Last July, I had a medical incident while on holiday in Austria. I submitted a claim to my travel insurer AllClear in August, but the matter is still not settled. I keep receiving payment reminders from the various organisations who helped me. Having had two threats of court action, I forked out £10,000 of my own funds to settle the bills, but had little meaningful contact with the insurer. Please help.
J. A., Cheadle, Greater Manchester.
Sally Hamilton replies: You explained to me how this costly medical incident came about when you were walking in the hills near Obergurgl, Austria, a popular hiking area, and were heading back down on a waymarked path on your own when you began to feel unwell.
You stopped at the side of the path to rest and drink from your bottle of water.
A local man who spoke some English stopped to ask if you needed help. You said you hoped you’d soon be better and planned to continue the descent.
The man obviously didn’t think this wise and, despite your protests, used his mobile to call a rescue helicopter. After half an hour, it hadn’t arrived, so you headed downhill, accompanied by a kind German couple who had also stopped to ask after you.
Just as you reached the bottom, the helicopter landed nearby carrying a doctor, who came and checked you over.
He decided you were probably just dehydrated but insisted you take the helicopter down into the valley and be transferred by ambulance to hospital for proper assistance. This you did, and after being thoroughly examined were given the all-clear and discharged.
You were relieved there were no lasting ill-effects from your overheating episode but taken aback by the lengthy struggle that ensued to get your bills paid by your insurer.
AllClear insurance is underwritten by Zurich, which passed your details to agency Reactiveclaims to manage the claim on its behalf. This is when matters slowed to a glacial pace.
Meanwhile, you received four invoices relating to the incident, the cheapest being €25 for the hospital doctor’s assessment, which I thought surprisingly low.
But the bills for all the sundry expenses were hefty. The rescue organisers charged €270, the ambulance transfer cost €389 and the short helicopter ride came to €10,850 (an overall total of nearly £10,000). This latter bill is a particular reminder as to why it is vital to take out travel insurance for any trip.
As an aside, tourists may not realise the massive costs of rescue flights and medical care while abroad. Anyone who saw this column four weeks ago will have read of the huge cost of the rescue of a reader who had a cardiac arrest in America’s Grand Canyon – estimated at $50,000 (£38,000).
The US is a notoriously expensive place to fall ill or have an accident, but bills can be high in Europe, too. Anyone relying on the free Global Health Insurance Card, which offers state healthcare in European Economic Area countries on the same terms as locals (whether that’s free or involves some form of payment), should be aware that it would not provide cover for services such as the ones that came to your rescue – including for individuals who don’t want to be rescued in the first place.
I understand that insurers must check the veracity of any claim and get full details of the invoices involved, plus scrutinise any issues over non-disclosure of medical problems. But I find it difficult to fathom why it should take eight months, as in your case, especially when all the relevant invoices were forwarded promptly.
What is more concerning is the poor communication that left you feeling you had no choice but to pay the bills out of your own pocket through fear of debt collectors knocking at your door. What if you hadn’t the resources to pay?
I asked AllClear to investigate what went wrong and prod the claims handlers into action. As if by magic, a few days later, your £10,000 claim was paid in full – plus £800 for the inconvenience.
An AllClear spokesman says: ‘Whilst we strive to offer the highest standards of customer service, on this occasion this didn’t happen. Working with our underwriter Zurich, we have carried out a thorough investigation and they have identified an isolated processing error in relation to this claim which led to the payment delay. Zurich apologises for the stress caused.’
I had a £6,000 stairlift installed by Stannah Lifts in May 2023, which was guaranteed for two years. In the first year, I had to call out an engineer every month as the footplate was failing, with many parts replaced.
The issue seemed to settle, but in the past two months the problem has returned. Apparently, it’s an issue with the motor. Two engineers have been to sort it, but since then it has reoccurred.
What worries me is I have a stairlift that is not fit for purpose and that I’ll have to take out the firm’s £506-a-year maintenance contract once the warranty expires in May.
J. B., Gloucester.
Sally Hamilton replies: I asked Stannah to look into what was up with your stairlift as you had faced an inordinate number of callouts to fix it. This made you feel pressured to take out the £506 maintenance contract as you couldn’t trust the lift to work without regular engineer visits.
Stannah investigated immediately, and I am pleased to say speedily came back to offer a fulsome apology – and a resolution.
It said sorry for the ‘uncharacteristic trouble’ you have faced, and promised to replace the carriage and chair – leaving the third main component (your bespoke curved rail) in place.
Normally, such a ‘reconditioned’ stairlift would come with only a one-year free warranty, but as a goodwill gesture it’s now two years.
This certainly lifted your mood, and when we caught up last week you were pleased to report you now have a fully functioning lift.
Let’s hope it continues, as at the age of 81 and suffering arthritis, asthma and atrial fibrillation, you need a reliable stairlift.
- Write to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or email sally@dailymail.co.uk — include phone number, address and a note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Sally Hamilton. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.