General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Accident insurance for 70.3 Rss Feed  
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2016-04-26 11:30 AM

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Subject: Accident insurance for 70.3
Hi,

I'm a US citizen living outside the US, and I plan to do a 70.3 in Massachusetts next year. It'll be my first half iron distance event, so I'm already obsessively planning.

My employer's health insurance doesn't cover me in the US, and any travel insurance I've looked at is prohibitively expensive when I tell them that I'm going to do a triathlon in the US. The company I normally use for travel insurance is going to double the total cost of the insurance for the one day triathlon even though the period of the travel insurance is more than a month.

Can anyone suggest an insurance agent that will provide accident insurance for the triathlon only?

Sorry if the above isn't clear. I'm happy to clarify if questions arise.

Thanks.



2016-04-26 2:18 PM
in reply to: JCZ

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Subject: RE: Accident insurance for 70.3

Assuming you're doing an Ironman 70.3, they're USAT sanctioned races.  That means you're covered by USAT insurance.  You may want to contact them to confirm what's covered and how it works:  https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Triathlon/USAT-for-Me/Race-Directors/Insurance/Athlete-Excess-Medical-Policy

 

2016-04-26 2:36 PM
in reply to: TriMyBest

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Alpharetta, Georgia
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Subject: RE: Accident insurance for 70.3

Originally posted by TriMyBest

Assuming you're doing an Ironman 70.3, they're USAT sanctioned races.  That means you're covered by USAT insurance.  You may want to contact them to confirm what's covered and how it works:  https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Triathlon/USAT-for-Me/Race-Directors/Insurance/Athlete-Excess-Medical-Policy

 

Yes I would contact USAT directly for advice. The USAT insurance requires you first run any claims through your primary insurance, and then they kick in as secondary insurance after you meet their deductible. So if your primary doesn't cover you in the U.S. I'm not sure how that would work.

2016-04-26 2:59 PM
in reply to: lisac957

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Subject: RE: Accident insurance for 70.3

Originally posted by lisac957

Originally posted by TriMyBest

Assuming you're doing an Ironman 70.3, they're USAT sanctioned races.  That means you're covered by USAT insurance.  You may want to contact them to confirm what's covered and how it works:  https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Triathlon/USAT-for-Me/Race-Directors/Insurance/Athlete-Excess-Medical-Policy

 

Yes I would contact USAT directly for advice. The USAT insurance requires you first run any claims through your primary insurance, and then they kick in as secondary insurance after you meet their deductible. So if your primary doesn't cover you in the U.S. I'm not sure how that would work.

Secondary coverage simply means the insured has to exhaust any and all primary insurance before getting coverage.   If there is no primary, secondary becomes primary.   USAT will cover for medical expenses up to a certain amount after you meet their deductible (it's not clear to me how they set it, as it varies).   I had an accident last year and USAT covered almost all of my uncovered expenses, including payments to PT who wasn't in my network.   My deductible was 250, and there was a max of $25K.  They paid about $5K of that and was relatively easy to deal with, except they'd automatically send denial of claim letters out at set intervals and I had to get the providers to send info directly to them.  Overall I was pleased with that benefit.  

Making a claim was a simple one page affair that I faxed to them.  Administered by a third party administrator

Certainly made back my yearly fees for probably my entire triathlon career (although I don't recommend this approach )

2016-04-26 3:16 PM
in reply to: ChrisM

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Alpharetta, Georgia
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Subject: RE: Accident insurance for 70.3

Originally posted by ChrisM

Originally posted by lisac957

Originally posted by TriMyBest

Assuming you're doing an Ironman 70.3, they're USAT sanctioned races.  That means you're covered by USAT insurance.  You may want to contact them to confirm what's covered and how it works:  https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Triathlon/USAT-for-Me/Race-Directors/Insurance/Athlete-Excess-Medical-Policy

 

Yes I would contact USAT directly for advice. The USAT insurance requires you first run any claims through your primary insurance, and then they kick in as secondary insurance after you meet their deductible. So if your primary doesn't cover you in the U.S. I'm not sure how that would work.

Secondary coverage simply means the insured has to exhaust any and all primary insurance before getting coverage.   If there is no primary, secondary becomes primary.   USAT will cover for medical expenses up to a certain amount after you meet their deductible (it's not clear to me how they set it, as it varies).   I had an accident last year and USAT covered almost all of my uncovered expenses, including payments to PT who wasn't in my network.   My deductible was 250, and there was a max of $25K.  They paid about $5K of that and was relatively easy to deal with, except they'd automatically send denial of claim letters out at set intervals and I had to get the providers to send info directly to them.  Overall I was pleased with that benefit.  

Making a claim was a simple one page affair that I faxed to them.  Administered by a third party administrator

Certainly made back my yearly fees for probably my entire triathlon career (although I don't recommend this approach )

But if technically he *has* primary that refuses to cover him, it's unclear to me how they would view that.

I had a slightly different experience. With the volume of claims I had and the hassle it was to get each individual provider to fax in the correct documents (multiple attempts and they were still sending in the wrong forms) plus the lack of communication/miscommunication from the 3rd party folks, it ended up being less hassle for me to just pay the amount not covered. I ended up "losing" around $300 since that was the amount I would have paid after the USAT deductible, which was worth it to me to just pay and be done with it. Each experience is different, I'm sure.

2016-04-26 3:28 PM
in reply to: 0

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Subject: RE: Accident insurance for 70.3

If primary does not cover the loss, or does not exist, doesn't matter.  

Yes, my biggest issue was dealing with the providers.   They were in some cases difficult to deal with



Edited by ChrisM 2016-04-26 3:33 PM


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