverage, for more details visit Medicare.gov.
• Expect more paperwork when filing a claim. If a Medicare recipient chooses a plan that has secondary medical coverage, they must still file a claim with Medicare and get an “Explanation of Benefits” form to send to the travel insurance company. According to our Anytime Advocates™, prepare for additional paperwork for claims.
• According to a new survey by InsureMyTrip, an alarming number of all Americans are still unclear whether their domestic health insurance works outside the U.S.

Limitations of Medicare is yet another reason to get travel insurance.

Does Medicaid Cover Medical Emergencies Abroad?

Medicaid provides government-funded health coverage for low-income adults and children. It does not cover emergency medical care that you may receive while traveling outside the U.S. Medicaid also does not provide emergency medical care coverage or emergency medical evacuation for travelers outside the U.S.

While Medicare may provide supplemental options to include some coverage for emergency medical treatment abroad, Medicaid does not.