Travel
Ill abroad: a step-by-step travel-policy scenario
Fever, injury, toothache — what to tell assistance, which papers to collect, and why walking into the nearest private clinic “because it is closer” can leave you without reimbursement.
A travel claim starts on the phone, not in hospital. Assistance is the dispatcher that opens the case, confirms cover and sends you to a contracted clinic. Skip that step and you are left reconciling receipts by hand.
Step 1. Judge the threat
Bleeding, loss of consciousness, sudden chest pain — call local emergency, then assistance. Everything else: fever, a sprain, an ear after the flight — assistance first. They will say whether a pharmacy is enough or a doctor is needed.
Step 2. The call and the referral
Keep the policy handy. Describe symptoms without exaggeration. Get the clinic name, address, doctor or guarantee number. If they offer telemedicine, it is a normal first filter, not a refusal of help.
Step 3. The visit and medicines
- show your passport and policy at reception
- confirm the invoice goes to assistance, not to you
- keep prescriptions and medicine packs if you pay a deductible
Do not agree to extra tests “while we are here” until assistance confirms them. Planned diagnostics are usually excluded.
If you still paid yourself
Take an itemised invoice, a Latin diagnosis and proof of payment. After return, file within the contract deadline. Card transfers without a medical report will not be guessed by the insurer.
Do not replace a clinic with a “course from a chat doctor”: cases without documents are not confirmed. A travel policy is a process, and it likes paper as much as it likes a thermometer.