How to Advocate for the Travel Insurance and Assistance Coverage Your Institution Needs
Developing a travel insurance and assistance plan that adequately addresses your institution’s needs is a complex task that requires the time and attention of professionals who understand the ins and outs of these particular plans. Advocating for that coverage, internally and externally, adds another level of complexity to achieving the ultimate goal: meeting your duty of care to ensure students and staff are covered in the case of illness or emergency.
It’s helpful to break down the coverage you believe you may want and then strategize how to achieve those goals. In this article, I will address some of the items you should consider adding and the best way to get the coverage your travelers need.
Travel insurance and assistance coverage upgrades to consider
One of the first considerations your team will need to decide is whether a roster or blanket plan makes the most sense for your organization. Both plans have pros and cons, though we often advise higher education institutions to opt for a blanket plan. Before we dive in deeper, let’s explore the main differences between these plan types.
When an organization chooses a roster plan, each person covered must be named individually. Sometimes, the traveler can follow a link to purchase the policy themselves or someone from your office can submit a list of participants.
Blanket policies cover everyone based on a description of who is eligible. For example, all faculty, staff, and students participating in a university program or university business may be named as eligible.
While roster plans may be less expensive due to the carrier's more narrowly defined risk, the chance of accidentally leaving someone off the list is higher. That is especially true if you rely on individuals to sign up for their own coverage. On the other hand, having staff develop a list to submit can be labor-intensive. Blanket plans provide universities with the peace of mind that all travelers are covered.
Once this basic decision is made, you can start thinking about what other options you may want to advocate for:
More extensive coverage — Look for gaps in coverage that you may want or need to address. For instance, mental health coverage is not always part of a standard plan but is increasingly important for travelers. You should also consider what pre-existing conditions your travelers may have and whether or not they will be covered under your current plan. Quite often, maintenance medications may not be covered under travel insurance plans. The same goes for travelers with diverse needs. When an insurance plan does not address all of the needs of travelers, it can be a barrier to participating in study abroad experiences.
Lower costs for travelers — Lowering costs without sacrificing coverage is almost always ideal, but it’s not easy. Working with skilled brokers and consultants can help learning institutions navigate the landscape and available options, often resulting in savings. At the very least, we suggest conducting an RFP to get more competitive rates. Renewing with the same carriers year after year can lead to higher premiums than other options.
More extensive assistance services — Quite often, we find that the way you couple your insurance coverage with your assistance coverage can bring down costs. Institutions frequently rely on embedded assistance vendors that work with their insurance companies, but they may need more coverage than that relationship provides. It’s important to look for duplications in coverage when you explore additional assistance and ensure you are not paying for the same services twice.
While this is by no means a comprehensive list of the things you may want to consider when negotiating your travel insurance and assistance coverage, addressing these issues will give you a firm foundation on which to start. Now, let’s talk about how to get these services within your budget.
Ways to advocate for the travel insurance assistance coverage you need
Negotiating for what your organization wants and needs is never easy, but there are some ways to make this process easier while ensuring you achieve your goals.
Find your allies — If your goals for travel and assistance coverage are likely to require a larger budget, you may need to make your case to internal stakeholders. Before you start, find your allies. Check with your student affairs department, multicultural offices, student success support, and disability services, as these departments are likely to support efforts to make travel abroad more accessible.
Benchmark against your peers — Sharing benchmark data from your peers is essential when beginning internal discussions about improving coverage. This helps internal stakeholders understand what other institutions do for their travelers and how your plans compare. Additionally, you can use this data to push carriers to give you what you need. If you are working with a broker they should have data they can rely on from other clients, but if you are not working with a broker, you can reach out to your peers at other institutions to see what they are willing to share.
Work with a broker — Not only will brokers be able to pull their own data to help guide institutions to the right level of coverage, but they should be able to rely on their underwriting experience to negotiate effectively and drive down rates. However, it’s worth noting that a general broker (who supports other policies on campus) may not have a firm handle on the international travel insurance and assistance market. You want to work with a partner with specialized experience in this area.
It’s impossible to overstate the importance of working with professionals who understand travel and assistance coverage to get the most benefit for your investment. From our own advocacy experience, we have seen a large state university maintain the same overall cost while moving to a blanket plan for all travelers, expanding assistance services, and maintaining the same level of insurance coverage. In another instance, we helped a private university reduce its overall cost by 20% while adding a blanket insurance policy to the existing assistance coverage. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.