Start The New Year Right With Business Travel Accident Insurance

Chances are, you have employees who travel for work, whether it’s across the country for an annual conference or across the street for a meeting. Regardless of the frequency or destination, travel increases the risk of disruption, injury or illness for your employees, and there may be unrealized gaps in coverage. This could result in unexpected, high costs for your organization and your employee, which is why your nonprofit may need Business Travel Accident Insurance for its employees.

Examples Of Common Coverage Gaps

• Workers’ Compensation typically only covers occupational injuries and illnesses. If an accident happens outside of work or if an employee gets sick while traveling, would your Workers’ Comp plan kick in? Even if it did, how long would the payment or reimbursement process take?
• Many domestic health insurance plans provide emergency-only coverage overseas, which may lead to out-of-network and other out-of-pocket costs for employees. Many foreign hospitals require cash payment up front before providing treatment. Is your employee or your organization prepared to front thousands of dollars?
• Volunteers and unpaid Board Members are not usually covered by Workers’ Compensation insurance yet they often do a lot of work and volunteers outnumber paid staff at almost all nonprofits.
• Emergency Evacuation costs may not be covered under your existing insurance. These costs can be significant ($250,000* or more depending on the location, severity of the injury, and other factors).

What Is Business Travel Accident Insurance?

Business Travel Accident Insurance is flexible, employer-paid Accident Insurance that covers an employee’s (and/or volunteer’s) injuries and/or sicknesses sustained whenever they travel on behalf of the organization. The flexibility of the product allows organizations to also cover employees (and/or non-employees) during off-duty hours as a business/pleasure coverage package and provides nuanced benefits that Workers’ Comp does not. Transferring travel risk helps to defray the cost of medical care and emergency services when employees travel.

How It Works

Business Travel Accident Insurance covers employees traveling any distance away from their permanently assigned work location. That means they are covered across the street, across the country, and overseas. It can also cover any personal sojourns taken immediately before, after, or during a business trip if this coverage option has been included in the policy. Coverage features typically include:

• Political evacuation
• Emergency medical evacuation
• Emergency medical expenses when out of the country.
• Help with lost baggage, passport, plane tickets, etc.
• Accidental death or dismemberment
• Repatriation of remains

Policies may also include optional benefits such as bereavement & trauma counseling, natural disaster assistance, car jacking, war risk, and rehabilitation expenses to name a few.Medical evacuations and transport costs can exceed $250,000*, depending on a variety of factors. With Business Travel Accident Insurance, your employees can get help with coordinating and covering the cost of emergency medical transport. They also receive assistance if they lose their luggage or other important documents, which saves them time and frustration with language barriers and unfamiliar surroundings.  Usually, the insurance will cover the employee’s spouse and children when traveling also.

Conclusion

As part of a comprehensive risk management plan, every organization should take into account Travel Accident Insurance to fill any coverage gaps and potentially avoid high costs associated with uncovered medical and emergency services for employees when traveling for business and/or pleasure. If you would like to learn more about your coverage options for employees when traveling, we are glad to provide you with a quote. We welcome any comments or questions in the Leave a Reply section below.

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The insurance described in this document provides limited benefits. Limited benefit plans are insurance products with reduced benefits intended to supplement comprehensive health insurance plans. This insurance is not an alternative to comprehensive coverage. It does not provide major medical or comprehensive medical coverage and is not designed to replace major medical insurance. Further, this insurance is not minimum essential coverage as set forth under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

References

5 Reasons Why You Need Medical Evacuation Coverage

3 Potential Gaps in Coverage Clients Overlook by Berkeley Accident & Health.

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