International medical evacuation insurance for employees or individuals can be delivered in many different ways. How a medical evacuation takes place can be a life and death decision. Who decides, and how do you know you have the best cover?

There are thousands of people all around the world who literally owe their lives to international medical evacuation insurance. Air lifted off oil rigs, rescued from remote locations or whisked across borders, medical evacuation is all about getting injured or sick people to hospitals or treatment centres that are properly equipped to deal with serious medical conditions.

What is international medical evacuation insurance?
Medical evacuation cover is normally included as an option in international medical insurance policies and usually includes three elements:

Assistance: Usually a telephone helpline providing medical advice and assistance in locating suitable medical facilities. In many cases this is the entry point to evacuation, but it can also offer general advice and second opinions.

Medical Evacuation:This specifically provides transport to a place that will provide suitable medical treatment if suitable treatment isn’t available locally. This is normally an internationally renowned hospital, but could be a specialist health clinic with suitable vaccinations, or some other specialist facility.

Repatriation:This is usually offered as an addition to “medical evacuation”, and includes the option of being transported ‘home’ (usually defined by country of passport) for treatment.

Who is providing the service?
Whilst you may sign up your employees or yourself via an international medical insurance policy, the evacuation element is normally sub-contracted to an evacuations specialist.

Each specialist company has their own way of doing things, which will affect how evacuations are handled. In some cases the evacuation firm will own and operate their own fleet of air ambulances, with permanent medical staff on hand in specific locations around the world. Other firms will partner with local and international air rescue companies and may use regular airlines in order to affect the transfer.

What is the best approach?
The best approach depends on a number of factors.

Where are your people located?
Firstly, where your people are likely to be is a primary concern. Some companies offer better responses in certain areas of the world and we sometimes recommend one policy over another because we know that the support in a particular region is of a higher standard with certain operators.

This does not mean that having dedicated air ambulance facilities is always the best option. Experienced medivac doctors tell us that the restricted conditions of a small plane can cause problems with looking after a critically ill patient en route. Using a smaller aircraft may require refuelling stops between locations and may well travel at slower speeds, making space aboard a commercial aircraft a better option in some cases.

If you are running a group scheme that covers expatriates from different countries, you need to be careful when including repatriation options. Repatriation will cost a great deal more if it includes expensive areas like the US, when compared with Europe. If you have two Americans among a workforce of 30, you need to make sure that you only pay for US repatriation on the two individuals that require it. That may sound obvious, but when we carry out our free international medical insurance audits for multinational companies, it’s amazing how many are paying for expensive blanket cover that they don’t actually require.

What is the nature of the medical emergency?
Secondly, the nature of the medical condition can have a huge impact on the best approach. Every reputable international medical evacuation company will put the patient’s needs first and that can lead to some unusual procedures. In one case in the Caribbean, a powerboat evacuation was chosen over air ambulance because the insured was a scuba diver with suspected ‘bends’. Flying higher than 2,000 feet could have exacerbated the patient’s condition, with potentially fatal results.

Who is the patient?
Thirdly, who the patient is can also have a significant bearing on the best course of action. We had a client who had newborn twins that needed to be evacuated from Ukraine. The nearest and most logical evacuation destination would have been Germany. The mother of the twins, however, was Ukrainian and did not have the required visa for EU entrance. Rather than fight through red-tape, the evacuation team chose an immediate transfer to the American Hospital in Istanbul, which has excellent modern facilities, highly qualified doctors and the specialist neo-natal care that was required.

Author Bio: Bellwood Prestbury is an independent global medical insurance expert with years of experience in medical evacuation cover for companies. The best international medical insurance for your employees. Bellwood Prestbury Limited http://www.bellwoodprestbury.com

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