Business visitors insurance provides medical coverage for visitors traveling for business related purposes. Visitors traveling abroad are not covered by their home country insurance plan, which includes people traveling on business trips. It is especially important to buy visitors insurance for business trips to the US where the cost of medical care is extremely high. A comprehensive visitors health insurance plan can save you or your company from a financial disaster.
Business Travelers vs. Leisure Travelers
People traveling for business reasons and those traveling for vacation or tourism purposes might look for different features in a visitors insurance plan. Companies often reimburse their employees for travel expenses, so a visitors insurance policy with trip cancellation or interruption coverage may not be a huge concern for business travelers. However, anyone traveling abroad needs medical protection.
What Kind of Coverage do Business Travelers Need?
If anything happens to you during a business trip, you can't rely on your company to pay your medical bills. In the US, medical bills can add up to thousands of dollars-- money you or your company may not have. As a business traveler, you might need medical assistance if you fall sick or get injured. Travel medical insurance for business travelers provides coverage for the following services:
- Emergency services: If you fall sick or get injured while on a business trip, you may need an ambulance to transport you to the nearest hospital.
- Medical care: You may need to visit a doctor or hospital while on your trip.
- Emergency medical evacuation: If you are far away from a physician or hospital, you may require medical evacuation.
In addition to medical coverage, some visitors insurance plans also offer coverage for travel-related incidents. Business travel insurance can provide coverage for these common business trip mishaps:
- Trip cancellation: Some business trip expenses may be non-refundable so trip cancellation insurance ensures that you are reimbursed for such expenses like airfare and accommodations if you have to cancel your trip last minute due to unexpected events.
- Trip delay: If your flight is delayed, visitors insurance can reimburse you for alternate airfare, hotel accommodations, food and other expenses.
- Lost or stolen baggage: If your baggage is lost or stolen, your travel insurance policy may reimburse you up to a certain limit for the missing essentials or expensive items such as laptops or tablets.
However, don't confuse visitors insurance with travel insurance. Be sure to understand the difference between travel insurance and visitors insurance to make sure you are getting the right insurance for your business trip.
Frequent Business Travelers
Depending on how frequently you travel for business, you may want to consider purchasing multi-trip coverage instead of single-trip coverage. Single-trip coverage covers you for only one trip, even if you are traveling to multiple countries. Multi-trip coverage provides coverage for multiple trips in one year. If you travel frequently for business or tourism purposes, a multi-trip coverage plan may ultimately save you time and money. It should be noted that multi-trip coverage does have a limit on the length of each trip.
Just because you are traveling for business reasons does not mean that you are not at risk for medical or travel related incidents while abroad. Business travel insurance may cover medical emergencies that could otherwise mean financial disaster for you or your company so it is important to think ahead and be prepared.
Anyone traveling abroad, whether for business or for leisure, should understand the importance of visitors insurance and the many ways in which it can protect against medical emergencies while staying in a foreign country.