ITIC REVIEW:
p.28
FEATURE:
p.35
A full rundown of all the action at the
De-risking travel insurance renewals
latest ITIC APAC conference
Keeping the process as smooth as possible
Hong Kong
ESSENTIAL READING FOR TRAVEL & HEALTH INSURANCE PROFESSIONALS
Counting the cost of travel insurance
p.43
JULY 2019 • ISSUE 222
Uninsured tourism hurts Japan hospitals Japan has urged foreign tourists to invest in travel insurance, as large numbers of uninsured travellers are entering the country and leaving behind unpaid medical bills that put great strain on Japanese hospital budgets According to a Japanese Government survey conducted by the Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry, 27 per cent of all travellers arriving in Japan have taken out no insurance policy at all, and once ill in Japan, tourists must foot the bill for all medical expenses. The survey also reveals that around 20 per cent of hospitals that have treated foreign tourists have received no payment from patients following medical care and procedures, including one hospital where the total amount exceeded 10 million yen (US$92,000). As a response to this crisis, local authorities have been trying several methods to get visitors to purchase travel insurance, from handing out flyers in tourist information centres and hotspots – which list the price of the most expensive hospital treatments (“700,000 yen for heatstroke” and “three million yen for a broken bone”) – to developing a low-cost insurance policy in co-operation with the tourism agency. Travellers are encouraged to purchase travel insurance on their smartphones and other devices even after they step off the plane in Japan. And the method is slowly beginning to see success – Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance Inc., which developed the low-cost insurance
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has revealed that the average medical claim on travel insurance surpassed £1,300 for the first time ever in 2018, reaching £1,368 In addition, the ABI’s figures show that the total amount paid to Brits abroad in 2018 – £400 million – was at its highest level since 2010. In the past decade, the average medical claim has nearly doubled, from £768 in 2008. Although average claims costs across the board have increased, the average premium has decreased to £38 and older travellers have seen the most significant drop in price.
The ABI has highlighted the importance of purchasing cover sooner rather than later and ensuring that it is suitable for their needs, rather than just being the cheapest option. The ABI’s Senior Travel Policy Adviser Charlie Campbell commented: “The fact that onequarter of Brits travel abroad without the right travel insurance is incredibly worrying. Few people have the luxury of being able to afford a surprise £800 bill, let alone one that runs into the tens or hundreds of thousands if they fall ill abroad. Anyone travelling this summer should avoid unnecessary financial and emotional stress by ensuring they have the right cover in place. As not all policies are the same,
people should look for cover that meets their needs, rather than the cheapest option.” Brits overspending on travel insurance They say that to err is human, but if British holidaymakers realised that by purchasing the wrong travel insurance they are collectively overpaying by about £630 million, annually, it’s likely they’d politely tell Alexander Pope where to go. Alas, it’s true – a survey conducted by travel insurer Columbus Direct found that many are losing money by buying multiple single-trip
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Editorial comment @ITIJonline Stefan Mohamed - Deputy Editor stefan@itij.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Ian Cameron ian@itij.com
Editor:
Sarah Watson sarah@itij.com
Oh, hi there! I didn’t hear you come in. Welcome. Pull up a chair, take a pew, pour yourself a drink and let’s get comfortable. It’s time for another ITIJ. They come around so quickly, don’t they? We have a packed itinerary for you, as per usual. As well as a full roundup of everything important, interesting and occasionally just plain weird that has occurred in travel insurance and its various ancillary spheres over the course of the month, we have an in-depth autopsy of our recent ITIC APAC conference in Hong Kong – so those of you who attended can re-live the magic, and those of you who couldn’t make it can foam with FOMO. Additionally, we have, in no particular order: a fascinating profile! Two insightful Industry Voices! And one extremely appetising feature! This month’s profile features David Allen, Underwriting Strategy Manager at Direct Line in the UK, who had a ton of interesting things to say about
underwriting, technology, and the general state of the insurance industry. In this month’s Industry Voices, meanwhile, we have guest professionals sharing their views on how insurers can drive revenue by embracing the transformative potential of the new digital realm, and why the much heralded insurtech revolution should perhaps be approached with some caution. And our feature looks at travel insurance renewals, and how insurers and brokers go about making sure that this occasionally fraught process runs as smoothly as possible. Good stuff, eh? As usual, if you have anything that you wish to sound off about, please do get in touch – we love to hear from our readers, and we’re always looking for spicy takes for our Industry Voice pieces. I hope your enjoyment of this issue of ITIJ is equal to the blood, sweat and tears we poured into it. TTFN!
Deputy Editor:
Stefan Mohamed stefan@itij.com
Assistant Editors:
Mandy Langfield Lauren Haigh
Writer & Copy-Editor:
Robyn Bainbridge
Advertising sales:
James Miller Kathryn Zerboni sales@itij.com
Marketing:
Kate Knowles
Finance:
Elspeth Reid Alex Rogers Kirstin Reid
CONTENTS HIGHLIGHTS Design team:
News
p8 Industry voice
Looking to the future
Pitfalls and potential
Allianz assumes that there will be one
Tommy Baker William McClelland
p18
Robbie Gray Rosi Yip Webmaster:
Is insurtech really a magic bullet?
Tom Reed
Director of events:
Denise Clements denise@itic.co
Travel Matters
p20
2019 holiday trends: less is more New research from Europ Assistance
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Industry Voice
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Rebooting business
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Boosting revenue through digital transformation
Company Brief
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Endor wins Korean insurtech challenge Predictive analytics platform scores highly
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Health Matters
WHO DRC Ebola update Is it time to panic yet?
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www.itij.com/subscribe Published on behalf of: Voyageur Publishing & Events Ltd. The information contained in this publication has been published in good faith and every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy. Neither the publisher nor Voyageur Publishing & Events Ltd can accept any responsibility for any error or misinterpretation. All liability for loss, disappointment, negligence or other damage caused by reliance on the information contained in this publication, or in the event of bankruptcy or liquidation or cessation of the trade of any company, individual or firm mentioned is hereby excluded. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher.
Printed by Pensord Press, South Wales, United Kingdom Copyright © Voyageur Publishing & Events Ltd 2019. Materials in this publication may not be reproduced in any form without permission INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL & HEALTH INSURANCE JOURNAL
Insurance Matters
Lemonade enters Europe
ISSN 2055-1215
p17
When life gives you lemons, enter a new market PEFC/16-33-447
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NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Counting the cost of travel insurance policies a year, instead of investing in an annual multi-trip policy. Brits said they spend about £53 on three single-trip insurance policies a year – but an annual multi-trip policy could cost them as little as £26.15 to insure all three trips, saving £26.85 and essentially cutting the cost in half. However, with 44 per cent (or 23 million) of Brits buying travel insurance in the last year, this unnecessary extra cost amounts to a monstrous £630 million. The problem, Columbus suggests, highlights a misjudgement at the point of purchasing a policy. Of those that purchase single-trip policies, the survey revealed that 28 per cent of respondents were not keen to commit to an annual multi-trip policy in case future holidays needed specialist insurance, such as skiing or backpacking. Having a cheaper up-front cost influenced around one-quarter (26 per cent) of Brits surveyed, which led to them buying the single-trip policy, and a similar amount (22 per cent) admitted that they simply chose the quickest option, as they booked last minute. In addition, a rather worrying 11 per cent said that their purchasing a singletrip policy was due to mistakenly thinking that buying an annual multitrip policy means you must holiday in the same country all year. Conversely, one-fifth of people that bought an annual multi-trip policy (spending an average £65) only took one trip, and thus ended up forking out for more coverage than they needed. Stuart Lloyd, Travel Insurance Expert at
Columbus Direct, said: “Spontaneous trips and a desire for short-term savings mean many of us buy the cheapest travel insurance available just before we jet off. While we feel good that we’re covered, the reality is this behaviour means many holidaymakers end up paying double what they should. The most important thing is to make sure you’ve got the right level of cover for each holiday, then you can look at comparing price.” For those who are looking at taking more than one holiday in a 12-month period – say those looking at a short city break, a quick trip to visit family, or a long weekend away at a wedding – industry professionals know that an annual policy would be best, while for those looking at a winter skiing trip, for
Uninsured tourism hurts Japan hospitals
example, a single-trip policy is best. What the survey ultimately highlights is that insurers should look to provide increased support during the early
insurers should look to provide increased support during the early stages of the customer journey, as this will help steer customers towards an educated and informed decision when buying the appropriate coverage. policy, managed to keep its price relatively low by cutting the coverage offered for loss or damage of personal items and focusing instead on delivering medical coverage. “We’ve heard concerns from medical institutions about possibly vast amounts
stages of the customer journey, as this will help steer customers towards an educated and informed decision when buying the appropriate coverage.
Around 20 per cent of hospitals that have treated foreign tourists have received no payment from patients following medical care and procedures of unpaid medical bills,” said an official of the island prefecture. “We will continue our efforts to increase the number of people who buy insurance policies after they arrive in Okinawa.”
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NEWS
Tourists heading to Puerto Rico uninsured In a rather backward turn of events, many travellers planning to visit Puerto Rica this season are choosing to forego purchasing travel insurance – less than two years since Hurricane Maria ripped across the island. Travel insurance provider Arch RoamRight recently conducted a survey into its website visitors’ travel habits and found that increased numbers of people are visiting Puerto Rico compared to 2018. However, although insured numbers are up by 17 per cent through May 2019 compared to the same period in 2018, there is still a colossal 78 per cent of people that have
not yet purchased travel insurance for their trip to the Caribbean Island – and hurricane season in the Atlantic has now begun. “Travel insurance for those travelling to Puerto Rico is essential,” said VicePresident of Business Development for Arch RoamRight Cory Sobczyk. “Puerto Rico is a destination that is at risk during hurricane season and in recent years suffered the effects of Hurricane Maria, the second deadliest hurricane in American history.” RoamRight has urged travellers to buy travel insurance, as it provides coverage
for trip cancellations; however, the company has also stressed that travellers should purchase their insurance before a storm is named to ensure coverage. “We are happy to see that Puerto Rico is once again a hot travel destination,” noted Sobczyk. “However, the results of our survey show us that the travel insurance industry should do more to educate consumers on the merits of travel insurance.” As such, RoamRight presented a webinar this June to help educate travel agents on how insurance can protect their clients during hurricane season.
Editorial Blog Well, I guess we all hate those nasty mozzie, midge, buggy things. And for those of us who crave our hit of vitamin D from the Sun*, those horrible little bugs are something we tolerate for the sake of a dose of nice sunburn. But wait – advice from the US CDC (see page 24) is for travellers to use EPA-registered insect repellents and cover their skin by wearing long-sleeved tops and trousers. That’ll go down well on the beaches of Bali, Benidorm and Barbados. Most of the EPA-registered repellents get rid of more pests on the beach than just mosquitoes (which is probably not a bad thing for some). However, unless you’re a fan of burkas for the beach, the chances of the populace following the clothing advice of the CDC is slim to none – pretty much like the bikinis and swimwear for most people today (slim to nothing). Don’t you just love the beach? Important footnote *The Sun (for those of you who live in the more northerly or southerly parts of the world, i.e. Canada, the UK, Scandinavia, Tasmania, Tiera del Fuego etc) is the big yellow circle that occasionally appears between the Grey Clouds in the Sky. Not to be confused with the Grey Circle that appears at night called the Moon, which is not advisable to try and sun(moon) bathe under. In fact, it’s really weird – and you probably won’t/ shouldn’t be covered by insurance for that kind of weird stuff … no ...
Ian Cameron Editor-in-chief ian@itij.com
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ACCREDITED PROVIDER ACCREDITED PROVIDER
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NEWS
Tragic twin bombings in Tunisia
Travel insurance penetration improves in Spain – but still trails most of Europe Three destination countries have seen a 100-per-cent-plus increase in the number of Spaniards taking out travel insurance this peak summer holiday season, and such numbers are expected to grow by 32 per cent, reports David Ing
Suicide bombings in Tunisia in June killed one police officer and left eight other people wounded. The attacks took place on Thursday 27 June in the country’s capital, Tunis, where two suicide bombers blew themselves up in rapid succession in separate attacks. The Islamic State has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attacks. The UK’s Foreign Office advises that travellers in Tunis should ‘avoid the Medina and the area around Avenue Habib Bourguiba; remain vigilant, keep up to date with developments and follow the advice and instructions of local authorities’. A suicide attack on a police bus on 24 November 2015 meant that a state of emergency was already in effect in the country – this has been extended a number of times since it was first imposed. Prior to this, a mass shooting in Sousse on 26
June 2015 that targeted tourists meant that the UK Government has been working closely with the Tunisian authorities to investigate the attack and the wider threat from terrorist groups, while the Tunisian Government has improved protective security in major cities and tourist resorts. In an interview with the Associated Press, Tunisian Tourism Minister René Trabelsi sought to reassure tourists that the bombs are believed to have targeted security forces: “This attack against national security agents ... has nothing to do with tourists.” However, UK authorities have warned that ‘terrorists are still very likely to try to carry out attacks in Tunisia, including against UK and Western interests’. Travellers are advised to be vigilant at all times and to follow the advice of the Tunisian security authorities and their travel company.
Spanish insurance broker Intermundial, which conducted the research, stated: “It appears Spaniards are increasingly conscious of the importance of insuring our travels.” But Spain is far from showing the levels of travel insurance purchasing seen in other European countries. Intermundial’s Chief Underwriting Officer Arturo Moreno noted that, on average, only one-third of people in Spain buy travel insurance policies, which is still way below that of other European outbound markets. He cited the case of the UK where, he said, ‘75 per cent of the British travel with insurance’, according to the national travel agents’ association ABTA. Intermundial’s latest report on the Spanish travel insurance market shows Japan, Morocco and Canada as the three destination countries that have seen the biggest year-on-year increase in the number of Spaniards arriving with travel policies. These ranged from a 163-per-cent rise in the case of Japan and Morocco, to a 100-per-cent rise in visitors to Canada.
But there were also significant increases among those traveling to France, Mexico, the US, the UK and Thailand. The high cost of medical treatment in the US meant it remained the country where most Spaniards decide to take out a policy when visiting. The next most likely countries where visitors opt for cover are Japan, Italy and Morocco, in that order, leaving aside countries such as Cuba, Russia, Iran and Algeria, where taking out insurance is obligatory, the broker added. While six out of 10 incidents affecting insureds involve cancellations, Intermundial says the major preoccupation among travellers is having medical cover. Its statistics show nine per cent of insureds will make a claim and, of these, 20 per cent will involve medical assistance.
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Cover for Cuba ban MEDFLIGHT
A recent announcement by the Trump administration has banned cruise ship operations from the US to Cuba in rules that US officials have said seek to punish the country’s communist regime. How will this impact travel to the country? Yonder Travel Insurance has provided information on what the restrictions mean for the estimated 800,000 travellers with upcoming cruises to Cuba. “Check with your cruise line regarding their refund policy. Cruise lines with itineraries to Cuba have been responding by offering various refunds or credits. If you’re booked on an upcoming cruise to Cuba, check with your cruise line immediately to see what compensation they’re currently offering,” it said. “If you purchased travel insurance for your upcoming cruise, it’s unlikely this is considered a covered reason to
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cancel and receive a full refund. The cancellation reason (a change in a tour itinerary) would not be listed as a covered trip cancellation reason for most travel insurance policies. The only type of coverage that may issue up to a 75-percent refund of your nonrefundable trip costs is Cancel for Any Reason coverage. To qualify, you would have needed to purchase this specific coverage within 10-21 days of your initial trip deposit and insure 100 per cent of the nonrefundable costs toward your trip. The cancellation must also occur at least 48 hours prior to the scheduled departure date. “If you haven’t purchased travel insurance for your upcoming cruise and you’re still within 10-21 days of making your initial deposit, you may still qualify for Cancel for Any Reason coverage.”
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NEWS
Looking to the future Allianz Partners recently launched its ‘The World in 2040’ initiative, a wide-ranging series of reports examining the various trends that will impact the travel, healthcare, mobility and home life sectors over the next two decades The company commissioned Ray Hammond, a noted futurologist who has had a great deal of success predicting future trends over the last 40 years, to spearhead the series; Allianz’s hope is that by mapping out the potential trajectory of everyday living over the next couple of decades, it can anticipate the needs of customers and work to innovate preemptively. The seven trends on which the reports will particularly focus are asymmetric global population expansion, climate change, renewable energy, globalisation, revolutions in healthcare, the exponential acceleration of information technology development, and ‘the bottom two billion – the world’s poorest people’. The first report will be dedicated to healthcare, looking at potential improvements in delivery of and access to care, followed by an analysis of how ‘smart living’ will change the home of the future. The third report will look at road transportation, and the fourth and final instalment in the series will look at the developing experiences of leisure and business travellers, looking at how
these will evolve over the next 20 years. “The world is changing at a rapid pace,” Ray Hammond commented, “and the next 20 years will see unprecedented levels of technology development. There will be nine billion people in the world by 2040. We can expect enormous change to almost every aspect of life between now and then, so it’s extremely timely for Allianz Partners to commission me to deliver this series of reports. The reports present my view on likely future developments and trends, based on my extensive research across a
wide range of topics, of relevance to their various lines of business. I thoroughly enjoyed working on this series and
There will be nine billion people in the world by 2040. We can expect enormous change to almost every aspect of life between now and then believe it delivers valuable insights.” Many industries, not just insurance, have been somewhat on the back foot when it
comes to responding to developments in technology, lifestyle and so on, scrambling to meet customer demand, so it is a savvy move on Allianz’s part to commission an expert to help map out the potential trajectory of the next few decades. The reports will no doubt make for fascinating reading, and anything that helps the business community to prepare for what will no doubt be a turbulent and uncertain future is of huge value. If only those in politics were as serious about planning ahead ...
Recouping holiday health costs
The public health service in one of Spain’s leading holiday regions billed some €51 million last year for treatments given mainly to visiting tourists, 16-per-cent more than in 2017. David Ing reports Some 62 per cent of the total was charged to European Union (EU) governments under the terms of the EU’s reciprocal health card system, according to figures from the Balearic Islands’ Servei de Salut. The remainder included receipts charged to third party users, up 12 per cent to €19.3 million, which included bills for people treated under private insurance policies. With the EU health card reclaims reaching €31.6 million, the highest number of cases seen for treatments was for UK tourists at 16,555, followed by Germans (13,200) and Italians (11,293). Mallorca, the biggest of the islands, also saw the largest increase in the value of bills reclaimed – up over 16 per cent to nearly €38 million – including €22.2
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million under the EU scheme and €15.7 million attributed to third parties. It is also home to the biggest single hospital involved, Son Espases in the regional capital of Palma, which accounted for 40 per cent of the total, followed by Can Misses on the island of Ibiza and Manacor, which serves one of the main hotel districts on Mallorca. Charges averaged around €1,360 for patients who were treated in the main hospitals, compared with €130 for those attended to in a primary care health centre. The authority said the charges on third parties include those for people who are holders of public health cards who are involved in road accidents and taken to clinics, in which case these are passed on to the car insurers. In an update on the situation of what will happen when the UK finally leaves the EU, the health authority told the British consul to Ibiza in May that it is still planning to apply the same EU card conditions to British tourists for a further 21 months following any form of Brexit.
INDUSTRY VOICE
Rebooting business Jonathan Sharp, Director, Britannic Technologies, asks how insurance providers can accelerate revenue with digital transformation The fourth industrial revolution is upon us and digital technologies have delivered a paradigm shift that will change the workplace forever. Digital transformation is reshaping the way we communicate, work and the services that businesses provide, and how they offer them. The ultimate challenge for travel and health insurance companies is to offer an easy and seamless end-to-end journey for customers. Mission impossible – surprisingly, it’s not! Many are beginning to digitise their services and transform the way they operate with disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics processing automation (RPA) by automating their claims management and settlements processes. Reducing the cost to serve These disruptive technologies not only improve processes, productivity and the overall experience for agents and customers, but staggeringly they also reduce the cost to serve. With AI and RPA, your business communications cost can be reduced by as much as 95 per cent, compared to other communication methods such as telephone call, email or live web chat. Your customers’ journey will be made seamless at every touch point, improving the customer experience. This will in turn reduce customer churn and increase their willingness to buy again. Consumers are more vocal than ever before on social media and review sites. Great customer experience increases advocacy, helping you to attract new ones – becoming your best marketing channel! Digital transformation is often viewed as an overwhelming project with endless budgets and deadlines, but it doesn’t have to be. A solution provider can deconstruct it into manageable projects, which will aid in getting approval and devising a strategy. It is crucial to set objectives and devise a strategy for digital transformation from the start, and a solution provider with experience in
insurance can help you with this. Mapping out the journey It is imperative to know which business goals you want an AI and RPA project to achieve. If your objective is to improve the customer experience with a view to increasing sales and revenue, then it is advisable to study the existing journey that your customers take and question what works and what doesn’t. With guidance from a solution provider you can study how it should be improved by asking agents and customers how they want to communicate and what improvements they think would benefit them. By involving all stakeholders, you are not only helping with the buy-in for the new technology but also enabling them to envision how they will collaborate with the AI and RPA solution. It is crucial that companies understand how humans can augment technology and how technology can enhance the roles of humans. This is an imperative step in the process of redesigning business processes to support your objectives. A technology partner will ensure that AI and RPA are integrated into the front and back office so you can utilise what you have and maximise your new solution. Often it is the back office that doesn’t meet the
The fourth industrial revolution is upon us and digital technologies have delivered a paradigm shift that will change the workplace forever customer’s expectations – the smallest chink in service delivery impacts on the memory that is left with that customer and ultimately on reputation and referrals. A survey from Forrester revealed that 64 per cent of respondents cited a lack of single view of information as one of their biggest challenges in CRM. Often companies are forced to deploy ad-hoc solutions that don’t integrate with their existing technology, and the contact centre agents then have multiple screens at a time to view all the communications. The aim is to create a single view of all communications and essentially to have
a smart inbox so the agents can view everything on one screen. All interactions are integrated over an orchestration layer connecting the front and back office together. Then you can truly revolutionise your contact centre, customer experience and your business processes. Segmenting and prioritising customers Customers want easy to use communications, they don’t want to be left on hold, stuck in a queue and transferred from one department to another. They expect to move seamlessly between communication channels and not to be asked who they are and what the purpose of their call is again and again. With AI and RPA, you can segment customers on value and expectations – for example, you can prioritise high-value
Customers want easy to use communications, they don’t want to be left on hold, stuck in a queue customers so they can jump the queue to talk to an agent or provide a callback option when convenient for them. As the customers are high value, you may want to provide them with real-time communications such as a phone or video call, offering a more personalised service. Agents can also see on their screen that they are your top-tier customers and have visible access to their details and history so they can personalise the service and make them feel valued. Conversational AI can identify if the enquiry is urgent through key words, funnelling it to the right channel to resolve the issue. It can also help to deliver personalised services, gathering data from the customer and incorporating their details and history into future interactions. This not only strengthens the relationship but also provides a faster and more valuable service. Insurance is also known for its use of jargon, and digital AI agents can simplify the process by taking the customer through the communications step by step in a language they understand. Gamification can also be used here to make it more of an enjoyable experience.
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Workforce optimisation These disruptive technologies provide endless possibilities, redesigning the customer experience and business processes and transforming the way insurance is delivered. Most services in travel and health insurance can be digitised, from buying and updating a policy through to the claims process, and even settlements. They all can be automated using AI and RPA, accelerating the speed of historically rigid and lengthy processes for both agents and customers. This faster, automated and analytical approach to claims handling provides an easy and seamless journey for customers. However, insurers should not solely rely on technology to deliver their services and need to provide the option to talk to a claims handler when required for more complex requirements. Additionally, by having a Conversational AI agent to handle claims outside office hours, you’re ensuring that you are providing a 24/7 service. Mission: possible So, rather than mission impossible, it is very much mission possible; especially when you select the right partner. It might be daunting, but it’s not a choice – it’s an essential journey for all insurance providers.
Author Bio Jonathan Sharp, Director, Britannic Technologies, has 20 years’ experience in IT and telecoms. He is currently responsible for sales, pre-sales, marketing and project management teams, and is instrumental in company vision, strategy and direction.
NEWS ANALYSIS
The rise and rise of Canadian travel insurance Thanks to Canada’s ageing population, the nation’s travel insurers appear headed for a buoyant future. Milan Korcok analyses the latest statistics from the Conference Board of Canada
S
peaking at the annual conference of the Travel Health Insurance Association of Canada (THiA) in California in April, Jennifer Hendry, Senior Research Associate with the Conference Board of Canada (CBoC), emphasised that ‘while travel frequency tends to decline after age 74, older Canadians are now healthier, wealthier and more mobile than their predecessors’ – and more determined to continue travelling. In addition, in 2021 when the oldest boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) start to turn 75, there will be 10 million millennials coming on behind them, and ‘this cohort of Canadians will comprise 27 per cent of the projected population’. Given that almost 90 per cent of snowbirds, who spend up to several months out of the country each year, usually wintering in the US South or other locations in Mexico or the Caribbean, buy travel insurance – often the higher-priced medically underwritten plans designed for those in less than perfect health – travel insurers have bountiful targets for their promotions. Seeking pastures new In the past couple of decades, Canadians maturing in age, wealth and diversity of interests have expanded their travels far beyond the US, though the lure of cheaper shopping and better weather south of the border keeps them firmly anchored. In 2010, Canadians made 15.8 million overnight trips to the US and 7.6 million to non-US locations. In 2018, they still made 15.8 million trips to the US, but 9.5 million to other locations – Europe, Asia, central and South America and beyond. That’s a pattern that appears to be continuing.
Does it mean they’re getting jaded by the US? Or is it that they’re just getting more adventurous, more interested in different travel experiences, more inclined to greater bragging rights about the last time they visited
Since 2008, snowbird trip volumes grew almost four times the rate of overall outbound activity; and since 2000, the volume of snowbird trips to the US has increased 190 per cent. Cambodia or chopped their way through frigid Antarctic waters? A bit of both, perhaps. However, since 2016 and the appearance of ‘The Trump Effect’ (Canada’s media has been even more waspish about the actions of America’s president than has his own), the experts about such things have predicted a nosediving of Canadian southbound travel. Both THiA and the CBoC have found then when Canadians have been asked if the ‘political situation’ in the US might deter them from travel to the US, almost a third concurred that it might. Except that when
leisure trips to the US have increased each year, from 14.8 million to 15.8 million. What seems constant in the minds of leisure travellers to the US is that currency exchange rates between the Canadian and the US dollar are powerful motivators of travel trends, certainly more-so that ideations about ‘the current political situation’ – a euphemism for The Trump Effect. CBoC data shows that after the peak travel years of 2013 and 2014, when the Canadian and US dollars were close to par value, Canadian travel to the US dipped to its lowest level since the global recession and this was most acutely felt by auto travellers – who are more price sensitive. But starting in 2016, as the ‘loonie’ began to recover some value, travel to the US regenerated, helped by considerable increases in air travel. (The exchange rate is now fluctuating in the 75 US cents to 77 US cents range and predicted to stay there until about 2020). Hendry points out that a decade ago, one-third of overnight visitors flew to their US destination. Now, 43 per cent do so and they take more frequent trips. For travel insurers, this is good news as air options tend to support longer-haul destinations, are less likely to be spontaneous, and air travellers are more likely to buy travel insurance for their trip. The snowbird influence Even during these fluctuations in exchange values, the snowbird presence makes itself heavily felt as many have homes in the US, social connections with their American neighbours, and a propensity for sharing lifestyles not dissimilar from their own. CBoC data shows that since 2008, snowbird trip volumes grew almost four times the rate of overall outbound activity; and since 2000, the volume of snowbird trips to the US has increased 190 per cent. Snowbirds are tough, determined, and despite their tendency to keep on ageing, they are a travel insurance market share no one dare ignore. As Hendry told the conference of travel insurers in California recently: “Over the past five years, snowbird trips of 31 to 59 nights have grown at an average annual rate of seven per cent, while trips of 60 or more nights have grown by nine per cent annually.” And while ‘younger’ snowbirds (aged 55 to 64) travel for shorter durations, the size and growth of the 60-plus nights travel market is resulting in more risk nights for insurers, and increased likelihood of claim submissions as the market ages. The movers and shakers Referring to CBoC data, Hendry noted that travel health policy sales in Canada increased 11 per cent in 2018 over 2017, and the total value of collected premiums jumped five per cent; and while the typical premium for
Consumer demand for multi-trip policies has surged
The message about not leaving travel insurance as the last item on the To Do list appears to be getting through vacation time is imminent, or the snows start blowing, such hypotheticals don’t necessarily translate into action. Since 2016 (when Donald Trump became president), Canadian
a single-trip policy increased, the average cost of annual multi-trip coverage declined. Consequently, consumer demand for multitrip policies has surged. More than one-fifth of insured travellers reported a reliance on annual multi-trip plans in 2018, and major insurance providers are reporting year over year sales increases of 20 to 30 per cent. Over the past decade, the number of annual multi-trip policies sold has grown by an average annual rate of 13.5 per cent – more of them sold last year than single-trip policies. Prior to 2009, travel agents were the primary sellers of travel health insurance. But that
venue has clearly shifted to direct sales from insurance companies and brokers – to the point that 40 per cent of outbound travellers recently surveyed bought their coverage from an insurance company or broker, and just 16 per cent from travel agents. In addition, 19 per cent purchased their travel insurance from a membership association, and 18 per cent from financial institutions such as banks or credit unions. And for the most part, travellers are making their purchases earlier – 36 per cent, four to six weeks before travelling, and 29 per cent, one to three weeks. The message about not leaving travel insurance as the last item on the to-do list appears to be getting through. How’s the bottom line? At the historic peak of outbound travel – 2014 (when the Canadian loonie and the US ‘greenback’ were close to parity) – travel insurance sales hit an estimated CA$929 million. But then a flagging Canadian economy dragged down the loonie’s value to the low to mid-70 US cents range. Since then, a more resurgent economy has fuelled a strong outbound travel market – to both overseas and US destinations – and with it, policy premium sales have peaked to around $990 million in 2018. The bottom line is that Canadians made more than 25 million trips out of the country in 2018 – not bad for a population of just a little over 36 million. Looking forward, Hendry projects continued growth, albeit at a slower rate than previous years, little thanks to the return of a sluggish economy and higher travel prices. Canada’s economy grew a meagre 1.8 per cent in 2018, compared to a strong 3.2-per-cent first quarter 2019 growth in the US. To add insult to injury, Canada faces a national election this year – never a good omen for economic stability. However, despite those uncertainties, a strong boomer drive to travel and the everpresent resilience of snowbirds means predictions are for a strong leisure travel market to remain, in the short term at least. The need for knowledge What also remains is the continuing challenge of increasing consumer knowledge about travel insurance itself – what it is, how it works, why it is necessary. Surveys undertaken by THiA and the CBoC agree on one critical point: too many Canadians still don’t know nearly enough about travel insurance. According to one 2018 survey carried out by THiA, close to 16 per cent of boomers, 17 per cent of millennials, and 19 per cent of gen Xers (born between 1965 and 1979) didn’t know what their travel insurance covered, and more than 15 per cent in all age groups believed that if they ever had a heart attack while travelling out of the country, their government health insurance would cover between 75 and 100 per cent of the costs. In fact, it would cover only about five per cent (see ITIJ 220, June 2019, Ontario terminates coverage for outbound travellers). Furthermore, according to a survey reported by CBoC, 41 per cent of respondents in all age groups who purchased private travel insurance reported that the most challenging aspect of that purchase was understanding the terms and conditions of available options (those wretched exclusions). Other major challenges were affordability (38 per cent) and determining which type of coverage was best for their needs (35 per cent). Perhaps if the lesser age groups listened more attentively to their seniors (snowbirds), they would get the message – first hand. ■
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Mt Everest – a fatal attraction? Paired with the full-scale media storm over shocking images of queues leading to its summit, the 11 deaths atop Mt Everest this climbing season have raised questions about the ethics of Everest as an over-subscribed tourist attraction. Robyn Bainbridge investigates what caused the recent tragedies to unfold, and how authorities responded
M
t Everest, ancient and ungovernable, forever looming amongst the misty peaks of the Himalayas, certainly elicits a timeless allure. For many years, locals lived in the valleys below, in the shadow of the great mountain, believing that only the sacred or monstrous could dwell at such heights. In the last hundred or so years, much has changed – technological advancements have come about, and now, such sublime scenery incites adventure, catharsis and the promise of metaphysical awakening to those willing to venture to the summit. That being said, the summit in question lies 29,029 feet above sea level; Sagarmatha, as the locals know it (which translates as ‘Mother of the Universe’), is the tallest mountain on earth and has long been known to be a deathly climb – prepared trekkers and climbers alike don’t go up without being aware of the risks of bad
weather, extreme environments, avalanches, storms and high-altitude related problems. Back in 1996, a deadly blizzard claimed the lives of eight people in a single day, 13 Sherpa guides and three local workers died during the 2014 Mount Everest avalanche and a further 22 people died in 2015 in avalanches caused by the April 2015 Nepal earthquake – tragedy on Mount Everest is not uncommon, and yet more and more people set out to make the climb. Phil Sylvester, Head of PR & Media Communications and Travel Safety Expert at World Nomads, reasoned that most who attempt the journey are willing to take the risks: “The reality is, the type of people that wish to – and have the ability to – summit Everest are hard adventure specialists and expeditioners, not travellers, tourists or softadventure seekers,” he told ITIJ. “As far as I know,” he continued, “no travel insurance provider offers cover above 6,000 metres.”
At 5,800 metres, he explained, Everest Base Camp (EBC) can be covered with certain conditions and exemptions; above EBC, climbers have ‘moved into the realms of expeditions and high-risk uninsurable activity’. As such, specialist insurance is more appropriate for those aiming for the peak, and these days it is hard to come by and has a price tag to match. The death zone Dr Kimberly Chawla of East West Rescue, an international assistance company that operates in the Indian Subcontinent and was involved in an advisory capacity regarding the search and rescue of survivors and the deceased at an avalanche near Nanda Devi, Uttarakhand in May 2019, said: “Everest is a very strenuous climb, even for the fit and experienced. Altitude, climate, weather and forces beyond control, such as avalanches, play a huge part in the success or failure to summit (and unfortunate deaths).” With an altitude density a third of that at sea level, climbers are forced to ascend into Everest’s ‘death zone’ (above 26,000 feet) with the aid of oxygen cannisters, and
supplies and place team members and other mountaineers at risk. “Standing in a queue in cold weather chewing up oxygen can test any climber,” she warned. She also speculated over the reliability of the supplies distributed: “A mandatory minimum number of oxygen bottles is also required, but checks may need to be performed to ensure that they are full and functional. It is hopeful that all tour companies (or the Government) keep a ready cache of oxygen bottles available for exchange and payment at key locations such as at The Balcony.” Climbing restrictions In terms of inexperienced mountaineers, most reputable mountaineering and exhibition agencies will insist that climbers go through a substantial vetting system. Gordon Janow, Director of Programs at Alpine Ascents, extrapolated: “A substantial vetting system requires climbers to have climbed with your company on progressively more challenging climbs, starting with a climbing school and a series of peaks, being approved after each climb for the next level.” He added that this vetting system had been
There is a moral obligation on parties to ensure the safety of climbers, guides and support staff on the mountain
@nimsdai Project Possible
even then, climbers’ bodies are effectively decomposing due to the severely low atmospheric pressure and oxygen levels. Dr Chawla cited insufficient levels of fitness and high-altitude problems such as high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE), high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE), exhaustion, hypoxia, visual problems and snow blindness, as debilitating factors that can put increasing pressure on oxygen
in place at Alpine Ascents for 30 years. Dr Chawla reasoned that, prior to the May fatalities, Nepal has also already made certain changes to make the peak safer for mountaineers – banning solo climbers, double amputees and those who are blind, and enforcing penalties for anyone climbing without a permit. She detailed that recent events have the Nepalese Government and authorities considering mandatory health
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checks by qualified physicians in Nepal and certification of an advanced climbing course. “The capabilities of the climbers and the expedition company shall hopefully be addressed,” she said. Still, less reputable agencies are known to operate, and less-experienced climbers can slip through the net. And Dr Chawla reasoned that experienced climbers have also suffered fatal mishaps this year. Bad management Responsibility still falls on authorities to better manage Everest expeditions; with a record 381 climbing permits issued by the Nepalese Government this year, there has been much speculation around whether this decision put monetary gain before safety. The logistics of climbing Everest are determined by available good weather days, explained Dr Chawla. “If 381 climbing permits were issued,” she said, “and the
weather conditions were limited, then all 381 – plus their Sherpas and guides (an expedition could have up to 12-15 persons) – could head for the summit at the same time. These are staggering numbers.” Indeed, these numbers put a great deal of strain on co-ordinating operations atop Mt Everest and climbing conditions were notably poor this climbing season, with bad weather causing fewer summiting opportunities. Then again, Dr Chawla also highlighted that tourism is the main industry for Nepal, and at US$11,000 a pass, Mt Everest is a prime source of income. In addition, overcrowding on Mt Everest is not exclusive to the 2019 climbing season; increased numbers of climbers have been causing queues on the mountainside for many years. Furthermore, contrary to the purpose of the hefty price, which, if anything, should act to deter all but the most dedicated (and in
some ways, it does), for some, increased cost of the expedition only increases the pressure on the climber to summit, and in this situation, safety can get placed on the backburner. “The consequence of the commercialisation of Everest means that, in good weather, there are enormous
treks,” Sylvester told ITIJ. “People wish to experience some of the thrill without the risk, but this latest incident will take off some of the gloss, reduce the romanticism associated with it.” He noted that the recent media coverage will now increase awareness of the environmental impact
This was a tragic and deadly perfect storm caused by a number of reasons, including the increased number of permits issued for summiting Sagarmatha, a very short weather window and lack of co-ordination between expedition groups at base camp queues on the few available good weather windows,” Dr Chawla explained, adding that a ‘radio blackout’ maintained between tour operators only hindered proceedings. “This was a tragic and deadly perfect storm caused by a number of reasons, including the increased number of permits issued for summiting Sagarmatha, a very short weather window and lack of co-ordination between expedition groups at base camp,” said Sylvester about the deaths in May. He stressed the importance of encouraging expedition teams to work cooperatively to ensure that lives are not put at risk in the future. Rose-tinted sunglasses “The effect of those images is profound and long-lasting and will hopefully bring about a re-evaluation of all the contributing factors,” said Sylvester. Certainly, there is a moral obligation on parties to ensure the safety of climbers, guides and support staff on the mountain, not to mention reducing the environmental impact of tourism to Everest. “Clearly the cachet of summiting Everest is an important drawcard for the EBC
of Everest expeditions, as well as the ‘senseless human toll’, which he ultimately thinks will be a good thing for Everest and Nepal. Speaking ahead of the Asian Resilience Summit 2019 that took place in Kathmandu at the end of May, Director of Tourism Consultancy Chemonics International for the Middle East and Africa, Ibrahim Osta, said: “The country has lots of attractions beyond trekking and adventure tourism and they need to present that to the world in an attractive way.” Over-tourism occurs when people do the same thing, in the same way, at the same time, said Sylvester, “but Nepal is much more than EBC; there are many other equally spectacular treks to take in Nepal.” He referenced trekking in Manaslu, exploring Dolp and Upper Mustand and mountain biking along the Annapurna Circuit, amongst other things. “Trekking will always be popular, and Nepal is unique in offering the best in this activity. I hope increased awareness and a dedication to sustainable, responsible travel, will see travellers explore more of Nepal,” he concluded. ■
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AllClear coverage promoted to Reach plc readership UK-based AllClear Travel and Reach plc have agreed upon a two-year partnership that will provide readers of the Daily Mirror and People newspapers (as well as a number of regional titles) with medical travel insurance. Reach plc publishes a range of newspapers, including the Mirror, Express, Star, Ok!, New!, Daily Record, Manchester Evening News, Birmingham Live, Bristol Live and Liverpool Echo – having a relatively large combined readership, it’s well placed to promote AllClear’s coverage. AllClear CEO Chris Rolland believes that the new partnership will spread much greater awareness of its services to Reach plc readers and will therefore help to
Collinson announces TRIP partnership
‘create a better understanding that no one is uninsurable, and avoid people taking the risk of travelling without insurance’. “We are working with numerous medical charities to support the FCA mission to ensure better access to insurance for those with medical conditions,” he said. Andy Atkinson, Chief Revenue Officer at Reach plc, added: “Our audience profile is naturally aligned to AllClear’s own customer base. We know that personal finance, and indeed specialist travel insurance, are topics that are very important to our readers, so we are very pleased to be offering a service and detailed information to help our readers make more informed decisions.”
Medical, security and travel risk management company Collinson has announced a new partnership with Travel Risk & Incident Prevention (TRIP) Group. Under the partnership, the companies will offer best practice consultancy in order to help employers meet their duty of care requirements and keep their travelling workers safe and healthy. More specifically, Collinson will share its expertise in global medical and security risk and safety practices via TRIP’s dedicated learning forums, which are available for its travel risk management community. This community is home to over 150 member organisations, including multinationals, corporates, non-governmental organisations, universities, government departments and various players in travel and tourism. In addition to this, members will have access to Collinson’s expert travel risk management
Award for Healix International US The US arm of global travel risk management and assistance provider Healix International has been awarded the title of International Healthcare & Risk Management Provider of the Year at the recent Americas region Forum for Expatriate Management (FEM) Awards. The awards took place in Dallas, US; last year, Healix saw success at the EMEA region awards. Healix’s award commends the company for delivering its services with a high level of competence and quality, at a global level. The judges called Healix’s offering ‘a wonderful example of best practices in travel risk management in action’, while Claire Tennant-Scull, Global Director of Content and Marketing at FEM, commented: “The EMMAs are the premier awards ceremony for global mobility in the Americas and across the globe, with the greatest breadth of categories for both corporate professionals and service providers. EMMAs entries are rigorously judged by a team of fiercely impartial, highly experienced, senior figures in the industry, who are drawn from a range of disciplines across the Americas region and who give up their own free time to carry out a very thorough and demanding process. So, these awards carry tremendous kudos.” Mike Webb, CEO of Healix International, enthused: “We are delighted that
gurus, who will help them to tailor services that fit their duty of care responsibilities and help employees better prepare for potentially dangerous overseas trips. “The TRIP Group perfectly complements our own TRM expertise and partnership approach, which allows us to deliver solutions that precisely meet our clients’ requirements and can even go beyond their duty of care obligations,” said Collinson’s Head of Assistance Scott Sunderman. “Every organisation has individual TRM needs and our aim is to help each of our clients understand TRM and identify the best approach for them. The TRIP Group’s forums allow members to share best practice advice, and we are looking to add a new dimension to this excellent initiative by sharing the unique insight that we have gained into the issues faced by global travellers, and the services available to support them.”
Endor wins Korean insurtech challenge Endor, a predictive analytics platform founded by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, has been named the winner of the MetLife Korea collab 5.0 Innovation Program, which took place recently in Seoul. Over 180 startups from 30 different countries took part in the competition. As the top contender, Endor will receive a contract with MetLife Korea worth US$100,000; it will provide its AI-based predictive analytics services for the insurer to improve customer engagement, sales and other operations in its Seoul headquarters. The platform utilises proprietary technology called Social Physics, which enables it to sort through massive quantities of data in a shorter time than comparable solutions, analysing customer behaviour and offering accurate predictions that businesses can use to adapt their processes. Endor can also analyse encrypted data – an industry first, its developers claim – so its predictions are secure and scalable, as well as being reliable and cost-effective. “We are incredibly honoured to be selected the winner of collab 5.0,” said Endor CEO Dr Yaniv Altshuler. “This is a huge vote of confidence in the unique predictive analytics capabilities
our service and expertise has been acknowledged by the EMMAs. This win demonstrates that Healix International is at the forefront of the employee risk management sector.”
our platform offers. MetLife is one of the largest insurance companies in the world and we are excited to participate in advancing innovation with such an important player in the insurtech industry, particularly in such an important market as South Korea, which pioneers disruptive technologies.” The insurtech challenge was devised by LumenLab, MetLife’s dedicated Asian innovation centre, as a forum through which startups can showcase their service propositions to senior insurance figures, global entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and other business entities.
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International SOS expands telehealth
Award win for Arch RoamRight
Medical and security risk management firm International SOS has announced that it has expanded its worldwide teleconsultation offering, which will now be available in France. The clinical service, which compliments the company’s global telehealth provision, can now be accessed in 16 countries, allowing customers full remote access to trusted providers within the International SOS network. The benefits, according to International SOS, include: reduced business disruption, as customers can quickly and easily access credentialed local care; regulatory and licensing compliance; extensive understanding of the health environment wherever the patient happens to be; knowledge of local medicines and their availability; the ability to provide prescriptions that can be handed in locally; full support for patients with personalised follow-up sessions and thorough management of
RoamRight, Arch Insurance Company’s travel insurance brand, was recently honoured with a bronze Stevie Award at the 17th annual American Business Awards. The company took home the award for Customer Service Department of the Year. The insurer’s customer service department has grown significantly this year, and customer satisfaction levels are reportedly extremely high, which contributed heavily towards the win. “Being recognised as a Customer Service Department of the Year is an honour,” said Linda Fallon, Executive Vice-President of Arch Insurance’s Travel, Accident & Health division. “In the competitive travel insurance industry, exemplary customer service is a critical component that can set competitors
cases; and multilingual support to refer patients to GPs, specialists or emergency practitioners where necessary. “Teleconsultation is becoming increasingly popular,” commented Dr Neil Nerwich, Group Medical Director, Assistance at International SOS, “as the growing global workforce demands more diverse access to fast, efficient and appropriate medical care wherever they travel. This local virtualised service adds to our extensive worldwide capability ... members can be assured of the same high-quality care as they would receive in person, with local knowledge for accurate medical diagnosis and locally available medicines. As part of the service, members are assessed for teleconsultation and, should something change medically, can be quickly triaged from teleconsultation into alternative medical care if necessary, providing a leading solution to protect people and promote business resilience.”
Insurtech Zego raises $42 million Insurtech startup Zego has completed a Series-B funding round, raising US$42 million, which it will put towards its expansion strategy. The startup specialises in insurance for gig economy workers in the UK, Ireland and Spain, such as those working for Deliveroo and Uber; it already has partnerships with Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats, and is estimated to insure one-third of the UK’s food delivery market. As this segment shows no signs of shrinking, Zego plans to double its workforce from 75 to 150 and move into new European markets. Among those taking part in the recent funding round were fintech company Transferwise and Germany-based food delivery platform Delivery Hero. Transferwise’s Founder Taavet Hinrikus commented: “I’ve been following Zego for some time and have
Marsh and Eos form alliance Broker Marsh and specialist venture capital fund Eos Venture Partners have partnered to deliver innovative risk management solutions to the insurance marketplace. Marsh’s new cloud-based digital broker platform, Bluestream, will provide leverage to the collaboration, allowing the two companies to share economy solutions. “Eos is focused on solutions that support data analytics to provide real-time insights to better understand risk, create new dynamic product solutions, and reduce the frequency and severity of losses through active risk management,” said Jonathon Kalman, a founding partner of Eos. Kalman added that Eos is ‘excited’ to
apart from one another. I am proud that all of our team members are dedicated to giving our customers an award-winning experience.” Last year saw RoamRight’s customer service department increase the number of customers it served by 169 per cent; it was also very busy during one of the most impactful hurricane seasons in the history of the US, with two particularly significant hurricanes leading to more calls than the insurer had ever dealt with before. “The nominations submitted to the 2019 American Business Awards were outstanding,” said Michael Gallagher, President and Founder of the Stevie Awards. “They illustrate the continued vibrancy of innovation and high level of achievement across the American economic landscape.”
been hugely impressed by the team and its ability to rapidly roll out innovative new insurance products and quickly gain market share. This investment will be a springboard for further growth that will see it continue to shake up the insurance sector.” “When we built Zego from scratch three years ago, our mission was to transform the insurance sector by creating products which truly reflected the rapidly changing world of transport,” said Zego Co-Founder and CEO – and former Deliveroo employee – Sten Saar. “The world is becoming more urbanised, and because of this, we are moving from traditional ownership of vehicles to shared usership. This means that the rigid model of insurance that has existed for hundreds of years is no longer fit for purpose. We are extremely proud to be at the forefront of change.”
Staysure teams up with Silversurfers
be given the opportunity to collaborate with Marsh and work closely with its digital team. And John Drzik, President of Global Risk and Digital at Marsh, noted that Marsh is seeing great opportunity to innovate solutions with large-scale impacts for a wide range of clients. “A confluence of trends, including real-time data streaming and analytics driven by artificial intelligence, is enabling businesses and the insurance industry to move toward real-time risk management,” he said. The new partnership follows Marsh’s agreement with London-based insurtech Concirrus to deliver real-time analytics in the global marine sector.
UK-based Staysure, a travel insurance specialist for travellers aged 50 and over, has announced a new partnership with Silversurfers, a UK-based online community for those of this age demographic. Staysure will now offer exclusive product and service deals to members of the Silversurfers community; members will be able to access a 20-per-cent discount on travel insurance products from Staysure on an ongoing basis. Staysure sees the move as part of consolidating its position as a trusted provider for over-50s, and an element of its ongoing strategy, building on its commendation as Best Travel Insurance Provider at last year’s British Travel Awards – the third consecutive
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year that it has won the accolade. “We’re delighted to be partnering with the UK’s leading over-50s online community and offering its membership great deals on their travel insurance,” said Ryan Howsam, Chairman of Staysure. “At Staysure, we believe that age shouldn’t be a barrier to enjoying an active lifestyle, and that includes seeing the world. That’s why we’re so excited to start our new partnership with Silversurfers, who share the same ethos.” Martin Lock, CEO and Founder of Silversurfers, commented: “Many of our Silversurfers members travel frequently and we are delighted to partner with Staysure, who are accredited by Which?.”
INSURANCE MATTERS
Aon teams up with Hi Marley Global professional services firm Aon plc, which specialises in risk, retirement and health solutions, has entered into a new partnership with Hi Marley, an AI-based insurance-focused communication platform. Through the partnership, Aon hopes to offer insurance customers a more engaging and streamlined process, via the use of an ‘intelligent’ SMS texting platform. By moving away from a potentially lengthy phone-based communication and towards responsive text-based messaging, Aon is of the opinion that efficiency can be increased, and customer desires satisfied. Hi Marley, which was developed by insurance industry veterans, has reportedly helped the insurers using it to improve the speed of claims resolution by 20 per cent; additionally, it has meant that each claim
According to a survey recently conducted by PwC, more than half of Indian consumers prefer to buy insurance products from agents or brokers
has required less than four calls overall. The technology can, according to Aon, be easily integrated into existing systems – and once in place, it can enable human staff to focus on more time-consuming, complex problems that are – at present – not suited to an AI-based functionary. “As a broker,” said Greg Heerde, Head of Americas Analytics for Aon’s Reinsurance Solutions business, “we see both sides of the insurance equation, so we know what insureds are asking for and the challenges carriers are facing. Hi Marley’s platform and proven team stood out with their focus on insurance-specific situations. Hi Marley is bigger than just texting – it is connecting the entire insurance ecosystem in a simple, clear, and meaningful way. We are excited to bring this innovation to insurers globally.”
For millennials, by millennials An insurance agency based in Atlanta, US, has launched a brand-new website specifically tailored towards millennials and young professionals. InsuranceHub launched the insuranceTL;DR (TL;DR stands for ‘too long, didn’t read’) website in response to the different buying and learning habits of the younger demographic: a digitally savvy, time-poor group who would be more responsive to direct, concise content. The site does away with stock photos and other bland corporate imagery (such as the image chosen to illustrate this story), as it is thought to put millennials off. “While the InsuranceHub website is designed to appeal to a broader audience,” explained the agency’s Marketing Director Jason Marlowe, “insuranceTL;DR is targeted specifically to an up-and-coming generation that knows it needs insurance and wants answers quickly. To create the most authentic experience, I assembled a team of millennials to build the site and supply engaging content. The result is
Consumers in India favour brokers
The company’s recent study, PwC India’s Insurance Technology Adaption Survey 2019, found that 55 per cent of respondents said that they much prefer buying insurance from agents and brokers. Furthermore, the conversion rate from online modes stands at four per cent. The firm suggests that for customers in India, insurance continues to largely be a ‘push product’ and, as such, they rely on face-to-face interactions for a better understanding of the product’s features and pricing. “The modern insurance customer prefers simple, customised and intuitive policies, an easy process and a simple and tangible cost breakup,” said Abhijit Majumdar, Partner and Technology Strategy Leader, PwC India. “Insurance providers have begun to appreciate this preference and have put the customer at the centre of product design, eliminating all poor experiences along the ‘moments of truth’ in his/her insurance adoption journey. This shift in product design from product to human-centric design is a fundamental shift in the Indian insurance industry.” The findings also revealed that emerging
technologies such as chatbots have started picking up as the customer’s first point of contact and that 67 per cent of respondents also stated that they prefer to leverage aggregators/online platforms that enable them to make calculated and informed decisions by comparing products. Joydeep K Roy, Partner & Leader, Insurance & Allied Businesses, PwC India, commented: “New technology gives rise to new capabilities, and processes should be redesigned accordingly to reduce wastage and delight customers. Merely adopting technology and
Fifty-five per cent of respondents said that they much prefer buying insurance from agents and brokers automating processes will not eliminate inefficiencies. A change in approach is needed whereby technology is viewed as a fundamental business tool rather than an operational and process tool. The natural inhibition in a regulated industry can be dispensed with if organisations work with all stakeholders, including regulators and the government. In this context, the healthy interest regulators are showing in sandboxes bodes well for the industry.”
Counter-fraud database IFiHUB goes live
sleek and streamlined with links to home insurance, auto insurance and business insurance. Once they’ve found the answers they’re looking for, our visitors can take part in a live chat with one of our insurance specialists and find themselves insured by the end of the chat – on their terms, without any pressure or hard sell from us.” Those visiting the site can also post questions via a subreddit, access blogs with relevant information and receive a quote at the touch of a button. While it may seem obvious to hire some actual millennials to work out how to better attract millennials, far too many businesses rely on stereotypes and preconceptions – it’s encouraging to see a company use a strategy that mixes anecdotal and evidence-based approaches. If it is successful, perhaps more in the insurance space will go directly to their audience to find out what they want, a potential win-win situation that will improve customer relations and streamline their service proposition.
A ground-breaking milestone sees the UK’s Insurance Fraud Intelligence Hub (IFiHUB) go live, providing the insurance industry with a means to catch fraudsters and dramatically decrease the £2 billion+ annual cost of fraud. IFiHUB is powered by SAS, a data-driven analytics platform, and many insurers including Ageas, Allianz, AXA, ERS, Markerstudy, Mulsanne Insurance, QBE, RSA and 1st Central have started using the platform, sharing intelligence in real time that will help to catch out fraudsters. Ben Fletcher, Director of the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB), explained that the counter-fraud database provides a singleplatform solution for insurers: “IFiHUB has been built by the industry, for the industry – to deliver a powerful counterfraud tool. It was recognised that fraud intelligence had historically been shared inconsistently and therefore inefficiently. By developing a single platform for insurers to share intelligence in real time, IFiHUB is a real game-changer for our sector.” With detected fraud amounting to £1 billion each year and undetected fraud drumming up around £2 billion, the new platform is a key asset in helping to protect the industry from these financial crimes and sits alongside the Insurance Fraud Register (IFR), holding industry data on suspected fraudsters and enablers. “Allianz is very pleased to be among the first insurers to try out the IFiHUB,” commented Graham Gibson, Chief Claims Officer at Allianz Insurance. “The insurance industry has been calling for greater collaboration for some years and the IFB’s new platform, which is instantly updated with real-time data, should now enable insurers to come together and share
intelligence. We look forward to proactively working together to tackle insurance fraud.” Fletcher also noted that, once matured, the IFiHUB would be used to develop data-led strategic threat assessments, as well as also allowing the insurance industry to share intelligence with other sectors. A privacy impact assessment alongside counsel from a leading barrister on data protection has ensured the design and build of the platform has been built with compliance and integrity of the data at the forefront. ITIJ has long suspected that the best method for tackling fraud is a collaborative approach – indeed it is a point that has been made frequently at our conferences – so we’re very pleased to see the IFiHUB go live, and with so many big names in insurance swift to jump on board.
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Insurtech competition finalist announced The global insurance industry standards body ACORD has announced the winner of the London semi-final round of its ACORD InsurTech Innovation Challenge (AIIC), which will go forward into the finals Riskbook emerged as the winner of the event, which was sponsored by DXC Technology, AXA XL and Rainmaking InsurTech. Riskbook’s proposition delivers a centralised digital platform through which brokers and reinsurers can seek closer alignment between capacity and distribution, with the aim of strengthening the global reinsurance marketplace. The two runners up, Optimiz. Claims and RITA, respectively specialise in subrogation of cargo claims and reinsurance technical accounting via blockchain. Having won the European round, Riskbook will take part in the AIIC global finals, which will take place in October at the body’s Connect conference. It will be up against finalists from US events in Chicago and New York; the winner of the final round will receive complimentary membership to ACORD, a cash injection of US$15,000 and various other prizes. “We had 13 very strong entrants,” said Caroline Bedford, Head of DXC Digital Minds and Chair of the London judging
panel, “and the standard of competition meant that the decision on our runners-up and winner was incredibly close. It was great to see so many demonstrations of the innovation that can drive the insurance industry forward. Collaboration is part of the DNA of the insurance market and working together to find how we can intelligently apply technology will undoubtedly improve our overall customer offering.” Those taking part in the challenge were judged on their ingenuity, the impact and applicability of their proposition, and the quality of the
The AIIC seeks out solutions that benefit underwriters, brokers and – most importantly – the buyers of insurance products and solutions articulation of their product/service. “The AIIC seeks out solutions that benefit underwriters, brokers and – most importantly – the buyers of insurance products and solutions,” added Chris Newman, ACORD’s London Managing Director. “We were delighted by the breadth and depth of the entrants and to see so much smart thinking about issues that can be resolved all along the value chain.” This is the fifth year that the AIIC has run.
PwC outlines the future of insurance
A new paper released by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) highlights that average earnings before interest and taxes at the top 29 global insurers is declining by nine per cent every year The consultants warn that the market slowdown is particularly bad in Australia, and that insurers there may suffer a 50-per-cent decline in profits within five years if they don’t find a way to deal with slowing growth, market disruption and shorter insurance cycles. The report, titled Future of General Insurance: Improving profitability in a changing industry, explores the risks, opportunities and challenges that every insurance CEO is up against right now, and details the ‘seven significant challenges’ that modern insurers face. The first of these is slow growth and volatility. The report states: “A humble 2.5-per-cent growth in gross written premiums suggests that top-line growth is stagnating or flat.” It also adds that return on assets is falling by around nine per cent per year. The report
estimates that insufficiently addressing these problems will lead to a significant decline in profitability within seven to eight years. Second, the report notes that capital is cheaper and easier to access, citing a diminishing difference in value between high-cost and low-cost models. Changing customer needs and rapid advances in technology are the third and fourth challenges, while new market entrants, such as low-cost challengers, and increasing regulatory scrutiny, mark the fifth and sixth. “It is worth noting that, relative to most nations, Australia typically takes a conservative approach to regulation (e.g. driving speed limits, swimming pool guard rails, etc.),” the report points out. Finally, an increased frequency of natural hazards as a result of climate change is the seventh issue that PwC identifies: “The combined total losses from storms, floods, cyclones and bushfires make up more than 95 per cent of the total losses from disasters in Australia. Based on longitudinal data from the past 50 years, financial loss from severe storms is increasing.”
PHEW launches digital insurance chatbot to interact with the chatbot advisor: including facial recognition, financial needs analysis, retirement planning, risk tolerance analysis and personality testing, the chatbot gives the customer the access and security they desire. Lastly, as a data-gathering tool, the ‘Digital Genius’ aspect of the chatbot allows the advisor to better understand their customer’s needs, preferences and interests. Founder and Chairman of Pruwell International (the parent company of PHEW) James Liu said: “The insurance Taiwanese digital insurance platform PHEW – a company that works to connect consumers to insurance products – has launched its first chatbot and, as such, insurance advisors can now implement and customise the service to help meet their individual needs. The PHEW insurance chatbot will provide three main services: ‘Digital Superpost’, ‘Smart Secretary’ and ‘Data Genius’. As a ‘Digital Superpost’, the chatbot acts as a marketing tool for insurance advisors, allowing the advisor to digitally share new product information and insurance knowledge with existing and potential customers. The ‘Smart Secretary’ feature gives customers a platform on which
The insurance chatbot empowers insurance professionals and enables them to provide better services to their customers, combining AI and human intelligence chatbot empowers insurance professionals and enables them to provide better services to their customers, combining AI and human intelligence.”
Lemonade enters Europe US-based insurtech startup Lemonade has officially made landfall in Europe; the insurtech launched in Germany on 11 June. Germany will become the first European country to offer Lemonade’s ‘Policy 2.0’, a specially designed consumer-friendly contents and liability insurance policy that is intended to be as easy-to-understand as possible and can be accessed instantly via a smartphone or similar device. The proposition uses technological approaches such as artificial intelligence and behavioural economics as its foundations. As part of its German strategy, Lemonade has signed a multi-year reinsurance agreement with AXA Germany to spread its risk potential. Its European headquarters is in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. “We chose Germany for our international launch because it combines a very traditional insurance industry with a very forward-thinking digital-first consumer,” said Lemonade’s Co-Founder and ‘Chief Lemonade Maker’ Shai Wininger. “Insurance that is instant, transparent, affordable and mission-driven has universal appeal, which is why we look forward to launching in many more countries in the months and years to come.”
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Commenting on the two entities’ partnership, AXA Germany CEO Alexander Vollert said: “Rethinking insurance from a customer’s perspective is key to our mission. Therefore, AXA fosters self-driven innovation and partnerships more than ever. Our co-operation with Lemonade is strategically oriented, with reinsurance representing a first step in this direction.”
An easy-to-understand policy will no doubt be an attractive proposition to customers who have no desire to wade through pages and pages of dense small print An easy-to-understand policy will no doubt be an attractive proposition to customers who have no desire to wade through pages and pages of dense small print – and making it easily digital available is a major bonus – so it will be interesting to see how well Lemonade’s Policy 2.0 catches on in Europe, and whether insurers in the travel and other spaces look to emulate it.
INDUSTRY VOICE
Pitfalls and potential Brad Smith, a technology expert at TurnOnVPN, examines the various challenges faced by the burgeoning insurtech sector going forward Insurtech has been all the buzz in the insurance industry recently, and for good reasons. For the insurance companies, it brings the promise of better anti-fraud protection, cutting operational costs, and converting new clients with attractive packages. For policyholders, tech disruption is likely to mean lower prices and better insurance plans. Overall, things are looking great for all stakeholders. Or are they? I, for one, am reluctant to ride the hype train when it comes to insurtech. For a highly regulated industry like insurance, tech disruption simply doesn’t happen overnight, and it’s probably going to look a lot more like a gradual transition than a revolution. Let’s discuss some of the factors that are likely to hold insurtech back for a while. Privacy concerns on the rise One of the most promising recent tech developments in the industry has been the incorporation of Internet of Things (IoT) for health and life insurance underwriting. Or more precisely, of IoT-generated data. Information from fitness wearables is so useful to insurers that the North American company John Hancock has entirely switched from traditional plans to ‘interactive policies’, where the Fitbit or Apple Watch is the basis for underwriting. This approach has also been proving successful in other markets, such as South Africa or the UK. But with the public becoming more and more aware of data security and privacy, not all coverage of the news has been positive. Critics are worried that trusting insurers with access to a constant stream of information about their clients is a dangerous move. In all honesty, they can’t be blamed – IoT devices have a pretty bad reputation for product security. If you’re wondering who goes around hacking people’s Fitbits, remember that we live in the age of internet surveillance.
The NSA in the US, for that matter, has been repeatedly shown to exploit devices’ security flaws to gain intimate information about the US and foreign citizens. Insurers certainly don’t want to find
Insurtech has been all the buzz in the insurance industry recently, and for good reasons themselves on the wrong side of the data privacy discussion. Using IoT for policy underwriting might be a great financial move, but it could also backfire on the PR front. The complicated case of compliance IoT devices provide huge volumes of data that can no longer be processed by a human in a timely manner. Artificial intelligence offers a solution for fast information processing: it
can be used in the underwriting process and claim management. But there is a huge obstacle to insurers working with this technology. AI is a so-called ‘black box’ technology – we feed it data and get back results but we don’t know what happens in between. The decision-making process of the algorithm is so sophisticated that humans can no longer follow it. This lack of transparency translates directly into lack of trust. If no one can explain what goes on between input and output, how to do you prove that you comply with relevant laws, policies, and regulations? And how do you
For a highly regulated industry like insurance, tech disruption simply doesn’t happen overnight answer to clients when they question their quote or claim settlement? Explainable AI is a growing field of data science but, for now, the only way to account for AI’s calculations is to make it less complex. And that also means lower accuracy of computing. As Tapoly’s CEO Janthana Kaenprakhamroy explained on the Insurtech Insider podcast: “AI won’t take over the human jobs any time soon. We will still have to be there to monitor the process. True AI is probably a few years away from now.” Move fast and break stuff … but don’t leave your customers behind There is a lot of change happening in the insurance industry but where is the consumer in all this? James Maudslay, Global Head of Insurance at Equinix, warns against digitising faster than policyholders can catch up. Millennials tend to prefer fully digitised communication and they’re open to buying policies from AI-powered chatbots. Other customers, however, enjoy the way they’ve been communicating with their
insurer so far and don’t want change. Instead of completely scrapping call centres and face-to-face appointments, Maudslay suggests a ‘hybrid arrangement’ where customers can choose how they connect with an insurer. Creating a smooth transition period and balancing out the needs of existing and new customers is one of the bigger challenges ahead. Moving forward Tech disruption in insurance is happening behind closed doors, so it’s hard to assess what stage we’re at right now. As is the case with AI, insurers may be using cutting-edge technologies but they’re nowhere near reaching their full potential yet. We’ve seen the power of buzzwords in recent years, with stock increases for companies that put the words ‘blockchain’ or ‘bitcoin’ in their name, for example – so insurers’ claims that they’re working with blockchain or replacing their employees with AI should be taken with a pinch of salt. Time will show which of the new technologies will become an integral part of the business and which turn out to be pure hype. ■
Author Bio Brad Smith is a technology expert at TurnOnVPN, a non-profit promoting a safe, secure, and censor-free internet. He believes in internet freedom and argues against anything in its way.
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INSURANCE MATTERS
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TRAVEL MATTERS
2019 holiday trends: less is more According to the 19th Annual Holiday Barometer from Europ Assistance, despite the number of people planning to go away on holiday remaining more or less the same as previous years, some tourists are actually decreasing their holiday budgets in 2019 The 2019 edition of the Barometer was conducted between March and April 2019 in collaboration with Ipso, and it invited 12 countries to take part in the study: the US, the UK, Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Belgium, Poland, and Brazil. Delving a little further, we see that the number of Europeans, Americans and Brazilians who plan to holiday this year has held stable compared with previous years, at 63 per cent for the UK and 68 per cent for both the US and Brazil. However, in Europe, budgets for travel saw a threeper-cent increase in 2019, amounting to an average spend of €2,019. This figure further increased to €2,099 when including only countries that make up the Euro Zone (i.e. omitting the UK, Switzerland and Poland), and an even closer look reveals that this upsurge is driven by France, Spain and Germany, with respondents in each country revealing that their travel budget has increased by up to 10 per cent. On the other side of the coin, budgets in the US have dropped by almost the same amount: an almost 10-per-cent decrease
brings the average down to $2,373. In addition, Brazil, Belgium and the UK all saw three- to five-per-cent decreases in their
The number of Europeans, Americans and Brazilians who plan to holiday this year has held stable compared with previous years, at 63 per cent for the UK and 68 per cent for both the US and Brazil travel budgets compared to the year prior. Indeed, these are some interesting figures, and as is usually the case, they reflect some deeper truths around attitudes towards travel. Europ Assistance revealed that, for Americans and Europeans at least, concerns over climate change and being able to take part in leisure and cultural activities drove their impulses for travel, while for Brazilians, risks related to health and terrorist attacks were amongst those factors swaying them towards certain holiday decisions. Still, overall, terrorism concerns seem to have decreased in Europe (at 42 per cent, down six points from last year), the US (33 per cent, down seven points) and even Brazil (61 per cent, down seven points). The report also highlighted a preference to stay at a local’s home amongst Americans (28 per cent) and Brazilians (36 per cent), and that 19 per cent of Brazilians were
Air passengers express high satisfaction
As the number of people travelling by air increases exponentially, it is gratifying to note that, according to a new study from JD Power, passenger satisfaction levels are at record highs – at least in North America. Among the key findings of JD Power’s 2019 North America Airline Satisfaction Study are that overall satisfaction with airlines on the part of their passengers has been increasing for eight consecutive years, rising by 11 points over the last 12 months and reaching a total of 773 points. Traditional carriers are seeing the highest levels of satisfaction, with this segment enjoying a 22-point increase in overall satisfaction in 2019 compared with 2018, while the low-cost segment, while it has higher overall satisfaction than the traditional segment, declined six points between last year and this year. The most satisfying elements of the airline travel experience, according to study respondents, are reservation and check-in, a trend driven by investments in digital technology, self-service kiosks and
amenable to opening up their homes to travellers, with a further 14 per cent interested in a home swap. A desire to go camping was more prevalent amongst Americans (46 per cent) than Europeans (28 per cent) and Brazilians (22 per cent). And amongst Europeans, respondents from France, Spain, Poland and Portugal were most interested in new kinds of activities. “This year we’ve seen that, overall, the global situation is stable, the summer holiday remains an important part of life in Europe, the US and Brazil,” said Antoine Parisi, CEO of Europ Assistance. “As an assistance provider, it’s important we monitor both the preferences and concerns of our customers, so if a
problem arises, we are ready to deploy our resources to bring them from distress to relief, anytime, anywhere.” It’s good to see assistance companies doing their homework, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, it’s just as important that holidaymakers are encouraged to invest in the right insurance, complete with a network that will direct them to a reliable assistance provider, should they find themselves in an unfortunate situation. Budgeting may well be an important factor in the modern holidaymaker’s plans, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of good coverage; otherwise, as we well know, costs can escalate.
Brits’ travel habits uncovered Aggregator website Picodi has analysed the habits and preferences of British travellers and unearthed a number of interesting findings, including that Brits prefer travelling internationally and that the average Brit spends £591 on a holiday. According to Picodi’s findings, 29 per cent of British people would rather spend their holidays in the UK, while 71 per cent said that they prefer travelling internationally. The most popular international destinations were found to be Spain, France, Italy, Germany and the US. Picodi also looked at when Brits go on holiday and found that 20 per cent travel during the shoulder season (between peak and off-peak seasons). This time of year is gaining popularity as it enables travellers to visit tourist destinations in good weather
the like, but in-flight service seems to be stubbornly unimpressive for passengers, with these elements of the experience – such as entertainment, food and so on – being ranked lowest by passengers. “Airlines continue to deliver on the operational side of air travel,” said JD Power’s Travel Intelligence Lead Michael Taylor. “New technology investments have dramatically improved the reservation and check-in process. Fleets are newer and travellers generally feel that they are getting great value for their money. These improvements have been most profound in the traditional carrier segment, where customer satisfaction has climbed considerably. While low-cost carriers have historically had the highest levels of customer satisfaction in our study, due to a strong sense of value for money among customers, that line is starting to blur as traditional carriers improve their services and operations. The one area where both traditional and low-cost carriers can still improve, however, is in in-flight services.”
and at affordable prices. However, the high season is still more popular, with 60 per cent of Brits travelling this time. This leaves 20 per cent of Brits who prefer to holiday in low season; the period that is most forgiving to their purse strings. When it comes to length of holiday, 57 per cent of respondents said that their trips last around one week, while 26 per cent said that they spend less than one week on holiday and 17 per cent said their holidays last two weeks or more (lucky people!). And who do Brits like to holiday with? Most of those surveyed said that they travel with their partner or family (46 per cent and 43 per cent respectively), while seven per cent travel with friends and four per cent said they prefer to travel alone.
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Male expats have healthcare concerns
Israel tourism looking healthy
Eighty-four per cent of male expatriates have needed to seek medical help while living abroad, according to AXA Global Healthcare – and 72 per cent say that they have concerns about the standard of local healthcare. AXA’s research even suggests that 65 per cent of male expats would rather book a flight back to their home country than receive medical care abroad. AXA asked these expats about their specific concerns, and found that 26 per cent had qualms with the quality of care abroad, while another 26 per cent were worried about the cost, 18 per cent were worried about the facilities and 15 per cent simply would not wish to be away from their family (assuming their family still resided in their home country) while ill. Another 15 per cent said that they would have concerns about paying for treatment up front, while 12 per cent were not confident that they would be able to arrange their own treatment in a country where they did not speak the language very well. Looking at the geographical breakdown, 94 per cent of men residing in Hong Kong expressed concerns about local healthcare, 84 per cent living in the UAE had similar concerns, 76 per cent of those living in France said the same, and 65 per cent and 64 per cent in Canada and the UK respectively expressed similar worries. Interestingly, however, while 74 per cent of those residing in the UAE would travel home for medical treatment, only 61 per cent of those in France would, 55 per cent of those in the UK would, 49 per cent of those in Hong Kong would and 42 per cent of those in Canada would. “As exciting as it can be to start a new life abroad, getting ill in an unfamiliar environment can be daunting,” said Andy Edwards, AXA Global Healthcare’s Chief Customer Officer. “Whether
you’re concerned about the facilities or treatment options that are available in your new home, trying to navigate an unfamiliar healthcare system or simply being away from your family, it’s vital that anyone who is considering living abroad takes some time to research the local healthcare facilities and consider options like booking a health check before you relocate to highlight any potential issues to be aware of before you go.”
Safe travel for students
Millennials don’t like to share?
Global travel insurance provider AIG Travel has announced the launch of its Student Travel Safety Initiative, which includes a microsite, webcast and social media outreach to help boost awareness of student travel safety considerations and help students journey safely and confidently anywhere in the world. AIG noted that, according to the Institute of International Education, between 2016 and 2017, more than 332,000 American students studied abroad for academic credit – at 2.3-per-cent more than the previous year, this number marks a 37.6-per-cent rise in 10 years. As such, the resources put forward by AIG offer practical advice, actionable tips and helpful resources for students and their parents, as well as study abroad organisations, universities and other key stakeholders. “Whether students are venturing off for an international field trip, a study abroad programme, sports tournament, volunteer mission, vacation with friends or other purpose, a comprehensive safety and preparation plan can mitigate risk and help ensure they enjoy travel and the valuable experiences it can bring,” said Jeff Rutledge, CEO, AIG Travel.
Israel recorded an impressive 440,000 international tourist arrivals in May this year, an 11.1-per-cent rise compared with May 2018 and a 26.8-per-cent rise compared with May 2017. This is according to figures released by the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics. The first five months of this year saw 1.89 million tourists enter Israel overall, a rise of 8.3 per cent compared with the 1.75 million arrivals recorded in the first five months of 2018. “The May 2019 tourism statistics continue the consistent upward momentum and record-breaking trend in incoming tourism to Israel,” commented Yariv Levin, Israel’s Minister of Tourism. “As a continuation of the growth trend, we are also developing infrastructures and I am pleased that the National Infrastructure Committee has today approved the cable car project in Jerusalem that will greatly enhance the tourist experience.” The cable car project will enable people to be transported in and out of the Old City by air and seeks to ease congestion.
A new survey from Allianz has revealed that the popularity of sharing economy services in the US is down this year compared to 2017, particularly with millennials, and that baby boomers are now the new drivers of the movement Sharing economy services involve renting out something that you’re not using for a stranger to use – everything from bicycles to cars to homes are put on the table – a trend that was incredibly popular in 2017 but is not so readily adopted in 2019. It seems that gen xers are driving the largest downward trend in usage, with only 41 per cent saying they will use sharing economy services this summer – down from 60 per cent two years ago – while 63 per cent of millennials are planning to use such services this summer (down from 77 per cent from two years ago). In a notable turn of events, however, baby boomers are now increasingly likely to use these services (24 per cent), climbing up from 19 per cent two years ago. Furthermore, Allianz comments: “Despite demographic shifts, the market still remains strong for its core customers. Travellers who are younger
May 2019 alone saw tourism bring 2.1 billion shekel (around US$6 million) of revenue to Israel, while the period January to May saw total revenues of 9.7 billion shekel from visitors. Looking at the breakdown of how visitors came to Israel last month, 383,200 tourists came by air (11.3-per-cent more than
The May 2019 tourism statistics continue the consistent upward momentum and record-breaking trend in incoming tourism to Israel in May last year) and 56,600 came via land crossings (9.7-per-cent more than May last year), while 25,800 came as day visitors, compared with 25,000 who came as day visitors in 2018. Israel seems to be a consistently popular tourist destination, with the country enjoying a healthy 2018, and so far, the data suggests that 2019 will continue to build on this.
(i.e. millennials), male and higher income earners (above $50,000) are significantly more likely than their counterparts to
The simultaneous drops in trust and usage highlight the main challenge that players providing sharing economy services will need to address use sharing economy services.” Allianz cites the reason for this downward market shift as being due to an overall decline in levels of trust: millennials’ trust in sharing economy services has dropped 12 per cent from two years prior (now at 71 per cent) and only 55 per cent of gen xers have trust in the service (down 14 per cent from two years ago), while baby boomers’ trust has only fallen three per cent in the last two years – down to 44 per cent. More recently, established travel and hospitality companies have been entering the sharing economy market – promising higher quality, more consistent experiences by providing new or differentiated products. Allianz notes that Marriott has recently announced a six-month trial with Hostmaker,
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a London-based homestay property management company. Other major hotel brand names like Hilton, Hyatt and Wyndham are also considering investments in similar home-sharing businesses. Daniel Durazo, Director of Marketing & Communications at Allianz Global Assistance, said: “When we created this index five years ago, we knew that trust would be crucial to the health of the sharing economy. The simultaneous drops in trust and usage highlight the main challenge that players providing sharing economy services will need to address.”
TRAVEL MATTERS
The rise of the micro-cation It seems that, across the US at least, younger generations are increasingly likely to take a trip lasting no longer than four nights (also known as a ‘microcation’) – an interesting trend that Allianz Global Assistance shed light upon in its 2019 Vacation Confidence Index. The study of various generations revealed that a whopping 72 per cent of millennials took at least one micro-cation in the last year, and that only 17 per cent of the same group took a trip longer than seven days in the same time period. Additionally, the study found that 69 per cent of gen x-ers took at least one micro-cation last year, while the ground was more level for baby boomers, with 40 per cent saying they avoided trips shorter than five nights. Nonetheless, that still leaves 60 per cent of baby boomers who took at least one micro-cation last year, and, though a slight increase compared to the number of millennials, still only 21 per cent and 22 per cent of gen x-ers and Baby Boomers respectively took a trip lasting longer than seven days. So, what do these figures tell us? Allianz noted that one-quarter of millennials say money is a primary reason to take shorter trips, which supports other findings that those with a higher income are more likely to vacation longer. Indeed, more than half (51 per cent) of people
making US$50,000 or more annually took trips longer than five nights in the last year, compared to 29 per cent of those who make less than $50,000. Allianz also revealed that 32 per cent of Americans asked said that working life was the prime cause for shorter getaways – it being easier to take time off for shorter trips. And this train of thought was most important to gen x-ers, 40 per cent of whom would rather take less time off work. Thirty-seven per cent of millennials followed behind, while only a minority 20 per cent of baby boomers found this to be a deciding factor when planning trips. In addition to this, 32 per cent of Americans noted that any more than five nights away was excessive for a trip – millennials and baby boomers (34 per cent and 38 per cent respectively) often took trips to attend special events or family
The rise of micro-cations may also lead to increased interest in visiting vibrant domestic locales over exotic, farflung destinations occasions, where they feel that anything longer than five days is unnecessary. Furthermore, in general, 26 per cent of Americans argued that they’d simply
Hurricane season advice issued Storms are certainly something that holidaymakers and businesses should be concerned about when planning trips for leisure or work, but there is no excuse for being unprepared – International SOS has issued some up-to-date advice for US hurricane season, in addition to that recently given by the US Travel Insurance Association. Following the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s predictions that four to eight of the nine to 15 named storms that we can expect in 2019’s hurricane season are likely to become hurricanes with winds of 74 mph or higher – and two to four are looking likely to be between category three to five hurricanes (as destructive as last year’s Hurricane Florence in the Carolinas and Hurricane Michael in Florida) – International SOS has issued some helpful best practice tips to encourage preparedness for businesses and travellers alike: • Identify and assign risk ratings to locations and facilities based on the probabilities of hurricane impact using historical geographic data. • Provide all tools necessary that impact personnel in the workplace, helping to support business continuity. • Be prepared to suspend travel to and operations at at-risk locations for periods of a week or more. • Establish appropriate thresholds for restricting travel and put a clear structure in place to communicate these measures throughout the organisation, both locally and more broadly. • Account for access disruption, to include enabling employees to have the capability and equipment to work remotely / from home. • Develop pre-scripted messages and test means of mass notification to ensure functionality of messaging
rather take more frequent shorter trips. You can’t argue with that. Other factors cited were not wanting to spend money on longer trips and it being easier to find a travel companion for a shorter trip. Though there is some contrast between the holiday preferences of the younger generations compared to that of the older, there still appears to be a general overall shift towards taking shorter trips. “The days of the ubiquitous week-long summer vacation may be disappearing,
but we’re happy to see that Americans, especially millennials, are eager to travel more frequently,” said Daniel Durazo, Director of Marketing & Communications at Allianz Global Assistance. “The rise of micro-cations may also lead to increased interest in visiting vibrant domestic locales over exotic, far-flung destinations,” he added. “Whether travelling for two nights or two weeks, travel insurance can protect you, your luggage and your vacation investment.”
Lufthansa invests in medical assistance German airline Lufthansa has become the first airline in the world to equip all of its long-haul aircraft with CardioSecur, a mobile electrocardiogram (ECG) system. Should an emergency take place on board one of its aircraft, flight attendants who may not have extensive medical expertise will be able to record an ECG for the passenger in question and transmit the results to parties on the ground. “The health of our passengers is very close to our hearts,” said Dr Sven-Karsten Peters, a cardiologist with Lufthansa Medical Service, “especially when they are feeling unwell on board, they should know that they are in good hands. The results of the resting ECG conducted directly onboard the aircraft provide a better basis for deciding whether it is necessary to divert a plane in order to provide medical care on the ground in case of medical emergencies.” According to Lufthansa, cardiovascular complaints are the most common medical incident to occur on board a flight, so equipping all aircraft with an ECG is a sensible step. Additionally, Lufthansa currently operates a
prior to an emergency. • Consider a table-top exercise of your organisation’s incident management or business continuity plan to assess preparedness and identify areas for improvement. • Ensure reliable information sources are available to travellers and staff to stay apprised as storm paths and severity. International SOS has also created a pre-scripted playbook and plan aimed at organisations looking to protect their workforce during hurricane season. In addition, country risk ratings, which take into account impacts from natural disasters, can be viewed via its Travel Risk Map. “Over the last several years we have experienced brutal hurricanes that caused a lot of devastation in multiple areas,” said Matthew Bradley, Regional Security Director of International SOS and Control Risks. “The frequency and severity of such hurricanes not only have a tragic cost to human life, but businesses in affected areas have suffered too. As hurricane season approaches, it is important to implement safe practices that prepare businesses and travellers for extreme weather conditions, and education is the best way to do this.”
‘Doctor On Board’ programme – also used by Austrian Airlines and SWISS – which enables cabin crew to quickly identify any doctor who may be on a flight in the event of a medical emergency, ascertain their specialities and, if necessary, enlist their help. Building on this, the airline is now offering a medical travel assistance service, the first European airline to do so; passengers will have the opportunity to book a nurse, doctor or paramedic to care for them throughout their flight, depending on their specific medical needs. While the vast majority of flights go without a hitch, emergencies do happen, and thousands of feet in the air with – if you’re lucky – very few medically trained personnel available is not an ideal location for one to take place. Anxious passengers will no doubt be reassured to know that their airline is taking extra pre-emptive steps to deal with such emergencies, and it will be interesting to see if other airlines move to follow Lufthansa’s example. After all, customers are becoming choosier about their service providers, and level of medical care could potentially grow to be a deciding factor in whether a passenger opts for Airline A or Airline B.
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HEALTH MATTERS
WHO DRC Ebola update In a recent virtual press conference, World Health Organization (WHO) experts connected to discuss the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, providing an update on the current situation Dr Mike Ryan, WHO Executive Director for Health Emergencies, explained that since the last meeting, the number of cases has surpassed 2,000; with a total of 2,025 cases, including 1,357 deaths and 552 survivors. He said that although numbers appear to have stabilised and even fallen in the past two weeks, there is still substantial transmission in a number of health zones, including Butembo and Mabalako. Yet, there has been a significant decrease in Katwa, which was the epicenter of the outbreak around six weeks ago. “So, on the one hand, we see improvements or decreases in transmission, and on the other hand, we see areas in which we have seen sustained transmission,” he stated. He said that surveillance has intensified, with around 15,000 people being tracked every day (reduced from 20,000 one week prior), which he highlighted represents ‘a huge logistics and security challenge’. Dr Ryan also underlined the complexity of transmission dynamics: “One-fifth of cases seek healthcare in another health zone entirely before they’re
detected, which means one-fifth of cases are moving not only out of a health area, but moving out of an entire health zone, and are very often presenting for the first time in a health facility that’s very far away from where they actually live, so it’s quite difficult to make the connections between transmission chains when you have that sort of movement.” On a positive note, Dr Ryan conceded that although there is a need to be ‘exceptionally cautious’, it is also important to have hope that the measures that have been put in place over the past six weeks and before are beginning to bear fruit. “We need to work very, very hard over the coming weeks to ensure that any gains we are making are sustained and we need to be very aware that this virus will exploit any opportunity that it gets to increase transmission.” Ebola spreads to Uganda Shortly after the press conference took place, it was reported that the outbreak had spread to Uganda, where a five-yearold child tested positive for the disease. Sadly the child succumbed to the infection, and at the time of writing, there has been one further death reported in Uganda. Ugandan Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng tweeted about the country’s response: “Uganda has been in preparedness mode ever since the Ebola outbreak was declared
in DRC. Now, we move into response mode. Please co-operate with our health, immigration and security officials to ensure effective screening to prevent spread of Ebola to other parts of the country.”
Although there is a need to be ‘exceptionally cautious’, it is also important to have hope that the measures that have been put in place over the past six weeks and before are beginning to bear fruit Dr Aceng said that the boy was isolated with family members at a hospital in a western district near to the Congo border. It is believed that he travelled across the border with his family from DRC and was taken to hospital after exhibiting symptoms consistent with Ebola infection.
Tool to reduce antimicrobial resistance The World Health Organization has launched a global campaign to urge governments to adopt a tool to reduce the spread of antimicrobial resistance. The tool is called AWaRe and was developed by the WHO Essential Medicines List. It categorises antibiotics into three groups ─ access, watch and reserve ─ and specifies the antibiotics that should be used for the most common and serious infections, those that should be available at all times in the healthcare system, and those that should be used sparingly or as a last resort. “Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most urgent health risks of our time and threatens to undo a century of medical progress,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “All countries must
Avoiding bug bites The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has highlighted the importance of avoiding bug bites for travellers, as insects the likes of mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, and some flies, can spread diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, Zika, dengue, chikungunya, and Lyme. All of these diseases can lead to severe and lasting consequences – and it’s true what that say, prevention is better than cure. To reduce the risk of being bitten, travellers can use EPA-registered insect repellants and cover their skin by wearing long-sleeved tops and trousers. Dengue and Zika are both spread to people through the bite of an infected mosquito, and as there is no vaccine or treatment for these diseases, it is important that they are prevented. Malaria is also spread by mosquitos and is particularly dangerous for pregnant women as the parasites can be transmitted to the unborn child. The CDC advises all travellers to check their destination before travelling so that they are aware of the health risks and can find out about vaccines, medicines and advice that can help them to prevent bug-bite diseases.
GM fungus kills malaria mosquitoes
strike a balance between ensuring access to life-saving antibiotics and slowing drug resistance by reserving the use of some antibiotics for the hardest-to-treat infections.
Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most urgent health risks of our time and threatens to undo a century of medical progress I urge countries to adopt AWaRe, which is a valuable and practical tool for doing just that.” The idea is that AWaRe makes it easier for policymakers, prescribers and health workers to select the right antibiotic at the right time and protect endangered antibiotics.
Reports of a breakthrough genetically modified (GM) fungus that kills 99 per cent of malaria mosquitoes are coming in thick and fast Researchers at the University of Maryland in the US and IRSS research institute in Burkina Faso, west Africa, identified a fungus that naturally infects the Anopheles mosquitoes that spread malaria. The fungus, known as Metarhizium pingshaense, cannot stop malaria on its own, but thanks to some clever genetic engineering, researchers were able to enhance it with a toxin found in the venom of a species of funnel-web spider in Australia – and it was the combination of these that were eventually found to kill the mosquito. “A spider uses its fangs to pierce the skin of insects and inject toxins, we replaced the fangs of spider with Metarhizium,” Professor Raymond St Leger of the University of Maryland explained. Knowing that malaria kills more than 400,000 people a year and that Africa is one of the continents worst affected by this terrible disease, trials of the fungus were carried out in a simulated village in Burkina Faso, one that replicated the normal conditions that mosquitoes would thrive in, complete with plants, huts and water and food sources for the mosquitoes. The difference, however, was that the replica village was surrounded by a double-layer mosquito net to prevent any unwanted specimens from breaking free. The results of the trial were astronomical – when left alone, mosquito numbers soared, but when infected with the spider-toxin fungus, around 99 per cent of the mosquitoes perished. Out of the 1,500 mosquitoes, only 13 were left after 45 days. “The transgenic fungus quickly collapsed the mosquito population in just two generations,” said Dr
Brian Lovett, from the University of Maryland. Another important finding that the experiment highlighted was that the fungus did not affect any other insects such as bees, which is doubly important in implementing insecticide methods such as this. Lovett added that the technology is not aiming to drive the extinction of mosquitoes: “What we’re aiming to do is break malaria transmission in an area.” The importance of innovation and thinking outside of the well-worn box for finding a solution to malaria epidemics
When left alone, mosquito numbers soared, but when infected with the spidertoxin fungus, around 99 per cent of the mosquitoes perished cannot be overlooked. With the World Health Organization stressing that cases in the 10 worst affected countries in Africa are increasing, it’s paramount that pioneering research in this area continues. ITIJ commends the diligent work of the teams at University of Maryland and IRSS research institute in Burkina Faso.
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ITIC REVIEW
HONG KONG 17-19 June 2019 | Kowloon Shangri-La
REVIEW
This year’s ITIC APAC event brought together representatives from all over the APAC region and beyond to talk about business challenges and opportunities, to network, and to learn more about exciting industry developments in the local travel and health insurance sphere. A packed agenda featuring engaging speakers and informative presentations, together with plenty of opportunity for social and business networking, made for an inspiring conference. Here’s ITIJ’s full review
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ITIC REVIEW WELCOME RECEPTION Sponsored by
Attendees to ITIC APAC 2019 were welcomed in style at the Ritz-Carlton’s OZONE sky bar, the bestknown roof-top bar in Hong Kong and the second highest bar in the world at 484 metres above ground level. Sponsored by nib, the Welcome Reception provided the perfect environment to take in the panoramic views of the city while getting to know fellow attendees over cocktails and canapés.
ON THE AGENDA … DAY 1 ITIC APAC Hong Kong opened with a panel session looking at medical costs and inflation in the Asian region. First to speak was Thalia Georgiou, Managing Partner, Healthcare Advisory, Asia Care Group in Hong Kong, who said that there are clear challenges to healthcare in the region. She pointed out that although Southeast Asia’s health markets are dynamic and exciting, great caution must be exercised when investing. She added that there was a significant need for affordable care options with prevention and disease management at their core. Thalia said that due diligence is imperative for investors as assets often do not perform as expected. She also cautioned that corruption and fraud could easily account for 10-to 30-per-cent profit loss.
Although Southeast Asia’s health markets are dynamic and exciting, great caution must be exercised when investing
Next, Lynne Fung, Executive Director, Business Development at Matilda International Hospital in Hong Kong, stressed the importance of building trusted relationships as insurance payments were responsible for around 80 per cent of cases, with more than 50 per cent being direct billing. She said that trust begins before a patient arrives at a hospital and is built through engagement and measured in ethics, integrity and commitment. Lynne then went on to present details of a complicated
case in which the hospital was repeatedly asked for discounts, including a request at the end of the patient’s treatment for 35 per cent off. She said that there was a need for transparency in pricing from the start and where there was a trusted system in place, trying to negotiate price reduction at the end could only damage the relationship.
Trust begins before a patient arrives at a hospital and is built through engagement and measured in ethics, integrity and commitment Dr Zubin Daruwalla, Health Industries Leader with PwC South East Asia Consulting in Singapore focused on his country’s healthcare system, saying that
medical expenses, surgical costs, critical illness treatments, disability and longterm care in the island state are covered by multiple layers of protection through four publicly funded healthcare insurance schemes, and complemented by private health insurance. He added that the public sector dominates acute care, while private sector providers focus on primary and specialist care. Dr Daruwalla said that, by 2020, healthcare expenditure in Singapore is expected to increase to even more than 2018’s budget of SG$10.2 billion due to its ageing population. He noted that the government has said that rising healthcare costs was not sustainable, meaning that the population must try and remain healthy. He quoted Singapore’s Health Minister, Gan Kim Yong, who said that a paradigm
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SPEAKERS Thalia Georgiou
Lynne Fung Executive Director, Business Development
Managing Partner, Healthcare Advisory
Matilda International Hospital
Asia Care Group 29
Dr Zubin Daruwalla Health Industries Leader PwC South East Asia Consulting
ITIC REVIEW SPEAKERS Lily Chen
Tan ChienWei
Ben Loh
Managing Director
Chief Digital & Marketing Officer
Essential Benefit Solutions Company Ltd
Amy Villalobos Head of International Benefits Management
Director
Tune Protect Group
Ulink Assist
Myra Yu
Laurent PochatCottilloux
Vice-President
nib Health Funds
shift approach to ageing and health was needed ‘to move beyond the hospital to the community, to move beyond quality to value, and to move beyond healthcare to health’.
The public sector dominates acute care while private sector providers focus on primary and specialist care The second session of the day focused on some of the market challenges prevalent in the APAC region, and how these can be turned into market opportunities. Ben Loh, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer at Tune Protect Group in Malaysia, was up first with an engaging presentation about the way his company has digitised its insurance offering and is adapting to consumer demands for instant cover and a ‘friendly’ claims environment by working with eWallets and geo-apps. At the same time, the company is working with other providers, such as Air Asia, and monitoring data available from them to increase its reach further, using social media and dynamic websites powered by AI and machine learning to encourage purchasing. Amy Villalobos, Head of International Benefits Management for nib Health Funds in Australia, followed with insights on the wider APAC market and insurers’ shift from ‘sick care’ to ‘health care’, where wearables and fitness programmes are giving customers greater value and providing an investment in their future. There is no ‘Asian market’, though, said Amy, just individual markets with individual needs. In China, for example, there has been a shift from group to individual travel, and customers are looking for ease of payment and ease of claim. They also want to able to operate within existing apps, such as WeChat. The key challenge is understanding individual consumers.
Wearables and fitness programmes are giving customers greater value and providing an investment in their future Rounding off this session, Tan Chien-Wei, Director of Ulink Assist in Myanmar, took an
Global Head – Health Reinsurance Partnerships
Teladoc Health International & CEO APAC
enlightening look at the nascent healthcare landscape in Myanmar and emphasised the importance of Chinese travellers in the region. Thailand, he said, has overtaken France as the most visited country in the world due to Chinese travellers. Brokers for Chinese tour groups are how most policies in the region will be sold in the coming years.
AXA Global Healthcare
employees around access to mental health services through virtual platforms.
On-demand telemedicine is giving patients a better experience through the convenience, cost-saving and security it offers
David Thomas Boucher Chief Business Transformation Officer Bumrungrad International Hospital
Dr Winston Jong Group Medical Director EMA Global
and the need to have a comprehensive equipment list to enter the country.
It is often almost impossible to speak to a treating doctor Lily Chen, Managing Director of
Brokers for Chinese tour groups are how most policies in the region will be sold in the coming years
Next on the agenda on Day One of ITIC APAC was a session on telemedicine for expats, with a focus on mental health support. David Thomas Boucher, Chief Business Transformation Officer for Bumrungrad International Hospital in Thailand, Myra Yu, Vice-President of Teladoc Health International & CEO APAC in China, and Laurent Pochat-Cottilloux, Global Head – Health Reinsurance Partnerships for AXA Global Healthcare in Singapore, shared their unique personal experiences of providing telehealth services in Asia, explained why the local market has seen impressive growth in telemedicine use in recent years, and gave insights into why access to care in this way is set to keep growing.
The local market has seen impressive growth in telemedicine use in recent years
Concluding day one was an insightful session on operating air ambulances within China and a look at the country’s evolving risk pool when it comes to health insurance. Dr Winston Jong, Group Medical Director of EMA Global in Singapore, took to the podium first to explain some of the issues faced by air ambulance crews attempting to repatriate patients out of China. Citing a particular patient case, he said it is often almost impossible to speak to a treating doctor, so in this instance the company was able to get the patient’s family to take photos of medications and monitor screens to get an idea of the patient’s health status. A photo of the treating doctor’s badge allowed them to call and ask to speak directly to that doctor, which eventually resulted in them receiving the medical statement – with the essential ‘red stamp’ – that is needed in order to obtain a landing permit to enter China. Other issues Dr Jong highlighted were understanding medical forms due to language barriers and medical jargon, the expense associated with landing in China, airport delays and having sufficient oxygen, sometimes not being allowed to remove oxygen tanks from aircraft, incompatible tank regulators,
Essential Benefit Solutions Company Ltd in China, gave an interesting perspective on the health insurance landscape in China, explaining that the health status of employees in the country is getting worse, as they are ageing – the average age is now 35. Pollution is also very bad in the country, and together with long working days and weeks exacerbating health problems, plus the fact that a drop in the economy thanks to the trade war with the US has seen expats moving out of China, insurers are witnessing a shifting risk pool that includes a growing number of Chinese and fewer expatriates. The good news is that Chinese people are increasingly seeking out mid-and high-end medical insurance coverage, said Lily, and they are willing to pay more for this coverage for themselves and family members.
A drop in the economy thanks to the trade war with the US has seen expats moving out of China
Myra told attendees that we’re going to see much more telehealth over the next five years. In Asia, a shortage of doctors, often short consultation lengths, and a significant proportion of incorrect diagnoses in the healthcare sector, together with a growing online commercial landscape, are fueling the growth of telemedicine. With telehealth giving better access to primary care in areas where it’s much needed, David explained how on-demand telemedicine is giving patients a better experience through the convenience, cost-saving and security it offers. Providersponsored telemedicine is the most effective, he said. Laurent rounded off the session with a couple of case studies that highlighted the importance of increasing awareness among expatriate
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ITIC REVIEW ON THE AGENDA … DAY 2 Tony Ridley, CEO of Intelligent Travel in Australia, provided a presentation on ‘the travel revolution’ to kick off Day 2 of ITIC APAC. Over the last five years, said Tony, technology has played a major part in altering the risks and threats prevalent in the leisure and business travel booking landscape. The global penetration of mobile useage and social media, the use of digital wallets and cashless transactions, geolocation, as well as the proliferation of chatbots and voice activation via AI and machine learning, are all bringing hyperpersonalisation to the travel booking experience and have changed the way we plan and book travel. At the same time, the language of business has changed, with mobile technology allowing virtual offices to operate anywhere at any time. Aligning the old with the new is a major focus for corporates and the travel industry, while they are also having to tackle growing threats such as cybercrime. What they need to make sure they’re doing is understanding the wider risks inherent in today’s digitised travel sphere, and asking ‘what are the risks?’ and ‘how do I manage them?’
Technology has played a major part in altering the risks and threats prevalent in the leisure and business travel booking landscape
and led to a significant proportion of cases being directed to preferred helicopter and medical providers. By establishing tighter communication, case management and early engagement with involved parties in such cases, AIG Travel has achieved higher case visibility and cost control and lowered its exposure and susceptibility to coverage abuse and fraud. Besides such vital human engagement, technology and big data are making important inroads in the fight against fraud. Maxime showed how, in the age where customer experience is king, automation is
Building in fraud detection to the digital claims process is vital
The company’s actions to revise policies and coverage over the period and develop standard operating procedures for evacuations had led to a significant decrease in backend claims
Following straight on from this session, attendees got to hear about the latest fraud detection and prevention practices from Dr Sunil Shanmuganathan, Head of Claims and Providers Network, Asia Pacific for AIG Travel in Malaysia and Maxime Paul, Lead Data Scientist for Shift Technology in Singapore. Dr Shanmuganathan shared interesting data from his company about helicopter evacuation cases, hospital admissions and associated costs in Nepal from 2013 to 2018. It showed how the company’s actions to revise policies and coverage over the period and develop standard operating procedures for evacuations had led to a significant decrease in backend claims in the last few years, helped save on average 22 per cent on helicopter evacuation costs,
proliferating the claims process in order to provide customers with swift and accurate responses to their queries and to settle claims in minutes rather than days. But building in fraud detection to the digital claims process is vital. The accumulation of big data combined with AI allows technology to cross-reference insurers’ data and sort claims according to their fraud risk almost instantaneously, helping to detect fraudulent claims and even networks of fraudsters. Fraud detection has always been an important part of claims management, said Maxime; but with the inevitable arrival of claims automation, it will become critical.
Next up for discussion was what insurers expect from their service providers and how these expectations can be met. Alexandre Besson, Managing Director of Feti’a Assistance in Myanmar summarised an insurer’s objectives as maximising the collection of premiums and minimising the payment of claims. He added that an assistance company’s objectives were maximising the collection of memberships and minimising the payment to external providers. Likewise, a medical provider’s objectives were maximising the revenues generated by increasing the number of patients and/or the invoicing value, while a transportation provider’s objectives were maximising the revenues generated by increasing transportation and/or the invoicing value. Common to all, however, is an aim to offer the best possible service and keep patients safe. He said this can be done by constant communication, providing real empathy to put patients in a positive emotional state, and providing value-added services.
Common to all … is an aim to offer the best possible service and keep patients safe
Lisa Fryar, Managing Human Resources – Medical Benefits, Emirates Airlines in the UAE, said that those in the insurance and assistance industry all have similar expectations from airlines: an upgrade, a discounted airfare, the most direct route, and a quick MEDIF turnaround. For many travellers, she said there was an expectation for insurance and assistance companies to arrange this and when it didn’t happen, they expect the airline to foot the bill. Lisa said that the traveller wants an upgrade, the insurance company wants a cheap deal, and the assistance company wants the fastest, most direct route. She also added that travellers who take out travel insurance don’t care about complex relationships between the insurance company, the underwriter, the assistance company, and the hospital. Summarising, she said the insured just wants to get assistance when they need it, the medical facility just wants to get paid, the family and travel companions just want their loved one looked after, and the airline just wants the least risk possible when transporting the patient.
The airline just wants the least risk possible when transporting the patient Katy Youngman, APAC Regional Medical Provider Manager, Allianz Partners in Australia, said that positive outcomes were driven by ease of access to providers via a single point of contact that streamlines communications, and through international patient departments in hospitals. She also said that market insights can be gained through provider newsletters detailing new regulations or changes in the law. Stressing two-way communication, Katy said it was essential to understand timeframes and how they can have clinical and financial implications. She also said it was important to obtain medical reports to make quick cover and patient movement decisions. Before the conference’s closing Provider Network Forum, attendees heard from Petar Denoble, Vice-President, Mission at Divers Alert Network (DAN), a non-
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SPEAKERS Dr Sunil Shanmuganathan
Alexandre Besson
Tony Ridley CEO
Head of Claims and Providers Network, Asia Pacific
Managing Director
Intelligent Travel
Feti'a Assistance
Maxime Paul Lead Data Scientist Shift Technology
AIG Travel
Katy Youngman
Lisa Fryar Managing Human Resources – Medical Benefits
Petar Denoble Vice-President, Mission Divers Alert Network (DAN)
APAC Regional Medical Provider Manager Allianz Partners
Emirates Airlines
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ITIC REVIEW Market insights can be gained through provider newsletters detailing new regulations or changes in the law
profit membership-based association that maintains a database of hyperbaric chambers around the world, including their opening times, whether they are currently closed for maintenance, and the capabilities of each facility. Thus, they are able to match patients to facilities and, through establishing relationships
with nearby medical facilities, assist with evacuations and repatriations. Around eight per cent of DAN members need repatriating, and most of these are between the ages of 50 and 70. Most such evacuations are from the Caribbean, then Southeast Asia, then Mexico. Diver preparation is key, emphasised Petar, to mitigating their risks, and DAN also helps with such pre-trip advice.
Around eight per cent of DAN members need repatriating, and most of these are between the ages of 50 and 70
NETWORKING AT ITIC APAC From conference breakouts for refreshments and lunch, to organised social events throughout ITIC APAC, there was never a shortage of opportunities to network at this event. Besides the glamorous Welcome Reception, delicious Farewell Dinner and Running Club, ITIC attendees took full advantage of the Networking Area to meet exhibitors from a range of industry sectors and countries and to meet fellow attendees in order to catch up on business and forge new partnerships. Wine with
lunch, courtesy of CEGA, on the first day of the conference was extremely popular and brought a real buzz to the Networking Area, where meetings took place in a dedicated meetings space. Networking didn’t stop in the hotel, though, with the ITIC APAC App, sponsored by Matilda International Hospital, allowing attendees to bookmark networking events and send meeting requests to key people they needed to meet. It was a great tool to keep track of all the opportunities for mingling and learning at ITIC APAC 2019.
For those able and willing, the popular ITIC Running Club made its first appearance at ITIC APAC this year thanks to sponsor EMA Global. Bringing together wellness and business, the Running Club had an impressive turnout, with participants enjoying a leisurely three-kilometre run along Hong Kong harbour in the early morning. We hope their efforts inspire you to make sure you’re trained and ready to run with the ITIC Running Club at ITIC Global in Malta later this year! See you there!
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FEATURE NETWORKING AT ITIC APAC
We expect the unexpected Charles Taylor Assistance is one of the leading providers of global end-to-end medical and security assistance, risk and claims management services. From high frequency leisure travel, complex corporate destinations to high risk marine challenges.
Delivering joined up solutions to Brokers, Insurers, Corporates and Governments.
Please contact Ian Latham T: +44 1243 621 007 M: +44 7957 832 450 E: ian.latham@cegagroup.com W: cegagroup.com
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ITIC REVIEW FAREWELL DINNER
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The Farewell Dinner at ITIC events is always a thoroughly pleasurable evening and this year’s APAC send-off was no exception. A champagne reception, courtesy of New Frontier Group, together with stunning views of the Hong Kong skyline and a gourmet four-course dinner, made for a fun-filled evening where attendees could enjoy the company of business peers and partners old and new. See you all next year in Singapore!
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FEATURE
De-risking travel
insurance renewals When it comes to renewal time, there is a range of issues that insurers and brokers work hard to iron out in order to make the process easy for customers and keep them covered. Anthony Harrington investigates
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ravel insurance renewals were problematic enough before the whole issue got tangled up with the much higher profile debate about the insurance industry’s tendency to favour new customers over existing customers. It seems the world – and the regulators – have finally grasped that all those hefty discounts to attract new business in motor and home insurance, automatically exclude, and are therefore prejudiced against, existing customers. This can become quite invidious when a large insurance provider relies on inertia to keep the existing customer base where it is, while ‘buying’ new business with tasty discounts that are not available to existing customers renewing their policies. Two people being offered exactly the same product by the same provider, at prices that favour the one over the other, tend to exercise regulators. The same kinds of argument could be stretched to apply to travel insurance renewals. However, since the ‘subject’ of the policy being renewed is a person, we are instantly in a far more complicated world. Objects like property or motor vehicles can break or be stolen, but they don’t get sick or fall down the stairs, creating huge medical bills in the process. By their very nature, travel insurance renewals involve issues around the state of the traveller’s health – are things still the same, or have they in fact changed? By ‘changed’, we generally mean changed to the point where a reasonable person might conclude that the person’s health has materially worsened, by comparison to their state of health under the former policy. If their health has worsened, or they have been diagnosed with a serious condition, or even a not-so-serious condition, which could be adversely impacted while they were travelling, then the insurer is carrying more risk and will want to re-price the policy accordingly. This is not a trivial matter. If the traveller was diagnosed as suffering from asthma, for example, then catching flu or a bad
cold abroad could land them in hospital with breathing difficulties. The resulting bills, particularly in the US, could run to six or seven figures and the insurer would be on the hook for the lot. Customer expectations It is no surprise, therefore, that one of the main causes of disputes and interventions by many ombudsmen in travel insurance premium renewal cases involves the tricky question of whether the consumer filled in the renewal application correctly and honestly. Nel Mooy, Head of Travel at AXA Insurance in the UK, points out that one reason why customers might get a shock when they come to renew an annual travel insurance policy with some providers, is simply that being a year older has caused them to cross a critical age band. Risk evaluation tends to be age-related as claims statistics show a pretty clear correlation between age and risk and a number of providers have age bands with significant price increases as one moves up the age band levels. However, Mooy points out that one of the
For insurers, the work to retain customers, ensure they are covered for their changing needs, and meeting their expectations around coverge issues continues apace great advantages of AXA’s travel insurance policies is that they are not age banded. Similarly, AXA also ducks the current existing user versus new user controversy by ensuring that it does not differentiate between customers, new or old, at renewal time. “So, for us, those two big problems are simply not there,” Mooy told ITIJ. The problem about changed circumstances, of course, remains. “It is very straightforward. If your circumstances change, the price of your insurance premium changes accordingly. So it is
really important to get all the information required for the policy renewal in good shape, in good time,” she said. Mooy says it is absolutely up to AXA to ensure that customers understand what the basis of the renewal is. That principle holds good across all the company’s insurance offerings. However, with insurance products based on an individual, the person’s health becomes a primary topic. As Mooy puts it, that involves a different kind of conversation to that which would take place between the consumer
gives it a different feel to other kinds of insurance protection policies, but it is not fundamentally different,” commented Mooy. “If you extend your house with multiple additional bedrooms, that changes the nature of your household and buildings insurance. If you modify your car to substantially increase its power and speed, with a view to racing it, that changes the motor insurance policy. So, it is only to be expected that if your health changes, the policy premium will be impacted.” If the consumer blatantly
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one of the main causes of disputes and interventions by many ombudsmen in travel insurance premium renewal cases involves the tricky question of whether the consumer filled in the renewal application correctly and honestly and the provider for a household policy. “We understand that conversations about health are extremely personal. That
ignores this fact, then problems will most certainly arise if they make a claim. Mooy points out that AXA’s approach to single-trip travel insurance policies is very generous, in that if the individual’s health changes after they have bought the policy, the policy coverage still stands, with no additional costs being involved. Similarly, if an individual renews their annual travel policy, and answers all the questions honestly and appropriately, then they are covered for the whole year, regardless of whether their health deteriorates through the year. However, when they come to renew their policy the following year, logically, they will be expected to be honest and open about the deterioration and their next annual travel insurance policy will be priced accordingly. “This need not be a complicated matter. We ask the consumer if anything has changed with respect to their health. The health screening that the policy requires is then valid for the next 12 months. We think this is a very strong selling point for us, as quite a few travel insurance providers will expect customers to flag up any health issues before they travel and will impose higher premiums if they feel these are warranted,” said Mooy. AXA’s screening for renewals is based on the customer telephoning into their call centre, at which point a representative will take the customer through the health screening process. “Our people are
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FEATURE trained to do these health assessments very tactfully and thoroughly. We train our team well so that they know to ask probing questions if there are grey areas. We are not in the business of trying to avoid paying claims. We invest heavily in order to ensure that customers are covered and can have peace of mind when they travel abroad,” Mooy told ITIJ. The problem of how to assess the risk in some of the grey areas that abound in health issues takes significant skill on the part of the agent. Take back pain for example. It can range from ‘it hurts a bit’ to ‘I can’t walk anymore’. Mooy says that her team has a range of objective questions to help the agent create an appropriate risk profile for the customer. A helping hand Insurance brokers play a significant role in assisting customers when it comes to policy renewals. Graeme Trudgill, Executive Director at the British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA) points out that brokers operate a diary system that will remind them to notify a customer in advance of the expiry of a multi-trip policy. “They will alert the customer to the need to renew their policy if they are due to travel, and some will remind the customer how much they paid for the policy last year and will flag up for them the need to report any changes in their health,” he said. Some firms also give existing clients a loyalty discount, based on the new premium, he notes. Trudgill further points out that the Association of British Insurers/BIBA Guiding Principles and Action Points on general insurance pricing were published a year ago, back in May 2018. “The aim of the guidelines was to move the industry away from penalising longstanding customers, and we are pleased with the progress made over the year. We recently surveyed our members and there has been a high level of take-up and awareness of these issues,” he told ITIJ. Clearly, everyone in the industry understands that premiums have to reflect risk, but Trudgill points out that it is not often that consumers declare a
new medical condition at renewal time. What might happen, he notes, is that if a consumer has a pre-existing medical condition that has been priced in to the expiring policy, and if that condition has been stable for a long time, the provider might actually lower the new premium. The period of stability may well show up as a reduction in the assumed risk, resulting in an improved price for the individual. “We appreciate the re-screening process is a very personal process with people and must be dealt with sensitively and feedback from Trustpilot and live chat prove this is one of the hardest parts of the renewal process for clients when some feel that the only change in their condition is that they are another year older,” commented Trudgill. “But it is important that a full declaration is made and the correct cover is in place for a further year. Technology is streamlining the renewal process as the ability for customers to do online medical screening is being rolled out more widely, making it more convenient for them.” Importantly, BIBA has a ‘Peace of Mind’ guarantee in its BIBA Holiday Travel Scheme. This provides a fallback position for a consumer if, during the period of insurance, their health deteriorates significantly, to the point that the provider
and if that condition has been stable for a long time, the provider might actually lower the new premium feels they are not in a position to offer renewal terms. The fallback, to quote the Peace of Mind guarantee, is that ‘upon request, we will extend cover for up to six months from the expiry date of the policy to cover you for each journey booked prior to your deterioration of health, subject to you paying the appropriate single premium trip for each journey’. Of course, the guarantee does not specify what the ‘appropriate single premium’ will be, and there is always the chance that it will be too high to be either affordable enough or attractive
enough to the consumer. But at least there is a guarantee that insurance will be offered for the said six-month period. Mind the gap Trudgill points out, too, that the whole issue of multi-trip travel insurance renewals is limited in scope, since, as he puts it, “In my experience, there is a fairly low retention by providers on
Technology is streamlining the renewal process as the ability for customers to do online medical screening is being rolled out more widely annual multi-trip policies because often the insured doesn’t do the same amount of travelling each year.” If your policy ends in June, but you are not going to
travel again till October, the logical thing to do is to buy a fresh multi-trip policy in October. Why would you want to roll-over the old policy when it will cover three months when you are not travelling? C However, as Marie-Louise Sturm, M Account Supervisor at Finn Partners in the US, notes, annual policies are Y very convenient and useful for anyone CM who travels frequently, whether for business or leisure. “Annual policies are a MY popular choice among travellers as they CY conveniently extend travel protection for CMY a year’s worth of trips, providing greater K peace of mind,” she notes. In fact, Finn Partners has seen sales of annual travel insurance policies increase significantly, which the firm puts down to increased consumer awareness of this option. Sturm points out that engaging customers outside of travel insurance is a great way to build a relationship with the customer, and that goes a long way towards helping with customer retention. That’s why the company offers its TravelSmart mobile app to consumers, which allows users to review their policy in the app, as well as file and track claims, amongst other benefits. “We do not have auto-renewal of travel policies in the US, so we encourage customers to closely track the expiration date of their annual policy so that they are not without coverage,” said Sturm. Naturally, this potential for travellers to be unaware they are travelling without cover is one of the key reasons that automatic policy renewal is more popular – though bound by national laws – in some other countries. An annual policy will always look more attractive to someone who does multiple trips, since buying insurance on a tripby-trip basis both imposes a continuing chore and can end up being considerably more expensive. People will have differing views on how many trips in a year make an annual policy better than a trip-by-trip approach, but simple math will generally solve the problem. For insurers, the work to retain customers, ensure they are covered for their changing needs, and meet their expectations around coverge issues continues apace. ■
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commercialmedicalescorts.com
info@commercialmedicalescorts.com +1(561)451-8063
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PROFILE outcomes at point of claim is usually as a result of differences in claims approach or the ways in which some of the covers and exclusions work, which is much more subtle than home or motor, for instance. This opacity means that while many customers may know they need it, they may not necessarily know why or how important it is to select wisely and understand what is and is not covered. Travel also contains the biggest moment of truth you can face as a customer – being ill abroad, potentially with language barriers. Unfortunately, there are too many instances, some of which we read about weekly in the media, where insurers have let their customers down. What technological advancements would you say have particularly revolutionised the underwriting space? Medical screening, especially online, has made a big difference to the underwriting of risks, meaning more customers are able to get appropriate cover than ever before. This does still rely on them to read and understand the health questions they are asked, though, and answer truthfully. Additionally, the growth of price comparison websites has enabled customers to access a wider market more easily, although this does come with the challenge that customers should not necessarily just pick the cheapest product – there is no point paying for insurance if it won’t pay you back when you need it most.
Finger on the pulse ITIJ caught up with David Allen, Underwriting Strategy Manager at Direct Line in the UK, to talk underwriting, tech, personalisation and more How did you first get started in the insurance industry, and how did you come to be in your current role? I started in insurance in 1987 with Commercial Union (CU). As with many people in the industry, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do when I finished education, but I knew people at Eagle Star, General Accident and Norwich Union and they all seemed to be doing well so I wrote nine letters (no CV) and got four job offers – CU paid the most so I chose them! I had a variety of roles at CU and through its metamorphoses – CGU, Norwich Union and Aviva – including commercial lines underwriting, broker account management, marketing and personal lines product development, and finished there in 2009 when Aviva withdrew from the site at which I worked. After a period out, in 2010 I had the opportunity to join what was then RBS Insurance, now Direct Line Group (DLG) to underwrite travel. I had had a broad experience at Aviva, but travel was new to me.
Following a restructure of the underwriting team in 2016, I joined the new strategy underwriting team to focus on future challenges and developments across all products and haven’t looked back. Even though I am no longer solely working on travel, it is still a product I care passionately about within DLG and as Chair of the ABI Travel Committee. Your insurance industry experience covers a range of segments and product types – would you say that travel poses more complex challenges than others? Every product has challenges but I have always felt that travel is the most complex personal lines product you are likely to buy, because it caters for lots of types of cover (medical, trip covers like cancellation, liability, property, legal expenses, and so on). If you read any other product, it is relatively easy to compare, and cover names are largely the same with the difference in the detail. The variation in different customer
How does Direct Line keep up with consumer demands for personalised travel cover and swift claims processing – all at the touch of a button? We are investing heavily in our technology by building our own bespoke system, which will enable all kinds of innovation in our future. This will enable us to provide great customer service with minimal disruption. Consequently, we will have much better data, which will enable us to review our offering to make sure we can meet customer needs and expectations. We also invest heavily in our people. While we are very keen to give customers the opportunity to self-serve, especially for the simplest interactions, it is important that customers can speak to a real person when they have something complex to deal with, or just need some help.
"I have always felt that travel is the most complex personal lines product you are likely to buy, because it caters for lots of types of cover" How do you see the travel insurance industry further developing its underwriting capacities in the coming years? The recent publication of statistics from the ABI reveals the challenges of upward pressure on claims costs allied with downward pressure on premiums, which is a huge challenge. Add in to the mix the uncertainties around Brexit, interest
from regulators (such as the FCA work on access to insurance) and the opening up of new destinations off the beaten track (in Asia, South America and Africa) and activities (especially cruises) and there is plenty to keep us underwriters occupied. Underwriters need to keep up with regulatory issues for both insurance and the travel industry (such as denied boarding regulations or package travel regulations), customer dynamics, and risks and opportunities from new technologies and entrants to make sure their offerings do as they are expected to. How has Direct Line been preparing its insureds, potential customers and its business operations for Brexit? The lack of certainty with Brexit is challenging to all businesses. Most of our customers come to us via our brand partners and we have had conversations with them about what to expect from us. Our products that are already in circulation will continue to provide certainty for all our customers regardless of whether, when and how we exit from the EU. Unlike some other providers, we do not mandate the compulsory use of the EHIC, so any impact would likely be smaller than on some others, assuming travel providers such as airlines can continue to operate as we have been led to believe. Can you describe a typical day as Underwriting Strategy Manager? My role is threefold – partly it is understanding and responding to legal and regulatory challenges, partly working on strategic development opportunities and threats, and partly involvement in tenders for new and existing partnerships. As this is across all the personal lines product types DLG underwrites, I get lots of variety, which is really interesting for me. No two days seem the same. Which aspects of your role do you enjoy the most, and which are the most challenging? I am very lucky to work with some talented people, which is great as I really enjoy team working. Luckily, I like all the different facets of my role and like getting into detail, so even reading the EU General Data Protection Regulations wasn’t a chore. The biggest challenge is trying to prioritise all the many things that need doing and stopping myself from focusing on the most exciting at the expense of the most important. If you could invite any three people, living or dead, to a dream dinner party, who would you choose? It is always tempting to pick great intellectual names such as Sir David Attenborough, Barack Obama, Sir Winston Churchill or Mahatma Gandhi, or raconteurs and entertainers such as Oscar Wilde or Tom Hanks, but in truth, I would like two dinner parties. The first would be with three dead people – my mum and dad and my dad’s sister who brought my parents together back in 1956; I never witnessed them all in the same room and I know that would be fun and very enlightening. The other party would be with three living people: my children, who are 27, 23 and 22. In both cases, because you can never have enough time with those you love. ■
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ON THE MOVE
AP Companies names new Network Manager
Elisa Otero Fernandez
AP Companies, a global provider of international medical assistance, recently appointed Elisa Otero Fernandez as Network Manager for Latin-America, the Caribbean Region and Portuguese speaking countries. Elisa brings 15 years’ experience in Spain and the US at companies such as Assist Card, Bupa Latam, Bupa Global and Falck Global Assistance, where she held different positions in the medical and providers team, the customer service management team and the sales department. In
Alistair Rose appointed to BGL Life her new role, she will apply her wideranging knowledge and experience of the Latin American market to AP Companies’ Providers Network, driving growth and maintaining and improving relationships with existing partners. “I face this new professional challenge with great excitement and the ambition to create a solid and comprehensive network of providers in the area,” said Elisa. “I’m flattered [to have] the opportunity of being part of AP Companies, a company in continuous change and growth with shared objectives and goals.”
New CEO for CyberScout CyberScout, a provider of identity theft resolution, data defence and employee benefits services, has announced the appointment of Jennifer Leuer as its new CEO. The appointment came into effect on 24 June. Jennifer joined CyberScout from Experian, where she served as President of Partner Solutions. During her time with Experian, she spearheaded the development and expansion of the Partner Solutions business, and CyberScout said that her experience in B2B and B2C channels will be of major benefit to its distribution capabilities. “Jen Leuer is a strong leader with a stellar record of success,” said CyberScout Chairman
and Founder Adam Levin. “Her experience, vision, passion and sense of urgency make her the perfect choice to lead CyberScout, as we grow our global footprint exponentially.” Vice-Chairman Bill Tait was equally effusive: “With her deep knowledge of our core offerings, Jen is uniquely equipped to enhance CyberScout’s position in the marketplace. Her ability to identify and capitalise upon new opportunities is critical to our continued success in high growth areas such as employee benefits and CyberScout’s expansion into international markets as well as our core segments in insurance, incident response and consulting.”
variety of senior roles at other major firms. He is also a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter and Associate in Claims. “Wayne has a deep and thorough understanding of our industry, and his experience across general insurance and the Asia markets will continue to be a great asset to Sedgwick,” said James Ong, Sedgwick CEO for Asia. “Wayne’s main objectives as COO are to position Sedgwick for continued growth in Asia and enable our company to operate at its full capacity and capabilities. This is an exciting time for our team as Sedgwick in Asia grows from strength to strength. In this new leadership role, Wayne will help us ensure that Sedgwick remains at the forefront of the industry across the region and around the world.”
strategy consultant at Oliver Wyman. Peter Thompson, CEO of BGL Group’s Insurance, Distribution and Outsourcing division, under which BGL Life operates, commented: “I am delighted to welcome Alistair to the Group at such an exciting time for our life business. Since the creation of Beagle Street in 2012, the business has grown to encapsulate multiple brands and there’s plenty more opportunity for us to build the portfolio further. Alistair’s significant experience of growing businesses and strong customer focus makes him an ideal fit for BGL Life.”
New Europ Assistance role for Christina Anagnostopoulou
Christina Anagnostopoulou
Sedgwick promotes Wayne Cheng Sedgwick, a global provider of technologyenabled risk, benefits and integrated business solutions, has announced the appointment of Wayne Cheng as its new Chief Operations Officer for Asia. In his new role, Wayne will take on responsibility for administrating and executing Sedgwick’s business and growth strategies and maintaining operational efficiency as the company works to expand its business throughout Asia. Wayne has over two decades’ experience in the insurance industry, specialising in data analysis, insurance claims, finance marketing, operations, project management, reinsurance and talent management. He first joined Sedgwick in 2014 as General Manager of its Asia operations, having previously held a
BGL Group, a digital distributor of insurance and household financial services – which owns brands including comparethemarket. com, LesFurets.com and Beagle Street – has appointed Alistair Rose as Managing Director for its life business, BGL Life. Alistair joined BGL on 17 June from the AA, where he previously served as Consumer Membership Director. Prior to his time with the AA, Alistair spent seven years with Tesco, where he held a number of positions, including Customer Insight Director and International Telecoms Director. He was also previously a
Europ Assistance has appointed Christina Anagnostopoulou as Group HR and Organization Director. She will replace Roberto Ravagnani, who has been appointed Head of Global HR Operations and HR Business Partner for Generali Group. Prior to joining the global team in Paris, Christina served as the HR and Organization Director for Europ Assistance Italy. Before that, she spent five years with Generali Group, first in the Group’s Milan Head Office, where she served as Head of Group Talent Management. She previously worked for various large multinational firms, such as LVMH and GE Money Consumer Finance. “Christina’s promotion is a shining example of the strong internal talent we have,” said Antoine Parisi, CEO of Europ Assistance.
“It’s important to have an executive team made up of diverse backgrounds and viewpoints; we’re proud to add another female leader with an impressive track record to our team. Christina has already been a large part of building our culture of caring at the Group level and will now build on Roberto’s achievements by delivering an HR transformation that will enable us to achieve our vision of being the most reliable care company in the world. “Roberto has played a crucial role during his time with Europ Assistance, modernising how we work and building a culture that truly reflects who we are and where we want to go. I congratulate him on his new role within the Generali Group and thank him for all that he has done.”
Jackson joins Blink Blink, an insurtech firm focused on providing data-driven travel disruption insurance solutions, has announced that Andrew Jackson has joined as Sales Manager. Andrew brings 25 years of specialist experience in driving customer service, client engagement and business development strategies across the insurance sector. Blink praised his ‘talent and experience in commercial roles developing distribution channels and designing partnership programmes across B2B2C structures and the London broking sector’,
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which align with the requirements of the insurtech firm’s expanding customer base. Andrew joins from Blink’s parent company CPP Group, where he served as Head of Sales and Relationships for CPP UK. “We are not only fortunate but truly excited to welcome Andrew on board,” said Blink CEO Paul Prendergast. “We are growing fast and in line with projections for North America, APAC and EMEA, and Andrew is a perfect addition to a team that thrives on creativity, innovation and delighting our customers.”
Andrew Jackson
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Flying Doctors Asia
Air Ambulance
Prithpal Singh – CEO , Director A’Posh Bizhub, 1 Yishun Industrial St 1, #08-03, SINGAPORE, 768160 tel: +65 6483 5412 fax: +65 6734 1338
Providers of fixed-wing air ambulance services
Ace Air & Ambulance (Pvt) Ltd.
prithpal@flyingdoctorsasia.com www.flyingdoctorsasia.com
email: website:
Latitude Air Ambulance
James Halsted, – Managing Director
Diana Iaquinto – Director Sales & Medical Ops
2 Mount Road, Avondale, Harare, ZIMBABWE
John C. Munro/Hamilton International Airport,9300 Airport Rd. Mount Hope. Ontario, L0R 1W0, CANADA tel: +1 289 426 1133 email: 24.7@latitude2009.com website: www.latitude2009.com fax: +1 289 426 1132
tel: +263 (4) 302 141 tel: +263 (782) 999 901/2/3/4
email: james@ace-ambulance.com website: www.ace-ambulance.com
AMREF Flying Doctors
LifeFlight
Dr Bettina Vadera – Medical Director
Peter Elliott – Fixed Wing Operations Manager
Wilson Airport, LangataRoad, PO Box 18617, Nairobi, KENYA
PO Box 15166, City East, QLD 4002, AUSTRALIA
tel: +254 20 6000 090 fax: +254 20 344 170
24/7 (int): +61 7 5553 5955 +61 7 5553 5965 fax:
email: website:
emergency@flydoc.org www.flydoc.org
Awesome Air Evac
Medic’Air International 每递安国际
Shane Marais – General Manager
Dr Li Tao – Medical Director
Hanger 104C, Gate C, Lanseria Airport, Lanseria, SOUTH AFRICA tel: +27 11 430 1777
ops@lifeflight.org.au www.LifeFlight.org.au
email: website:
email: website:
885 Renmin Road, Huaihai China Building, Room 808, 200010 Shanghai, CHINA
rescue@awesomeairevac.com www.awesomeairevac.com
tel: +86 2163 558289 fax: +86 2163 558285
ER24
email: operations@medic-air.com website: www.medic-air.com
Medical Rescue 24/7 Flight Desk
Dr Glenn McKay – Managing Director
Cambridge Manor Office Park, Manor 1, Stone Haven Road, C/o Witkoppen & Stone Haven Roads, Sandton, Paulshof, SOUTH AFRICA tel: +27 (0) 10 205 3100 email: flight@er24.co.za website: www.er24.co.za fax: +27 (0) 866 781 507
Medical Rescue Group PO Box 642, Varsity Lakes, Level 2, 235 Varsity Parade, Varsity Lakes 4227, AUSTRALIA email: operations@medicalrescue.com.au tel: +61 7 556 25 800 opt. 1 website: www.medicalrescue.com.au
Flying Doctors Nigeria
Medical Wings
Dr Ola Brown – Founder
Dr.Sura Jaidwatee, M.D. – Medical Flight Manager
2nd Floor Quits Aviation Centre, Hangar 1 Along Gate 1, Muritala Muhammad International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, NIGERIA tel: +234 703 509 7761 email: sales@flyingdoctorsnigeria.com website: www.flyingdoctorsnigeria.com tel: +234 706 920 1299
222 Don Mueang International Airport Office Building 3rd Floor, Vibhavadi Rangsit Road, Sanambin, Don Mueang, Bangkok 10210, THAILAND 24h tel: +662 247 3392 email: m.w@medicalwings.com website: www.medicalwings.com +662 535 4734 fax:
Medic’Air International
Medresponse Ambulance Services
Dr Jean-Philippe MATTEI – Medical Director
James Bautista – Business Development Manager
Dar El Bacha - Tizougarine 5, 40000 Marrakech Medina, MOROCCO
Unit 26-A Rufino Pacific Tower, 6784 Ayala Ave., Makati, Metro Manila, PHILIPPINES +63 921 225 7470 tel: email: ops@medresponse.ph website: www.medresponse.ph 24/7 tel: +63 917 185 9911
tel: +212 5 24 38 13 88 fax: +212 524 428 436
email: website:
operations@medic-air.com www.medic-air.com
Asia Air Ambulance
Get Listed Now
Mr. Toranit Sripal – Managing Director Asia Air Ambulance Co. Ltd., Bangkok599/59 Ratchadaphisek Road, Jatujak, Bangkok 10900, THAILAND tel: +66 898 969 000 email: operations@asiaairambulance.com website: www.asiaairambulance.com fax: +66 219 218 01
sales@itij.com or telephone: +44 (0)117 925 51 51 (opt.1)
Air Alliance Medflight GmbH
CareJet Anthony Decoste – President & CEO
Eva Kluge – Director of Sales & Business Development
Level 24 Robinsons Cyberscape Beta, Topaz & Ruby Roads, Ortigas Center, 1605 Pasig City, PHILIPPINES email: tel: +63 2491 8000 website:
SIEGERLAND AIRPORT, Werfthalle G1, 57299 Burbach, GERMANY mob: +49 170 366 4933 24/7 tel: +49 2736 4428 45
ops@carejet.com carejet.com
email: website:
e.kluge@air-alliance.de www.air-alliance.de
AIRLEC Air Espace
EDS AVIATION PTE LTD Shik – Managing Director
Paul Tiba – Managing Director
33 Ubi Avenue, #08-13, Vertex Tower B, SINGAPORE, 408868
Zone Aviation Générale, 33700 Mérignac Cidex 05 FRANCE
tel: +65 9836 3265 fax: +65 6846 9542
email: website:
24hr tel: +335 56 34 02 14 +335 56 55 98 18 fax
info@eds-aviation.com www.eds-aviation.com
email: website:
paul.tiba@airlecairespace.com www.airlecairespace.com
Capital Air Ambulance
EMA Global Pte Ltd Dexter Tan – Business Development Director
Lisa Humphries – Sales DirectorManager
1 Farrer Park Station Road, #15-18, Farrer Park Medical Centre, SINGAPORE 217562
Airport House, Exeter International Airport, EX5 2BD, UK
tel: +65 6570 2552 tel: +65 6244 0030
email: website:
dexter@emaglobal.com.sg www.emaglobal.com.sg
tel: +44 845 055 2828 fax: +44 1392 350 039
email: sales@capitalairambulance.co.uk website: www.capitalairambulance.co.uk
CEGA Group
EMA Global Pte Ltd Jay Bajas – Senior Manager - Operations
Mr Nick Simon – Business Development Manager
Unit 2314 Centuria Medical Makati, Century City, Kalayaan Ave. cor. Salamanca St. Brgy. Poblacion, Makati City - 1210, PHILIPPINES
Funtington Park, Funtington, Chichester, UK, PO18 8RG, UK
24hr tel: +63 (02) 555 5228 fax: +63 (02) 863 0650
tel: + 44 (0) 1243 621 107 fax: + 44 (0) 1243 621 006
email: jay@emaglobal.com.ph website: www.emaglobal.com.sg
44
email: privaterepats@cegagroup.com website: cegagroup.com
For all Service Directory enquiries email: sales@itij.com
SERVICE DIRECTORY
or please call +44 (0) 117 925 5151 (opt. 1)
DRF Luftrettung / German Air Rescue
Get Listed Now
Dr. Peter Huber – CEO
German Air Rescue – Claim-Variante rot / schwarz
Rita-Maiburg-Str. 2, D-70794 Filderstadt, GERMANY German Air Rescue
24h tel: +49 711 7007 3010 fax: +49 711 7007 3119
AVAILABLE ONLINE - itij.com/servicedirectory
sales@itij.com or telephone: +44 (0)117 925 51 51 (opt.1)
email: ops@drf-luftrettung.de website: www.drf-luftrettung.de/air-ambulance
AC Global Air Ambulance
DRK Assistance Andreas Speich – Managing Director
AC
Milan Floribus – Vice President
GLOBAL
8775 Aero Drive, Suite 120, San Diego, CA 92123, USA moc@drkassistance.com www.drkassistance.com
email: website:
AI
tel: +49 211 301 805-0 fax: +49 211 301 805-21
R
CE
Aufm Hennekamp 71, 40225 Düsseldorf, GERMANY AMBULAN
tel: +263 (4) 302 141 fax: +1 858 408 7856
email: acglobalmedicaltransports@gmail.com website: acglobalmedicaltransports.com
Aeromedevac Air Ambulance
European Air Ambulance
Adam Williams – President
Patrick Schomaker – Director Sales & Marketing
Gillespie Field Airport, 681 Kenney Street, El Cajon, CA 92020, USA
Luxembourg Airport, B.P.24, L-5201, Sandweiler, LUXEMBOURG 24hr tel: +352 26 26 00 +352 26 26 01 fax:
toll free: +(800) 462 0911 +(619) 284 7918 fax:
alert@air-ambulance.com www.air-ambulance.com
email: website:
email: website:
awilliams@aeromedevac.com www.aeromedevac.com
AirEvac International
FAI – rent-a-jet AG
Raul Mendoza – President / CEO
Volker Lemke – Director Sales and Marketing CSO Flughafenstasse. 124; 90411 Nuremberg; GERMANY tel: +49 911 36009 31 fax: +49 911 36009 59
3404 Bonita Rd, Chula Vista, Ca. 91910, USA
email: website:
tel: +1 619 754-6755 fax: +1 619 330 4551
Volker.lemke@fai.ag www.fai.ag
email: website:
info@aeiamericas.com www.aeiamericas.com
CEGA Group
Jet Executive International Charter
Mr Nick Simon – Business Development Manager
Irena Dimitrijevic – Marketing & Sales Mündelheimer Weg 50, D-40472, Düsseldorf, GERMANY “Homebase FRA & MUC” tel: +49 211 602 7775 email: sales@jetexecutive.com website: www.jetexecutive.com fax: +49 211 602 77766
Funtington Park, Funtington, Chichester, UK, PO18 8RG, UK tel: + 44 (0) 1243 621 107 fax: + 44 (0) 1243 621 006
email: privaterepats@cegagroup.com website: cegagroup.com
Global Jetcare, Inc.
JOIN JET Carsten Vistisen – General Manager
Bart Gray – President
Cumulusvej 10, 7190 Billund, DENMARK
15421 Technology Dr. Brooksville, FL 34604, USA
24hr tel: tel:
+45 701 040 90 +45 701 040 90
email: website:
tel: +1 352 799 7771 fax: +1 352 799 7776
ems@joinjet.com www.joinjet.com
Malteser Service Center
email: website:
JET ICU
Johannes Hoischen – International Network and Repatriation
Mike Honeycutt – President
Erna-Scheffler-Strasse 2, 51103 Köln, GERMANY
2561 Rescue Way, Brooksville, FL 34604, USA
tel: +49 221 98 22 9333 fax: +49 40 694597 61339
bart@globaljetcare.com www.globaljetcare.com
email: website:
tel: +1 352 796 2540 fax: +1 352 796 2549
ambulance@malteser.org www.malteser-service-center.de
email: website:
Jet-Rescue Air Ambulance
Medic’Air International Dr Herve Raffin – General Manager
Carlos Salinas – CEO
35 rue Jules Ferry, 93170 Bagnolet, Paris, FRANCE
Suite 100, 7777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, Florida 33434, USA
tel: +33 141 72 1414 fax: +33 148 57 1010
ops@jeticu.com www.jeticu.com
email: website:
operations@medic-air.com www.medic-air.com
tel: +1 786 619 1268
North Flying a/s
email: operations@jet-rescue.com website: www.medjetsUSA.com
Latitude Air Ambulance
Jesper Kragelund – Sales Manager
Diana Iaquinto – Director Sales & Medical Ops
North Flying Terminal, Aalborg Airport, DK-9400, Nørresundby, DENMARK
John C. Munro/Hamilton International Airport,9300 Airport Rd. Mount Hope. Ontario, L0R 1W0, CANADA tel: +1 289 426 1133 email: 24.7@latitude2009.com website: www.latitude2009.com fax: +1 289 426 1132
tel: +45 9632 2900 fax: +45 9632 2909
email: jkr@northflying.com website: www.northflying.com
Skyservice Air Ambulance
Quick Air Jet Charter GmbH
David Ewing – Executive Vice-President, Global Markets
Philipp Schneider – Account Manager
Montreal/PE Trudeau Int Airport, 9785 Avenue Ryan, Montreal (Quebec), H9P 1A2, CANADA tel: +1 514 497 7000 email: alert@skyservice.com website: www.skyserviceairambulance.com fax: +1 514 636 0096
Hangar 3, Cologne Airport, 51147 Cologne, GERMANY tel: +49 2203 955 700 fax: +49 2203 955 7020
email: website:
ops@quickair.de www.quickair.de
Swiss Air-Ambulance Ltd. Rega
Helidosa Aviation Group
Wolfgang Seeger – Customer Relationship Manager
Karla Vinas – Air Ambulance account Executive Hangar 1, 10 & 14 La Isabela Airport, Santo Domingo, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC email: tel: +18293457219 website:
Rega-Center, PO Box 1414, CH-8058 Zurich, SWITZERLAND tel: +41 44 654 33 11 fax: +41 44 654 33 22
email: website:
wolfgang.seeger@rega.ch www.rega.ch
Tyrol Air Ambulance
k.vinas@helidosa.com www.helidosa.com
Brasil Vida
Manfred Helldoppler – Managing Director
João Paulo Silva – Air Ambulance Account Executive
Fuerstenweg 180, A-6026 Innsbruck-Airport, AUSTRIA
Av. Santos Dumont, Hangares Norte, Hangar Brasil Vida - Setor Santa Genoveva 74.672-420 Goiânia - Go BRAZIL 24/7 tel: +55 62 3207 5566 email: fretamento@brasilvida.com.br website: www.brasilvida.com.br 24/7 mob: +55 62 9997 15370
tel: +43 512 22422 100 tel: +43 512 288 888
email: website:
taa@taa.at www.taa.at
45
For all Service Directory enquiries email: sales@itij.com
SERVICE DIRECTORY
or please call +44 (0) 117 925 5151 (opt. 1)
AVAILABLE ONLINE - itij.com/servicedirectory
CareJet
Assistance Companies
Anthony Decoste – President Level 24 Robinsons Cyberscape Beta, Topaz & Ruby Roads, Ortigas Center, 1605 Pasig City, PHILIPPINES
Providers of assistance services for the global travel and health insurance industry, including travel, medical and security assistance and repatriation services
email: website:
tel: +63 2491 8000
AIMS
ops@carejet.com carejet.com
Covermore Assistance Online Bernadette Breton – Chief Executive Officer
Wilson Chan – CEO 7/F Unit 702, 58 Changliu Road, Zendai Cube Edifice, Pudong, Shanghai, CHINA 200135 email: ops-shanghai@covermore.com.cn tel: +86 21 12591222 website: www.covermore.com.cn
AIMS House, 3 West St, Bryanston 2191, Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA email: operations@aims.org.za website: www.aims.org.za
tel: +27 11 783 0135 fax: +27 11 783 2950
EMA Global Pte Ltd
AMREF Flying Doctors
Dexter Tan – Business Development Director
Dr Bettina Vadera – Medical Director
1 Farrer Park Station Road, #15-18, Farrer Park Medical Centre, SINGAPORE 217562 tel: +65 6570 2552 email: website: tel: +65 6244 0030
Wilson Airport, LangataRoad, PO Box 18617, Nairobi, KENYA tel: +254 20 6000 090 fax: +254 20 344 170
emergency@flydoc.org www.flydoc.org
email: website:
CONNEX Assistance
EMA Global Pte Ltd
Dr Helmy El Tanahy – CEO
Jay Bajas – Senior Manager - Operations Unit 2314 Centuria Medical Makati, Century City, Kalayaan Ave. cor. Salamanca St. Brgy. Poblacion, Makati City - 1210, PHILIPPINES
Office 11, Floor 1, 6 El Sad El Aali st, Dokki, Cairo, EGYPT tel: +202 3 336 0005 fax: +202 3 762 0003
dexter@emaglobal.com.sg www.emaglobal.com.sg
alarm@connexassistance.com www.connexassistance.com
email: website:
24hr tel: +63 (02) 555 5228 fax: +63 (02) 863 0650
email: website:
jay@emaglobal.com.ph www.emaglobal.com.sg
Emergency Assistance Japan
Inter Secours Assistance Mr. EL MOUADDEN Abdelhamid – Directeur Général
Takaaki Chiyo – Executive Officer, Head of Network Division
8, Rue Grasset, Quartier des hôpitaux, CP 20360,Casablanca, MOROCCO tel: +212 5 22 46 72 22 fax: +212 5 22 26 00 27
NRK Koishikawa Bldg., 1-21-14 Koishikawa, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112-0002, JAPAN email: website:
mouaden@isas.ma www.isas.ma
tel: +81-(0)3-3811-7520 fax: +81-(0)3-3811-7511
AA International Indonesia
email: website:
network@emergency.co.jp emergency.co.jp/english
Global Assistance & Healthcare
Brandon Heng – CEO
Alain Durand – President Director
Tifa Building, 10th Floor, No.1003, Jl. Kuningan Barat 1 No. 26, Mampang Prapatan, Jakarta 12710, INDONESIA
Cibis Nine, 5th Fl, Jalan TB. Simatupang No. 2, Cilandak – Pasar Minggu, Jakarta 12560, INDONESIA tel: +62 21 299 78 999 email: global@global-assistance.net website: www.global-assistance.net fax: +62 21 299 78 9555/66
tel: +62 21 2927 9600 24/7: ops-jakarta@aa-international.co.id
email: marketing@aa-international.co.id website: www.aa-international.co.id
Global Assistance Partners Co.,Ltd.
AIG Travel
Gna KH CHUNG – CEO
Martin Villarino – General Manager, AIG Travel Asia Pacific Level 15 Menara Worldwide, 198 Jalan Bukit Bintang, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA tel: +603 2772 5555 email: website: fax: +603 2685 5673
412 Vabien III, 86, TongIl-ro,Jung-gu, Seoul 04517, REPUBLIC OF KOREA tel: +82 1670 0722 fax: +82 2 720 8839
martin.villarino@aig.com aig.com/travel
Asian Travel And Medical Services
operations@globalassistance.co.kr www.globalassistance.co.kr
Global Doctor China
Rahul Gupta – Sr. Manager - International Business
Regina Zheng – Operations Manager Suite 306, Building 8 Bai Huan Jia yuan / No.66 Yuan, Guangqu Road,Chaoyang District, Beijing P.R.China Post Code 100022 CHINA tel: +86 10 5815 1188 Ext. 812 email: regina@globaldoctor.com.au website: www.globaldoctor.com.au fax: +86 10 8775 9138
131/1 , PICNIC GARDEN ROAD , KOLKATA - 700039 , INDIA tel: +91-9836309173 fax: +91 033-23440170
email: website:
email: website:
rahul.gupta@asiantms.com www.asiantms.com
Global MediCALL Assistance
Asia Rescue & Medical Services Pvt. Ltd Dr.Anraj Singh – Director
Sridhar K – Chief Operations Officer
Flat 2B, Jaivijay Apartment , 61 B Palm Avenue Kolkata – 700019 West Bengal, INDIA
MALAYSIA - www.globalmedicallassistance.com
24/7 tel: +91 983 1090 831 24/7 tel: +91 033 4060 4013
email: website:
tel: +6 03 3359 6969 fax: +6 03 3359 6161
arms@armsindia.com www.armsindia.com
AP Companies KAZAKHSTAN
marketing@globalmedicallassistance.com ops@globalmedicallassistance.com
MEDIKA PLAZA
Elmira Turmagambetova – General Manager
Dr Nino Susanto – Operational Director Beltway Office Park Tower C 2nd floor Jl. TB Simatupang Kav. 41, Jakarta 12550, INDONESIA email: med.assistance@medikaplaza.com tel: +6221 80866000 website: www.medikaplaza.com
4, 148 Mamir, Auzovskiy region, Almati, KAZAKHSTAN tel: + 7 727 350 52 76
email: email
email: KZT@ap-companies.com website: www.ap-companies.com
ADAC Ambulance Service
AP Companies UZBEKISTAN Ilhom Sadikov – Business Development Manager
Christoph Ullrich – Senior Manager International Network
4a, Uzumzor street, Ulukbek region,Tashkent, UZBEKISTAN
Hansastr. 19, D - 80686 Munich, GERMANY
tel: +9 987 123 890 41
email: website:
uzb@ap-companies.com www.ap-companies.com
tel: +49 897 676 29 12 mob: +49 171 555 29 12
BrightCare Assist
email: christoph.ullrich@adac.de website: www.adac.de/ambulance
AIG Travel
Gloria Lee Carmen V. Matti – CEO
Sally Waithe – General Manager, AIG Travel EMEA
Unit 10-1, Fort Legend Tower, 31st Street corner 3rd Avenue, Bonifacio Global City Taguig, 1632, PHILIPPINES tel: (+632) 785-0055 email: ops@brightcare-assist.com website: www.brightcare-assist.com fax: (+632) 224-4152
21 Cecil Pashley Way, Shoreham Airport, Shoreham-By-Sea, West Sussex, BN43 5FF, UK email: sally.waithe@aig.com tel: +44 (0)1273 456 484 website: aig.com/travel
46
For all Service Directory enquiries email: sales@itij.com
SERVICE DIRECTORY
or please call +44 (0) 117 925 5151 (opt. 1)
AP Companies
Global Voyager Assistance - Russia Natalya Butakova – Business Development Manager
Costas Danilenko – CEO
17 Varshavskoye Shosse, Moscow 117105, RUSSIA
PO Box II, 125124 Moscow, RUSSIA
tel: +7 495 989 1120 fax: +7 495 989 1130
email: website:
tel: +7 495 775 0999 fax: +7 495 775 0998
natalya@ap-companies.ru www.ap-companies.ru
Argos Assistance Srl
cdanilenko@gvassistance.com www.gvassistance.com
IFRA Assistance GmbH – Austria Mr. Christian Steindl M.D. – CEO
Via Torino, 2 20123 Milano, ITALY / FRANCE
IFRA Assistance GmbH, Schießstattring 21, A-3100 St. Pölten, AUSTRIA
tel: +39 027 254 6325 fax: +39 069 933 5053
tel: +43 (0) 2742 49 11 fax: +43 (0) 27 42 89165
operations@argosassistance.com www.argosassistance.com
email: website:
email: website:
office@ifra.at www.ifra.at
Interamerican Assistance S.A.
Dr. Dimitris Koliniatis – CEO
Inez Tissink – Coordinator International Activities
Bouboulinas 20, TK 185 35, Piraeus, Athens, GREECE
Syngrou Avenue 350,17680 Kallithea, Athens, GREECE
tel: +30 210 4296 631 fax: +30 210 4296 661
tel: (+30) 210 94 61 750 fax: (+30) 210 94 61 004
email: operations@athensassistance.gr website: www.athensassistance.gr
email: website:
tissinki@interamerican.gr www.interamerican.gr
Malteser Service Center
Au International Service / Assist Ukraine Andrey ZIMIN – Director
Johannes Hoischen – International Network and Repatriation
Str. Sholudenko 3, 04116 Kiev, UKRAINE
Erna-Scheffler-Strasse 2, 51103 Köln, GERMANY
email: website:
tel: +38044 251 28 11
tel: +49 221 98 22 9333 fax: +49 40 694597 61339
assist@assist-ukraine.com assist-ukraine.com
ambulance@malteser.org www.malteser-service-center.de
email: website:
Marm Assistance
BMC HEALTH SOLUTIONS 24HR MEDICAL ASSISTANCE Antonio Magliocca – Medical Director
Hamdi Inan – CEO
Via del pozzo 30, Monteriggioni, 53100, Siena, ITALY
AirPort Plaza, Ankara Caddesi, No:486, Kurtkoy 34912, Istanbul, TURKEY
24hr tel: +39 0823 966 694 +39 0823 966 694 fax:
email: website:
tel: +90 216 560 07 24 fax: +90 216 560 07 07
info@assistenzamedicah24.it www.medicalassistanceh24.com
email: website:
marm@marm.com.tr www.marmassistance.com
Medicall AG
CNAS Carole Luisy – Managing Director
Markus Detel – Manager International Network
80 rue des alliés, 38100, Grenoble, FRANCE
Zurichstrasse 38, CH-8306 Bruttisellen, SWITZERLAND
tel: +33 438 49 83 49 fax: +33 438 49 83 40
email: website:
carole.luisy@cnas-assistance.com www.cnas-assistance.com
email: mservices@medicall.ch website: www.medicall.ch
tel: +41 44 655 16 67
DRF Luftrettung / German Air Rescue
German Air Rescue
email: website:
Marco Rinalducci – Claims & Administration Director
Athens Assistance
German Air Rescue – Claim-Variante rot / schwarz
AVAILABLE ONLINE - itij.com/servicedirectory
National Health Service LLC
Dr. Peter Huber – CEO
Dr. Ashfaq Rizvi – Financial Director
Rita-Maiburg-Str. 2, D-70794 Filderstadt, GERMANY
101000 Russia, Moscow, Potapovsky lane 5-2, RUSSIA
24h tel: +49 711 7007 3010 fax: +49 711 7007 3119
tel: +7 (495) 374-88-24 fax: +7 (495) 374-88-24
email: ops@drf-luftrettung.de website: www.drf-luftrettung.de/air-ambulance
DRK Assistance
Thomas Blanchet – Key Account Manager / Responsable Grands Comptes 6 Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, Le Campus, Bat. B1, 78180 Montigny-Le-Bretonneux., FRANCE +33 (0)13062 6752 tel: email: website: 24h tel: +33 (0)13062 1122
Aufm Hennekamp 71, 40225 Düsseldorf, GERMANY tel: +49 (211) 301 805 0 fax: +49 (211) 301 805 21
email: website:
moc@drkassistance.de www.drkassistance.com
blanchet@saveassistance.com www.saveassistance.com
Savitar Group Ltd.
EgyCross Assistance
Maria Berkova – General Manager
Dr. Hany Benyamen – CEO
3rd floor, entrance #4, 20/3 Bolshoy Karetniy lane, Moscow, 127051, RUSSIA tel: +7 495 987 1775 email: svg@savitar-gr.com website: www.savitar-gr.com fax: +7 495 987 1776
Av. del General Perón, 25 . Planta 10 F, 28020 Madrid, SPAIN ecanetwork@egycross-assistance.com www.egycross-europe.com
email: website:
Semesur
Eurocross Turkeya
Eugenio Crenes – General Manager
Mehtap Baylam Akkaya – CEO Altunizade Mahallesi, Ord. Prof. Fahrettin Kerim Gökay Caddesi, Eşref Çakmak Plaza, No:32 Kat:3 34662 Üsküdar, İstanbul, TURKEY tel: +90 216 265 15 25 email: int@eurocrossturkey.com.tr website: www.eurocrossturkey.com.tr fax: +90 216 265 15 65
Paseo de la Castellana 18, 7ª Planta, 28046 Madrid, SPAIN tel: +34 911 010 470 fax: +34 902 001 410
email: info@semesur.com website: www.tangiersinternational.com
Tangiers International
Global Assistance a.s. Ing. Marek Jaroš – General Manager
Jane Hegeler – Managing Director
Dopraváku 749/3, 18400 Prague 8, CZECH REPUBLIC
54 Melita Street, Valetta, VLT 1122, MALTA
tel: +420 266 799 770 fax: +420 266 799 797
tel: +356 277 800 16 fax: +356 272 055 00
email: ops@1220.cz website: www.1220.cz
Global Voyager Assistance - Black Sea 77-79 Nezhinskaya Str., 65023, Odessa, UKRAINE email: website:
email: website:
info@tangiersinternational.com www.tangiersinternational.com
Get Listed Now
Oxana Razorenova – General Manager tel: +38 048 7373 441 fax: +38 048 7373 442
drrizvi@nhsassist.ru www.nhsassist.ru
Save Assistance France
Andreas Speich – Managing Director
tel: +34 910 602 414 tel: +20 100 6222 910
email: website:
sales@itij.com or telephone: +44 (0)117 925 51 51 (opt.1)
gmbs@gvassistance.com www.gvassistance.com
47
For all Service Directory enquiries email: sales@itij.com
SERVICE DIRECTORY
or please call +44 (0) 117 925 5151 (opt. 1)
AVAILABLE ONLINE - itij.com/servicedirectory
CONNEX Assistance JLT
Assistance Companies
Lara Helmi – International Network Director #204 Gold Crest Executive Tower, Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES tel: +97 14 368 36 25 email: dubai@connexassistance.com website: www.connexassistance.com fax: +97 14 420 49 12
Providers of assistance services for the global travel and health insurance industry, including travel, medical and security assistance and repatriation services
Eagle Assistance International
TBS Team 24 d.o.o Edvard Hojnik – General Manger
Ossama Trambley – Chairman
CROATIA, SLOVENIA, SERBIA, MNE, BH, KOS, MAC
38 Dr Mohammed Ali Al Baqli, El-Nozha, Cairo Governorate, EGYPT
tel: +386 2616 5819 fax: +386 2618 5800
email: website:
tel: email: website:
info@tbs-team24.com www. tbs-team24.com
Marcos Morgan – Founder & CEO tel: email: website:
+20 122 216 1133 Trambley@eagleassistance.com +20 120 242 4444
+20 127 373 1478 Marcos@eagleassistance.com www.eagleassistance.com
Fakeeh International
Tyrol Air Ambulance
Dr. Fatih Mehmet GUL – Executive Director
Manfred Helldoppler – Managing Director
Palestine Street, Al Hamra District P.O. Box 2537 21461, JEDDAH/SAUDI ARABIA email: ops@fakeehinternational.com tel: +966 12 6603080 website: www.fakeehinternational.com
Fuerstenweg 180, A-6026 Innsbruck-Airport, AUSTRIA tel: +43 512 22422 100 fax: +43 512 288 888
email: website:
taa@taa.at www.taa.at
GORAL ASSISTANCE LTD
Active Care Management
Marcel Kadoche – International Network and Development Manager
Paul Schlosser – Client Relationship Manager 3430 Wheelton Drive, Windsor, Ontario, N8W 5A7, CANADA tel: +519 945 8256 ext.1111 fax: +519 251 5165
|
Maskit 27 str. Herzeliya Industrial Park 46733, ISRAEL tel: +972 9 9579930 fax: +972 9 9579931
email: pschlosser@active-care.ca website: www.active-care.ca
email: info@goralassist.com website: www.goralassist.com
IRAN ASSISTANCE
AIG Travel Jim Koziol – General Manager, North America
Ashkan Lahiji – International Network Manager
3330 Business Park Drive, Stevens Point WI 54482, USA
No 24,SOS building,15th Street, Gandi Avenue, Tehran,15175, IRAN
tel: +1 715 295 9105
email: website:
tel: +98-21-88648620 - 24 fax: +98-21-88648502
jim.koziol@aig.com aig.com/travel
email: website:
operation@iranassistance.com www.iranassistance.com
LGA - LIFE GULF ASSISTANCE
ASSIST CARD
Dr. Ahmed Monir – CEO
Federico Tarling – Chief Service Officer ASSIST-CARD Building, 175 South West 7th Street, Suite 2407, Miami, FL 33130, USA tel: +1 305 381 9959/69 email: federico.tarling@assistcard.com website: www.assistcard.com toll free--: +1 800 874 2223
Al Salam Tower, Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES tel: +971 55 314 5045 mob: +971 52 758 1032
AXA Partners US
dr.ahmed@lgadubai.com www.lgadubai.com
Marm Assistance
Simon Jackson – Chief Commercial Officer
Hamdi Inan – CEO
122 South Michigan Ave, Suite 1100, Chicago, IL 60603, USA tel: +1 312 935 1771
email: website:
email: website:
AirPort Plaza, Ankara Caddesi, No:486, Kurtkoy 34912, Istanbul, TURKEY
simon.jackson@axa-assistance.us www.axa-assistance.us
tel: +90 216 560 07 24 fax: +90 216 560 07 07
CanAssistance
email: website:
marm@marm.com.tr www.marmassistance.com
Swan International Assistance – Mutual Care Fabienne Lavoie – Director, International Operations and Claims
Mr. Joseph Akiki – CEO
550 Sherbrooke Street West, Suite B-9, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 3S3, CANADA tel: +1 514 286 7707 email: fabienne.lavoie@canassistance.com website: www.canassistance.com fax: +1 514 286 8413
P.O. Box 2265 Jounieh, Lebanon tel 24/7: +961 9 224 008/009 +961 9 224 010 fax:
email: website:
request@swanassistance.com www.swanassistance.com
GORAL ASSISTANCE CANADA INC.
Catastrophic Claims Specialist
David Ohayon – Local Manager 2155 Vincent St, Montreal, QC H4M 1M6, CANADA tel: +1 514 448 1343 fax: +1 514 448 1835
email: website:
info@goralassist.ca www.goralassist.com
Specialist management of high-cost claims, particularly medical
MDabraod
Global Excel Management
Ignacio C. Marquez – COO
John Spears – VP Business Development & Marketing
2999 NE 191st Street, Suite 608, Aventura, Florida, USA
73 Queen St, Sherbrooke, QC J1M 0C9, CANADA
tel: +1 (786) 475-5475 fax: +1 718 847 0533
tel: +1 819 566 8833 fax: +1 819 566 8447
email: website:
operations@mdabroad.com www.mdabroad.com
SunMed International, LLC
email: corpinfo@globalexcel.com website: www.globalexcel.com
New Frontier Group
Dra. Kinyi Haber – Medical Director. VP International Operation
Gitte Bach – President and CEO
2000 NW 89th Place. Miami FL 33172, UNITED STATES
1024 Bayside Drive, Suite 144, Newport Beach, California, 92660-7462, USA tel: +1 949 429 7130 email: Bach@NewFrontierGroup.com website: www.newfrontiergroup.com fax: +1 949 666 6520
tel: +1 786 888 6792 fax: +1 786 551 0763
email: email
khaber@sunmedint.net www.sunmedint.net
TMCA Group Corp
Plotkin Health Inc – A Subsidiary of MacroHealth LP
Crystal Wharton – President
Shaun A. Plotkin BA (Uvic), LLB (Monash), GDLP – President
217 Broadway Suite 608, New York, New York 10007, USA
27-3088 Francis Road, Richmond, British Columbia V7C 5V9, CANADA
tel: +1 646 398 9021 fax: +1 646 398 9025
tel: +1 604 241 9639 fax: +1 604 241 0733
email: Crystal@tmcatravel.com website: www.tmcatravel.com
48
email: website:
shaun@plotkinconsulting.com www.plotkinconsulting.com
For all Service Directory enquiries email: sales@itij.com
SERVICE DIRECTORY
or please call +44 (0) 117 925 5151 (opt. 1)
AVAILABLE ONLINE - itij.com/servicedirectory
Claims at TuGo
Claims Management
Taka Katsube – Director Assistance & Cost Managment 10th Floor, 6081 No.3 Road, Richmond, BC V6Y 2B2, CANADA
Companies offering specialist third-party claims management, case management, advice and assistance
tel: +1 604 303 2113 fax: +1 604 276 4593
Eurocross Turkey
tkat@tugo.com www.tugo.com
email: website:
Global Excel Management
Mehtap Baylam Akkaya – CEO
John Spears – VP Business Development & Marketing
Altunizade Mahallesi, Ord. Prof. Fahrettin Kerim Gökay Caddesi, Eşref Çakmak Plaza, No:32 Kat:3 34662 Üsküdar, İstanbul, TURKEY tel: +90 216 265 15 25 email: int@eurocrossturkey.com.tr website: www.eurocrossturkey.com.tr fax: +90 216 265 15 65
73 Queen St, Sherbrooke, QC J1M 0C9, CANADA tel: +1 819 566 8833 fax: +1 819 566 8447
email: corpinfo@globalexcel.com website: www.globalexcel.com
Global Medical Management
Get Listed Now
Raija Itzchaki – COO 880 SW 145th Ave., Suite 400, Pembroke Pines, FL, 33027, USA
sales@itij.com or telephone: +44 (0)117 925 51 51 (opt.1)
tel: +1 954 370 6404 fax: +1 954 370 8613
Global Assistance & Healthcare
email: website:
info@gmmi.com www.gmmi.com
MD ABROAD
Alain Durand – President Director
Ignacio C. Marquez – COO
Cibis Nine, 5th Fl, Jalan TB. Simatupang No. 2, Cilandak – Pasar Minggu, Jakarta 12560, INDONESIA tel: +62 21 299 78 999 email: global@global-assistance.net website: www.global-assistance.net fax: +62 21 299 78 9555/66
2999 NE 191st Street, Suite 608, Aventura, Florida, USA tel: + 1 (786) 475-5475 fax: +1 718 847 0533
email: website:
operations@mdabroad.com www.mdabroad.com
New Frontier Group
Claims at TuGo Taka Katsube – Director Assistance & Cost Managment
Gitte Bach – President and CEO
10th Floor, 6081 No.3 Road, Richmond, BC V6Y 2B2, CANADA
1024 Bayside Drive, Suite 144, Newport Beach, California, 92660-7462, USA
tel: +1 604 303 2113 fax: +1 604 276 4593
tel: +1 949 429 7130 fax: +1 949 666 6520
email: website:
tkat@tugo.com www.tugo.com
Global Excel Management
email: Bach@NewFrontierGroup.com website: www.newfrontiergroup.com
Penfield Care
John Spears – VP Business Development & Marketing
Mr Stephen Zatylny – President
73 Queen St, Sherbrooke, QC J1M 0C9, CANADA
A1-130 Terence Matthews Crescent, Ottawa, Ontario, K2M 0J1, CANADA
tel: fax:
+1 819 566 8833 +1 819 566 8447
email: website:
tel: +1 613 703 9861 fax: +1 819 200 0281
corpinfo@globalexcel.com www.globalexcel.com
New Frontier Group
info@penfieldcare.com www.penfieldcare.com
email: website:
Plotkin Health Inc – A Subsidiary of MacroHealth LP
Gitte Bach – President and CEO
Shaun A. Plotkin BA (Uvic), LLB (Monash), GDLP – President
1024 Bayside Drive, Suite 144, Newport Beach, California, 92660-7462, USA
27-3088 Francis Road, Richmond, British Columbia V7C 5V9, CANADA
tel: +1 949 429 7130 fax: +1 949 666 6520
tel: +1 604 241 9639 fax: +1 604 241 0733
email: Bach@NewFrontierGroup.com website: www.newfrontiergroup.com
Star Healthcare Network, Inc.
email: website:
shaun@plotkinconsulting.com www.plotkinconsulting.com
Star Healthcare Network, Inc.
Gigi Galen Grobstein – President
Gigi Galen Grobstein – President
120 Bloomingdale Road, Suite #304, White Plains, NY 10605, USA
120 Bloomingdale Road, Suite #304, White Plains, NY 10605, USA
tel: + 1 914 358 9121 fax: + 1 914 358 9206
email: website:
Ggalen@starhealthcarenet.com www.starhealthcarenet.com
tel: + 1 914 358 9121 fax: + 1 914 358 9206
email: Ggalen@starhealthcarenet.com website: www.starhealthcarenet.com
AIMS
Cost Containment
Bernadette Breton – Chief Executive Officer AIMS House, 3 West St, Bryanston 2191, Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA
Companies controlling medical expenditure for insurers and assistance providers
tel: +00 27 11 783 0135 fax: +00 27 11 783 2950
email: website:
operations@aims.org.za www.aims.org.za
AP Companies
Eurocross Turkey
Natalya Butakova – Business Development Manager
Mehtap Baylam Akkaya – CEO Altunizade Mahallesi, Ord. Prof. Fahrettin Kerim Gökay Caddesi, Eşref Çakmak Plaza, No:32 Kat:3 34662 Üsküdar İstanbul, TURKEY tel: +90 216 265 15 25 email: int@eurocrossturkey.com.tr website: www.eurocrossturkey.com.tr fax: +90 216 265 15 65
17 Varshavskoye Shosse, Moscow 117105, RUSSIA tel: +7 495 989 1120 fax: +7 495 989 1130
Global Excel Management
email: website:
natalya@ap-companies.ru www.ap-companies.ru
Travel Agents
Mary-Jo McDonald (MJ) – Managing Director Sanderum Centre, 30a Upper High Street, Thame, OX9 3EX, UK tel: +44 1865 400 007 fax: +44 845 003 1351
email: website:
24/7 medical travel agency and medical repatriation specialist, uniquely skilled in routing passengers home worldwide
corpinfo@globalexcel.com www.globalexcel.com
Voyageur Aeromedical Travel
Marm Assistance Hamdi Inan – CEO
Marc Banting – Director
AirPort Plaza, Ankara Caddesi, No:486, Kurtkoy 34912, Istanbul, TURKEY
19 Lower Park Row, Bristol, UK
tel: +90 216 560 07 24 fax: +90 216 560 07 07
tel: +44 (0)117 921 0401 fax: +44 (0)845 384 7008
email: website:
marm@marm.com.tr www.marmassistance.com
49
email: marc@voyageur.co.uk website: www.voyageur24.com
For all Service Directory enquiries email: sales@itij.com
SERVICE DIRECTORY
or please call +44 (0) 117 925 5151 (opt. 1)
AVAILABLE ONLINE - itij.com/servicedirectory
Flying Home Pte Ltd
Critical Care Patient Transport
Mr Ang Ziqian – Director Blk 4 Lorong 8 Toa Payoh #01-1345A, SINGAPORE
Specialist transport service providers for critical care patients
tel: +65 6253 0001 fax: +65 6353 5801
DRK Assistance of MacroHealth LP
enquiry@flyinghome.com www.flyinghome.com
email: website:
Menuha Laad Ltd
Andreas Speich – Managing Director
Eitan Kariv – CEO
Aufm Hennekamp 71, 40225 Düsseldorf, GERMANY
30 Hashaham St. Petach Tikva, ISRAEL
tel: +49 211 301 805-0 fax: +49 211 301 805-21
tel: fax:
email: moc@drkassistance.com website: www.drkassistance.com
European Air Ambulance
+972 3 639 9990 +972 3 687 2950
email: website:
replaad@gmail.com www.menuhalaadrepatriation.com
Singapore Casket Company Ltd
Patrick Schomaker – Director Sales & Marketing
Calvin Tang
Luxembourg Airport, B.P.24, L-5201, Sandweiler, LUXEMBOURG
131 Lavender Street, Singapore, 338737, SINGAPORE
24hr tel: +352 26 26 00 +352 26 26 01 fax:
tel: +65 6293 4388 fax: +65 6296 5993
email: website:
alert@air-ambulance.com www.air-ambulance.com
Malteser Service Center
email: customerservice@singaporecasket.com.sg website: www.singaporecasket.com.sg
Ground Transport - Medical
Johannes Hoischen – International Network and Repatriation Erna-Scheffler-Strasse 2, 51103 Köln, GERMANY tel: +49 221 98 22 9333 fax: +49 40 694597 61339
Medical transportation for patients who need to be transferred by road
ambulance@malteser.org www.malteser-service-center.de
email: website:
CNAS
Skyservice Air Ambulance
Carole Luisy – Managing Director
David Ewing – Executive Vice-President, Global Markets Montreal/PE Trudeau Int Airport, 9785 Avenue Ryan, Montreal (Quebec), H9P 1A2, CANADA tel: +1 514 497 7000 email: alert@skyservice.com website: www.skyserviceairambulance.com fax: +1 514 636 0096
80 rue des alliés, 38100, Grenoble, FRANCE tel: +33 438 49 83 49 fax: +33 438 49 83 40
email: website:
carole.luisy@cnas-assistance.com www.cnas-assistance.com
DRK Assistance
Funeral Directors
Andreas Speich – Managing Director Aufm Hennekamp 71, 40225 Düsseldorf, GERMANY tel: +49 211 301 805-0 fax +49 211 301 805-21
Organisers of international funeral repatriations or the repatriation of mortal remains
Funeral Home AURIGA Ltd.
email: website:
moc@drkassistance.com www.drkassistance.com
GroundMed Australia
Helena Sulikova – Chief of International Department
Matthew Kline & Mark Wardrop – Executive Directors
B. Nemcové Street 1052/1, 412 01 Litomerice, CZECH REPUBLIC
Hangar 650 Drover Road, Bankstown Airport. NSW, Sydney, AUSTRALIA 2200
email: enquiry@flyinghome.com website: www.flyinghome.com
tel: +420 724 257 899 fax: +420 416 732 582
tel: +61 2 8700 0685 fax: +61 2 8700 0663
Funeralia
email: website:
ops@airmed.com.au www.airmed.com.au
Medresponse Ambulance Services Oleg Antoni Milinski – Funeral Director
James Bautista – Business Development Manager
International funeral services, UKRAINE, POLAND, ITALY
Unit 26-A Rufino Pacific Tower, 6784 Ayala Ave., Makati, Metro Manila, PHILIPPINES tel: +63 921 225 7470 email: email 24/7: +63 917 185 9911
email: website:
tel: +38 0971 498 785 fax: +48 5131 236 78
funeralia.org@gmail.com www.Funeralia.org
ops@medresponse.ph www.medresponse.ph
Gateway International EMS
Funerarium International repatriation and embalming Maurizio Fantozzi – Director
Oliver L. Müller – Managing Director
Indirizzo dell’Azienda: Via Roma 255, Capistrello, Aquila, ITALY
1440 G St. NW, Washington DC, 20005 , USA
tel: +39 327 328 7979 tel: +39 (0) 863 186 1635
tel: +1-888-828-5258 fax: +1-201-205-2239
email: segreteria@funerarium.it website: funerarium.it
email: operations@gateway-ems.com website: www.gateway-ems.com
LifeMed Worldwide
FUNERARIA OFFICIA ROBERTO ZEGA - Worldwide Repatriations Specialist Cristina Zega – Repatriations Manager
24/7 Chauffeured Transportation & Ground Ambulance
Via Clelia, 26 / 28 - 00181 Roma, ITALY
990 Biscayne Blvd. Suite 502 Miami, FL 33132, USA
tel: +39 06 78 40 300 fax: +39 06 78 02 488
email: website:
info@zega.it www.zega.it
tel: +1-305-501-2009
email: website:
ops@lifemedworldwide.com www.lifemedworldwide.com
One Call Medical Transports
Rowland Brothers International Ltd. Fiona Greenwood – Operations Director
24 Hour Worldwide Ground Transports
299-305 Whitehorse Road, West Croydon, Surrey CR0 2HR, UK
3815 E Main St., Suite C St. Charles, IL 60174, USA
tel: fax:
+44 20 8684 2324 +44 20 8684 8000
email: website:
info@rowlandbrothersinternational.com www.rowlandbrothersinternational.com
tel: +1 630 444 2100 fax: +1 630 823 2900
Spain Funeral Services
Get Listed Now
Mourad Messaoud – General Manager calle jesus 25-29200- ANTEQUERA, SPAIN tel: +34 902 008 407 tel: +34 627 053 979
email: website:
email: ops@ocmt.com website: www.ocmt.com
sales@itij.com or telephone: +44 (0)117 925 51 51 (opt.1)
contact@spainfuneralservices.com www.spainfuneralservices.com
50
For all Service Directory enquiries email: sales@itij.com
SERVICE DIRECTORY
or please call +44 (0) 117 925 5151 (opt. 1)
AVAILABLE ONLINE - itij.com/servicedirectory
Medical Wings
Hospitals
Dr.Sura Jaidwatee, M.D. – Medical Flight Manager 222 Don Mueang International Airport Office Building 3rd Floor, Vibhavadi Rangsit Road, Sanambin, Don Mueang, Bangkok 10210, THAILAND 24hr tel: +662 247 3392 email: m.w@medicalwings.com website: www.medicalwings.com +662 535 4734 fax:
Facilities offering medical diagnosis and treatment, including clinics and urgent care centers
Prime Nursing Care, Inc.
Antalya Life Hospitals Fadil Aksu – International Network Supervisor
Franziska Hollenstein – CEO / Founder
Şirinyali Mahallesi,1487 Sokak, No:4 Antalya, TURKEY
2005 Van Buren Street, Suite 215, Hollywood, Florida, 33020, USA
tel: fax:
24/7: + 1 754 999 0460 fax: + 1 754 222 5051
+90 549 784 88 60 +90 242 310 80 70
email: antalya@lifehospital.com.tr website: www.lifehospital.com.tr
email: website:
contact@primenursingcare.com www.primenursingcare.com
PARKVIEW AIR MEDICAL
Luz Saúde SA Eve Jokel, MPH – International Director
David Ewing – Executive Vice President, Global Markets
Rua Carlos Alberto da Mota Pinto, 17-9.º 1070-313 Lisboa, PORTUGAL
9785 Avenue Ryan, Montréal, Quebec, CANADA, h9p 1a2
tel: +351 213 138 260 fax: +351 213 530 292
tel: +1 519 942 8143 fax: +1 519 941 4213
intlpatientservices@luzsaude.pt luzsaude.pt/en
email: website:
Quironsalud
email: repat@parkviewairmedical.com website: www.parkviewairmedical.com
SkyCare Global LLC. Miguel Torregrosa – International Inbound Business ManagerBusiness Manager
Stephen Avise – VP of Operations
SPAIN
835 Seminole Blvd., Tarpon Springs FL, 34689, USA
tel: +34 901 123 456
US tel: +1 727 230 2263 EU tel: +39 345 461 8122
email: g24@quironsalud.es website: www.quironsalud.es/international
Jackson Memorial Hospital International
info@skycareglobal.com www.skycareglobal.com
email: website:
Medical Provider
Dominick Destefano – Associate Director of Sales 1500 NW 12th Avenue, Suite 829 East, Miami, FL 33136, USA tel: +305-355-1211 fax: +305-355-5545
Providers of medical services such as telemedicine, remote medical assistance, and doctor visits
Dominick.destefano@jhsmiami.org www.jmhi.org
email: website:
AMREF Flying Doctors
Sharp Global Patient Services Jacquie Schwoerke – Vice President, Sharp GPS
Dr Bettina Vadera – Medical Director
8695 Spectrum Center Blvd., San Diego, CA 92123, USA
Wilson Airport, Langata Road, PO Box 18617, Nairobi, KENYA
toll free: +1 619 471 0466 +1 858 499 4967 fax:
tel: +254 20 6000 090 fax: +254 20 344 170
email: website:
Sharp.GlobalPatientServices@sharp.com www.sharp.com
email: website:
Doctorcall
UC San Diego Health System International Patient Program Stacy Holberg – Director of International Program Operations
Joe Beeltah – Client Liaison Executive
136 W. Dickinson Street, Suite 109, San Diego, CA 92103-8222, USA
121 Harley Street, London W1G 6AX, UK
tel: +1 619 471 0466 fax: +1 619 543 5282
24/7 tel: +44 0344 257 0345 int. tel: +44 161 214 1906
sholberg@ucsd.edu health.ucsd.edu/international
email: website:
emergency@flydoc.org www.flydoc.org
Medical Escort On Commercial Airlines
email: website:
guarantees@doctorcall.co.uk www.doctorcall.co.uk
Technology
Providers of nurses and doctors to accompany non-critical patients onboard commercial flights
Providers of specialist software for the insurance and assistance industries
Cambridge Global Payments
AirMed Australia Matthew Kline & Mark Wardrop – Executive Directors
Brad Loder – VP Marketing & Corporate Sponsorships
Hangar 650 Drover Road, Bankstown Airport. NSW, Sydney, AUSTRALIA 2200
212 King Street West, Suite 400, Toronto, ON M5H 1K5 CANADA
tel: +61 2 8700 0685 fax: +61 2 8700 0663
email: website:
ops@airmed.com.au www.airmed.com.au
tel: +1 (416) 646 6401 ext. 2392
email: bloder@cambridgefx.com website: www.cambridgefx.com
Aquarium Software Ltd
AMREF Flying Doctors Dr Bettina Vadera – Medical Director
Mark Colonnese – Director
Wilson Airport, Langata Road, PO Box 18617, Nairobi, KENYA
Poplar House, 126a Ashley Road, Hale, WA14 2UN, UK
tel: fax:
+254 20 6000 090 +254 20 344 170
email: website:
tel: +44 (0)161 927 5620 tel: +1 213 205 2200
emergency@flydoc.org www.flydoc.org
mark.colonnese@aquarium-software.com
www.aquarium-software.com
Firemelon (Magenta Insurance System)
DRK Assistance
Zena Carter – Managing Director
Andreas Speich – Managing Director
5th Floor, Moneda House, 25-27 Wellington Place, Belfast, BT1 6GD, NORTHERN IRELAND email: zena.carter@firemelon.com tel: +44 07859 053970 website: www.firemelon.com
Aufm Hennekamp 71, 40225 Düsseldorf, GERMANY tel: +49 211 301 805-0 fax: +49 211 301 805-21
email: website:
email: Bach@NewFrontierGroup.com website: www.newfrontiergroup.com
Nordic Insurance Software
European Air Ambulance Patrick Schomaker – Director Sales & Marketing
Elliott Draga – Head of Sales and Marketing
Luxembourg Airport, B.P.24, L-5201, Sandweiler, LUXEMBOURG
Aarhusgade 88, 6th Floor, 2100 Copenhagen, DENMARK
24hr tel: +352 26 26 00 +352 26 26 01 fax:
email: website:
alert@air-ambulance.com www.air-ambulance.com
tel: +1 (905) 866-8262
51
email: website:
elliott.draga@nisportal.com www.nisportal.com
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