MedjetAssist insurance heads up
 

Just wanted to post a advisory to everyone on this company. I had purchased it for myself and my wife for our trip to South America. We had a accident when we hit a patch of oil on the road and went down. My wife injured her arm and we thought it was broken at the wrist. This happened at Medellin in Colombia and we spent a very hectic day trying to get a Dr. to look at it and get Xrays taken and read. We were in contact with MedjetAssist to see about getting her flown back to the USA. After a very long and trying day of dealing with the Dr., hospital, and not being able to speak Spanish. We were not sure if my wifes injury would qualify her to be flown back to the USA or not. We knew that she could not continue on the trip with the extent of the injury so we were also checking or having my daughter back in the US check for us about getting tickets for us to come home because of the injury. After a long day of trying to deal with everything my daughter called and said she was able to get us tickets to come home in 2 days. She had the tickets on hold and we needed to make a decission on them. It was a Thursday afternoon and the 3rd of July which ment everything was going to be closed down for 3 days. The travel agent was going to be leaving soon for the long weekend of the 4th of July. We made the decission to purchase the two tickets so I could accompany her home as she could not use her arm and traveling for a whole day on a international flight would be very hard for her. MedjetAssist called and said they would pay to fly my wife home by commercial airline and they could get her on a plane the next day. Everything was happening so fast and I did not want her to have to travel alone. We had already purchased 2 tickets that are non refundable so it just did not make any sense to throw these tickets away and use MedjetAssist to purchase another one. I am in business and try to make decissions based on the facts each day. I told them we would just use the tickets that we had and I would try to sort things out when I got back. After talking to them many times on this matter they have made a decission to just say tough luck. Just because they said they would pay to fly her home they insist that they have to make all the arrangements and that I could only collect if I threw the two tickets that I had bought away and let them buy new ones. Just crazy talk. I would like to warn everyone to read every word of your contract with them because they seem intent on not paying and finding loopholes to get out of it. Be forewarned or you could be like me and just be stuck paying even if they say they will fly you home. It seems that they feel they are justified and I hope they answer this as it will only mean a much longer response from me and others no doubt. Larry Davis

I have read a few reports where Med Jet has come through, but perhaps not instantly.

MedjetAssist insurance heads up
 

Patrick
My daughter was in contact with me and I was in contact with MedjetAssist. They were the first call I made and they were working with me. The problem was that we were not sure if they would cover it. We had to wait until we saw a Dr. and had to wait for him to come to us. Then he could not tell if it was broken or not so had us go to the Hospital and we had a guy go with us to interpret for us at the Hospital. When we got there, there were about 40 people in the emergency room and it would have been hours getting in. We were in a small town of Rio Negro. We went in another door and got taken care of. We spent the better part of the day waiting to get the Xray read by a radioligist. It was hard for us to stay in touch with MedjetAssist as I did not have a cell phone or any way for them to get ahold of me. Once we got back to our Hotel they called and said that they were going to fly my wife home. We thought that was great but my daughter had already been able to get us both tickets. I think my daughter paid like $2300 for our two tickets. I thought MedjetAssist was very fair about everything until I got home and called them. I did not expect them to pay for my ticket. I told them I would be happy with $400 payment toward my wifes ticket as I feel that they could have done better buying tickets than I was able to because of the volume that they must do. I felt that I offered them a very fair deal as they had told me that they would pay to fly my wife home. That is where I found out about the small print and they refused to stand behind it as they needed to make all the arrangements. I explained that it made no sense for me to throw away two tickets that were non refundable and make my wife fly home alone. I felt I did them a favor and I got screwed over. There is no way they could buy a ticket for $400 and make a guy happy. That is what I wanted and they keep saying that they understand but they are not going to pay anything. Just be very careful and read everything and I mean everything because that is what they seem to be doing is using it as a excape after they told me they would fly her home. They are the ones that have to make that determination as to if they will fly her home. They did that and told me that they were going to do that. They are not denying that they told me that and they say that they would have. Because of the time with the 4th of July weekend coming up and getting tickets on short notice and not knowing for sure what they were going to do I had to act in what I thought at the time was the best interest in taking care of my wife who was hurt. If they had said that she did not qualify that would be something enterly different. They are the ones that said they would fly her home on a commercial flight and now after the fact all I was asking was for a partial payment for that. Now after 4 or 5 calls to them they tell me that even though they told me they would pay for a flight for her home they will not even consider a partial payment of my cost for her ticket. That is just not fair and I would strongly caution anyone against doing business with any company that does not treat customers in a fair manner.

Medjet assist reply
 

As a member of Med Jet Assist, I contacted the Internet sales rep. Here is his reply;


While Medjet cannot discuss this member’s specific issues due to HIPAA regulations, I can certainly advise that our organization has had several conversations with Mr. Davis regarding his concerns with Medjet.
In this instance, the member in question met no criteria for our medical evacuation services (as inpatient hospital admission was not required) but as Mr. Davis described in his text, Medjet went outside of the box and advised that we would purchase a commercial air return, even though established criteria had not been met. As Mr. Davis also stated, his daughters, without their initial knowledge, purchased commercial air tickets prior to Medjet making these arrangements. As discussed with Mr. Davis on multiple occasions, and which is also clearly noted in the Medjet Rules and Regulations, Medjet is not an insurance policy but a membership program. As such, Medjet is absolutely unable to reimburse members for arrangements made on their own.
Medjet went above and beyond by offering these arrangements for a member that did not meet our criteria, but unfortunately we cannot control the actions of the family purchasing tickets on their own accord. While we always strive to effectively deliver our services, situations rarely occur such as this where we had no control of the outcome due to the families’ decision to attempt their own resolution & fund tickets without our direct involvement.
Medjet stands ready to provide domestic & international “hospital of choice” air medical evacuation services in helping our members in time of need like we have done on many, many occasions over the years. On the motorcycle, side, we also offer a North American motorcycle return benefit as an upgrade option for our annual or multi-year members. From commercial repatriations like the above situation, to dedicated, medically equipped/staffed private air ambulance transports worldwide, we stand behind our members to make things happen & provide the ultimate in peace of mind protection. In all instances, we have our 24/7 communications center available to make all the arrangements to get our members back to their preferred hospital setting…under the care of a physician/hospital network they know & trust (and choose) as well as the support of family & friends. The Medjet membership program has no deductibles or co-payments for the services we provide nor any health questions to enroll for those parties under age 75. A separate membership program application is available for those age 75+. The membership fee is the only cost to the member for the transport services provided by Medjet. Without such protection, air medical evacuations can cost an individual roughly $10-20,000 on average domestically while international air medical evacuations often exceed $75,000.
I hope this helps you understand the Medjet program and some of the important aspects of membership. If you have any other questions or concerns, please contact me.
Best Regards,
Scott
Scott Lawson
Senior Sales Director
3500 Colonnade Pkwy, Suite 500
Birmingham, AL 35243-0099
slawson@medjet.com
Main: 205-595-6626 / 800-527-7478

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing your experience with Medjet. I have been shopping around for travel insurance and from what I gather Medjet seems like the best deal. While you may have not had the best experience with them it also seems that they were very helpfull and were much easyier to deal with than most automobile and especially health insurance providers! It was very nice of them to even offer to fly your wife home with only a broken arm.

Medjet went above and beyond when I had my problem at Prudhoe Bay.

Sometime it takes a little while to get things in motion and if you were facing a deadline, I understand you buying the tickets on your own. I would have probably done the same thing in your position. It is stated clearly in the policy that it is a hospital to hospital service. I would have hoped that they would help in your case but would not have expected it.

I'm very glad that your Wife was not hurt bad enough that she had other options.
I hope she recovers soon and you can continue your trip.