any PHers deal with travel insurance??

[shnozz]

Whilst on holiday last year my GF required some medical treatment - fairly serious and to the tune of about £700. I had arranged travel insurance through my bank and details were passed to the hospital at the time so we only handed over a £35 - £40 excess.

Now she has been sent a letter demanding she pay to get copies of her GP records to prove she had no condition pre-holiday that she should have disclosed. Surely this cannot be write that she has to pay for them to undertake their enquiries??? :angry:

I know the BMA have restricted the charge for medical records to £50 but its not the point!

[basil brush]

Does the treatment relate to an undisclosed pre-existing condition? If not and they have paid the claim I would write to them making this clear and sit tight.

[shnozz]

well yes and no - she suffered from a minor problem of a similar nature about 7 years ago and nothing since. Go away on holiday and a more severe problem occurs. I dont know how much information is "reasonable" when disclosing medical history to a holiday insurer but surely a seven year gap and the original incident being so minor it wasnt followed up by her GP would make it irrelevant re disclosure of any condition.

I am tempted to get her to sign a consent form allowing access to her GP records and tell them she is not paying for them to make enquiries to try and repudiate a claim!

[basil brush]

If there is a link between the two conditions they may well treat it as pre-existing and look to repudiate. Depends whether they are 2 isolated occurences of the same condition or the same ongoing condition re-appearing.

[shnozz]

ta Marcus. As the bill is over £700 this could be a bit of a battle.

[basil brush]

If you want you can e-mail me details and I'll run it by one of our claims people for an opinion. May not be the one you want though.

[shnozz]

Basil - YHM

[basil brush]

YHM Shnozz