When your parents visit the United States from India, often you are more worried about the exorbitant healthcare costs in the U.S. than they. However, you can purchase visitors insurance either from India or the U.S. to cover unforeseen accidents or illness during their stay in the United States. Before investing in a policy for visitors insurance for parents from India, it is important to understand a few fundamental issues.

It’s an exciting time to visit family staying abroad but the planning that goes into this may be time consuming and often brings lot of questions. Once the ticket reservations are done, the next big step is purchasing the right visitor insurance plan. International travel may be difficult for parents owing to their health, difficulty in adopting or adjusting to the food and weather conditions. Undesirable health conditions cannot be predicted, the best that can be done is to proactively safeguarding the visitor parents as well as their families in the host country.

A medical condition (injury, sickness, disorder, ailment or any mental condition) which has been treated or not, diagnosed or not, known to the insured person or not, and that existed before the coverage of any health insurance plan begins, is a pre-existing condition. Diabetes, Blood Pressure, Heart problems, Pregnancy, Asthma, Acne, Alzheimer etc. are some of the examples of pre-existing conditions. These medical conditions are pre-existing because they do not appear overnight after purchase of any health insurance. Some companies have a look back period ranging from past 6 months upto five years. The occurrence of pre-existing conditions often brings lot of mental trauma for parents visiting their families in a foreign country. Therefore, it is of critical importance to have a visitor insurance plan that offers coverage for acute onset of pre-existing conditions.

Visitor insurance is recommended to buy before a traveler visits another country. It offers protection against medical emergency, trip interruptions, emergency dental, natural disaster, repatriation of remains, accidental death and dismemberment, loss of baggage, physical therapy etc. that may arise during the trip. However, different plans have different coverage. Visitors insurance starts the very next day of the purchase or any specified future date.

Visitor Health Insurance covers expenses for medical conditions of a visitor traveling outside his home country. These conditions should occur after the purchase of a visitor health insurance plan. Visits to the doctor, hospital charges, X-rays, medical labs, ambulance services, prescribed medication and surgical procedures are usually covered. Your requirements from a plan should be discussed with a trusted and authorized visitor insurance service provider like MultiChoice Insurance Services (MCIS).

International Medical Insurance is a must especially when traveling abroad. No one can predict a 100% immune trip. Purchasing visitor insurance safeguards against a number of undesirable medical and travel-related circumstances. Travelers often understand the importance of having visitor insurance but they usually are unaware of certain mistakes:

Visitor insurance can minimize the financial risks associated with any unforeseen medical emergency during travel as well as the trip duration. Besides being “the” most important purchase after you buy your flight tickets to your intended destination, it is also the most necessary purchase. It should be understood that selection of right visitor insurance plan is very important,otherwise at the time of need it is like having no visitor insurance.

Planning makes travel better! Booking air tickets to your favorite holiday destination or preparing to travel to USA or any faraway land to meet your family and friends is always exciting. We all look forward to a safe flight, enjoyable days and happy vacation. This all is possible along with peace of mind, if we take care of certain things.

Every time someone decides to take a trip abroad, buying of flight tickets and visitor insurance are considered the most important purchases. Just as someone spends time choosing the right itinerary and airlines (based on flight duration, airfare etc.), choosing the best visitor insurance also requires careful consideration. In our earlier blog posts, we have mentioned that cheapest insurance is not the best option when someone thinks cost is the guiding factor to purchase the right visitor insurance. We have also over the period of time, emphasized the fact that insurance must be bought from trusted USA-based insurance agents (when traveling to USA).

Pre-existing conditions are medical conditions or health issues that existed in a person before his insurance policy comes into effect. The insured person may know these conditions or not. It is quite possible that these may be diagnosed or not or may be untreated too. To name a few of these conditions:

While buying visitor insurance, it is required to choose a policy maximum amount. Policy Maximum as the name suggests stands for the maximum amount the insurance company is going to pay for services covered within any insurance plan.

Visitor Insurance safeguards visitors against unforeseen medical circumstances when they visit some foreign land. But this is not the only benefit it offers. Visitor Insurance also provides protection and coverage for many other unforeseen circumstances. The goal of this blog post is to bring forth these circumstances that a lot of people are unaware of and which are also covered by many insurance plans (it should be noted that not all insurance plans provides these coverage).

Europe is one of the most-desired and famous travel destinations. Be it for leisure or business purpose, travel to Europe (the Schengen Area) requires a valid Schengen visa (of course, depending on your nationality/citizenship status) as well as the mandatory medical travel insurance.

Often when a person buys visitor insurance, he comes across a fear. Though, Insurance itself means a measure to mitigate and to be able to properly handle the risks and unexpected circumstances, but visitors suffering from conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart-ailments etc. are concerned about the coverage of these health conditions. At the time of purchase of travel insurance, they want to make sure their plan covers treatment, prescription costs, lab tests etc. arising due to these health conditions which probably have existed from long before the day of insurance purchase.

While traveling abroad, changes in weather conditions, food and water and bug/insect bites can result in unexpected illness or stress. Even accidents, political unrest, attack and theft could lead to unforeseen medical conditions. Therefore, a traveller must always know what he needs to do deal with such medical situations. These situations may or may not require urgent medical attention and hence can be categorized as emergency and non-emergency situations respectively.

In our first blog post Why visitor insurance, we have highlighted the necessity for visitor insurance or travel insurance.  It is a well-known fact that visitor medical insurance, be it for self or medical insurance for parents or for relatives, it is always helpful. But at the same time, it is noticed that there is quite a hullabaloo around the purchase of visitor insurance.  There is a fear, an implicit discomfort related to this buying process.

Travel insurance or visitor insurance is critical to have in case of some unexpected situation like medical emergency or loss of important travel documents. One question that baffles the minds of many prospective visitors is the decision, whether to buy the travel insurance from USA or from India (or any other home country).

Visitor insurance, as the name suggests is the insurance contract that covers a person visiting abroad or traveling within his own country. It is synonymous to travel insurance. Travel insurance can be purchased at the time of booking the trip. It can either be bought for the number of days the person is traveling or it can also include future trips, which means, it can include some fixed time duration.

For parents visiting USA, MCIS highly recommends purchase of visitor insurance to safeguard them against medical emergencies. Being insured helps in ensuring peace of mind both for the parents as well as their hosts i.e. children.

Before making the purchase of visitor insurance, there are two important questions especially when parents are the one taking the trip (or any elderly traveler):

The holiday plan is ready to be set in action. The excitement to meet loved ones is in the air.  For the trip to go without any hiccups, travelers should take care of certain things before and after the travel. Refer to the checklist provided in this blog post to organize your travel:

Tooth pain can take all the fun away from a perfectly going vacation. It can affect anybody, at any age and often needs immediate treatment or relief. It cannot be put off for treatment back home. MCIS is often asked about if dental problems are covered in visitor insurance and if yes, to what extent.

Dental Coverage in Visitor Insurance

Visitors before buying visitor insurance often wonder if it is expensive. The cost of Visitor Insurance Policy may differ plan to plan. Insurance agents before selling visitor insurance often ask the prospective visitors about their age, start and end dates of their trip, pre-existing medical conditions if any and type of their trip.

Examples- How is Premium Calculated

Let’s take a few examples to understand how certain factors affect the cost of visitor insurance i.e. the amount of premium visitors are supposed to pay:

Visitor insurance as the name suggests is the insurance meant for visitors. Do you think you are well prepared for your trip? If your answer is “No”, this blog post is to help you with the right purchase of visitor insurance for you. Here are some of the frequently asked questions from the prospective visitors.

As one of the largest visitor insurance broker in the United States, we have experienced that often the need to purchase visitor insurance is understood but visitors are unable to answer ‘which visitor insurance to buy’. Often it is assumed that the visitor insurance their friend purchased will be good for them too. But, it is not the right thing to do. The first step in buying the right visitor insurance for you is to compare various visitor insurance plans available.

Pre-existing medical conditions are health conditions that existed before the visitor’s insurance plan comes into effect. Diabetes, high BP, Arthritis, chronic back pain, Asthma, heart ailments etc. are some of the pre-existing conditions. Acute onset of pre-existing conditions refers to their sudden recurrence during the trip. Formally, an acute onset of pre-existing condition is a sudden and unexpected outbreak or recurrence of a pre-existing condition which occurs spontaneously and without advance warning either in the form of physician recommendations or symptoms.

Happy faces, joyful heart, memorable moments all symbolize a vacation that everyone dreams of. A lot goes into planning for perfect vacation! Right from the choice of location, the cost of accommodation, transport and travel prices, packing suitcases etc., any vacation starts with spending some time and effort. But there is one more important task that comprises vacation planning. It is the purchase of visitor insurance.

Visitor Insurance - A Quick Recap

There are certain benefits that visitor insurance offers but generally visitors are unaware of them. One such benefit is ‘Repatriation of Mortal Remains’ (RMR). As the name suggests, it means taking the bodily remains of the deceased insured person back to his home country. How much unfortunate it may seem to have a loved one pass away (especially while traveling), it is very critical as well as may be very expensive to have the arrangements to get him back to his home country for final rituals. Therefore, it is beneficial to have this feature in visitor insurance plan.

Visitor insurance is important for business trip and personal trip. For business visitors, the insurance provides medical and trip protection. Coverage varies depending on whether a US citizen or resident is flying out of US or if a foreign visitor is traveling to US for business. By purchasing visitor insurance, a business executive can focus on work and protect himself from unforeseen medical circumstances. In case of an undesirable event, it saves companies and executives from paying huge amount of money in healthcare.

All visitor insurance companies require visitors to submit claim forms to the insurance company. Insurance company will not process claims without these claim forms. Once the medical care has been received, claim submission is an important part of visitor insurance. This is quite different from the domestic health insurance where the insured person is not required to submit claim forms if he has received the medical services.

Whether a visitor is Green Card holder or his Green Card has been applied (and is in process), decides the type of medical coverage he will receive. A visitor may belong to any of the following scenarios:

1) Visitor’s Green Card has been applied by his family or children

2) Visitors who are below 65 years of age and are Green Card holders (now living permanently in USA)

What if a visitor meets an accident during travel and it results in death or severe injuries to eyes or limbs? Visitor insurance provides coverage for death and permanent loss of sight and limbs. Visitor’s death and accidental dismemberment is covered by AD&D coverage within visitor insurance. Accidental Dismemberment means a sudden, unintentional and unexpected occurrence caused solely by external, visible means and resulting in complete severance from the body of one or more Limbs or eyes and not contributed to by Illness or disease.

The best way to purchase a visitor insurance plan that suits you is to compare and understand what different plans offer and how they are useful to you as a person. Each person has different requirements based on the purpose of their trip, their age, the nature of their trip and the amount they could spend in buying a plan. No matter which plan a traveler chooses, there are certain benefits every plan offers. When you set out to buy a plan, whether online or through an agent, make sure you have handy, all the information that may be needed. You may be buying it for yourself or for family. Continue reading to know what all you need to purchase a visitor insurance plan:

Submission of claims should be simple and easy because the purpose of visitor insurance is to help visitors. Visitor insurance serves to provide financial sanity to a visitor in case of an unexpected health situation in a foreign country. Its benefits ranges from outpatient & inpatient medical services to provision of prescription drugs, radiological tests and even surprising benefits like emergency evacuation, return of a minor child(ren) etc. Talking about the medical services availed by a visitor during his trip, any visitor insurance pays according to it’s master policy. For these services, a visitor is supposed to file claims to the insurance company. Claim submission is an important process that helps a visitor to get proper reimbursement for his expenses.

Once a visitor has submitted claims for medical services and medications received by him, the insurance company goes through a thorough process for evaluation of the claims. This evaluation process may approve or deny the claim. For visitors it is important to pay attention before and during the claim submission process. Claim forms duly filled, necessary supporting documents attached and all these sent within time period ensures that the claims would be handled speedily. But sometimes, the claims are denied. Of course this is not a happy situation for a visitor. What’s next? Read on to understand what a visitor can do next.

Medical costs in foreign countries like USA is quite high and in case of an unexpected medical emergency, a visitor would have to face mental trauma from high costs too. This is where visitor insurance brings relief.  A visitor must purchase visitor insurance plan based on his needs. A plan that perfectly suits his medical and other travel related needs would cover him adequately during his trip. He or she must be well aware of important factors that go in purchase of the right visitor insurance plan. But there are some important things to remember after the purchase of visitor insurance plan. Refer them here:

When visitors set out to buy visitor insurance for their upcoming trip, they have different plans available to them. These plans differ in their coverage and cost. But one of the major difference in them is that they may belong to two different categories. A visitor may either opt for a Fixed Coverage plan or a Comprehensive Coverage plan. Experienced agents in Multichoice Insurance Services recommend purchase of a Comprehensive Coverage plan. Let’s understand their differences and why we recommend the Comprehensive ones.

Sometimes visitor insurance riders are purchased in order to receive additional coverage on top of the coverage already provided by insurance policy. They are optional and commonly, known as Optional Riders and comes with additional charges. This blog post explores some of the commonly bought riders.

Visitor Insurance provides various benefits to a visitor when he is away from his home country. These benefits range from acquiring medical attention in case of an unexpected health emergency, using emergency medical evacuation services, natural disaster coverage, return of minor children coverage and many others (surprising) benefits. However, when it comes to buying medications at a pharmacy, visitor insurance works in a different way than regular domestic health insurance, especially in USA. With domestic healthcare systems the insured can purchase medications with a copay at the pharmacy, but insured visitors have to pay upfront from their pocket and submit claims for reimbursement.

Medical costs in countries like USA are very high, and a visitor does not definitely need the financial trauma of these costs when he encounters a medical emergency in such a country. Visitors Insurance is a must, just like all other absolutely necessary travel requirements checklist. But a lot of visitors, especially first-time travelers are not aware of important essentials of visitor insurance purchase. MCIS offers visitors insurance to all types of visitors, those who are visiting United States for business or for leisure, gives it’s readers these critical and not to be missed considerations:

What is International Student Insurance:

International Student Insurance as the name suggests coverage and healthcare benefits tostudents, visiting faculties, scholars or other persons engaging in full-time educational or research activities outside their home country. These students/persons may be:

Medical costs in countries like USA are very high, and a visitor does not definitely need the financial trauma of these costs when he encounters a medical emergency in such a country. Visitor Insurance is a must, just like all other travel essentials. But a lot of visitors, especially first-time travelers are not aware of important essentials of visitor insurance purchase. MCIS offers visitor insurance to all types of visitors, those who are visiting United States for business or for leisure, gives it’s readers these critical and not to be missed considerations:

There are some travelers who seek peace and relaxation on their trips but there are some who are in search of adrenalin rush. These adventure seeking travelers may not be interested in world famous landmarks or historical sites or interesting amusement parks, but they love to engage in physical activities. These activities require daring and courage. Therefore, the preparation of such trip is a lot of work and requires attention to detail and diligence. This preparation would make their trip memorable and fun. Here are some of the great tips for adventure-seeking travelers:

Pregnancy is a time, full of excitement and hopes. Parents look forward to welcome their bundle of joy with dreams and wishes. At the same time, parents need to be well prepared for health reasons and upcoming expenses. Maternity expenses may include several doctor visits spread over 9 months as well as few weeks after the baby is born, to different lab screenings and medications. Different plans offer different coverage and therefore, before any purchase is made, plans should be well understood in light of individual needs and budget constraints.

Visitor insurance to many travelers is an important part of their travel preparation, while for others, it is an expense which is not needed. It can be easily imagined as a person carrying an umbrella when the weather reports indicate rain, and still, there are people who think they don’t need an umbrella because the rain may not fall. However, it should be noted that the people carrying the umbrella feel better when it rains than the people without the umbrella. Similarly, purchasing visitor insurance is a choice that lies in the hands of the traveler. It is not mandatory to buy it but yes, very much recommended. There lie certain common myths when it comes to the decision making about visitor insurance. Let’s see what are these and how much truth they contain.

Visitor insurance is a short-term health insurance covering new sickness and new injuries that may happen during a trip. Irrespective of the purpose of trip, business or leisure, visitor insurance is necessary (though not mandatory for entering any country including USA). It provides benefits in times of medical emergencies, and therefore, MCIS, one of the largest brokers of visitor insurance in USA, highly recommends purchasing it. In this article, MCIS from its customer experience would like to share some basic but very useful information about visitor insurance.

Travel planning takes time and focus. For any trip to be enjoyable and free from any unexpected stress, planning goes a long way. Right from the right airline ticket booking to comfortable hotel accommodations to perfect sight seeing, each of this task if done properly, makes the trip easy and smooth. This article describes some of the most common travel mistakes people make. Being aware of them is useful so that they can be avoided. Review them and travel right: