Help with Costs to Return After Treatment

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One of the options available under many healthcare plans is cover for the cost of returning to the UAE after treatment abroad

Help with Costs to Return After Treatment

Many comprehensive healthcare plans offer a repatriation service. With this cover, if you need to travel back to your country of nationality for medically necessary treatment, your insurer will cover the travel expenditure in part or in full. Many comprehensive plans offer full coverage of travel expenses, once it has been ascertained that the travel is medically necessary.

What are the Conditions?

It’s important to note that often, costs to return after treatment are not covered for people with certain pre-existing conditions. With the travel expense plan, you would receive treatment in a hospital covered under the limits of the plan and within the selected area of coverage. Treatment would usually need to be approved in advance by a member of your insurer’s customer care team and/or a physician.

Remember to keep evidence of the purchase of the air ticket. Your insurer will need it to be able to reimburse you for it, after your operation or treatment.

What Kind of Travel is Covered?

Once it has been determined that it is necessary to travel back to your country of citizenship, most insurers will cover the cost of an economy class air ticket. Covered travel costs will generally be the lowest cost available.

However, in cases where time is of the essence, insurers may pay in full for a route that may be more direct and thus faster. These flights are more expensive, so they would need to be justified by urgency. If a more expensive economy-class flight is selected when not strictly necessary, your insurer may or may not pay the cost in full.

Insurers very rarely pay for any other aspect of travel such as accommodation or meals. Taxi fare to an airport may be covered if it is considered necessary. This coverage often covers only the cost of an economy class ticket to your home country. Most insurers do not include coverage of travel costs for anyone accompanying you. However, in some cases, payment for travel costs of an accompanying relative is permitted. This might include cases where the patient needs help with mobility (I.e. getting on and off the plane) or is severely anxious.

Insurers in the UAE commonly offer a cover that provides help with costs to return to the UAE after treatment abroad (whether that treatment is from a person’s home country or any other country). This cover usually has a stipulated period after the treatment, in which a person must return. Past this period, insurers will usually not pay for return costs. The period varies by the insurer but is often two to four weeks after treatment.

Variance of Cover

Cover of costs to return after treatment is a broad category within medical plans. The details of what is or isn’t covered vary considerably from one medical plan to another. For example, one plan may pay in full for taxi costs or shuttle costs while another excludes this cover.

If this is a cover you think you will need, you will definitely want to review your options to find the best value when it comes to helping with return costs after treatment.

Use CompareInsurance to determine the best available health insurance option for you, your family, or your staff. CompareInsurance makes it quick and simple to review and compare all types of medical insurance policies to ensure you have the best possible option.

In this article


What are the Conditions?

What Kind of Travel is Covered?

Variance of Cover
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