Travel Insurance Reviews for WorldTrips Atlas International

I've been using HCC for years. In August I finally had an accident that required a 3-day hospital visit. I had to pay out of pocket almost $3,000 and its now 60 days after my accident and I have not been reimbursed. The company has given me no updates or time frame for this. My accident and treatment were very standard and clearly fall within the guidelines of coverage. It shouldn't take an underwriter more than an hour to see this and approve it.

I can no longer recommend HCC - they are the cheapest so I guess you get what you pay for. I will pay more in the future for a more responsive plan. As a Yoga Teacher, $3000 is a lot of money which I needed to borrow- I thought the entire point of insurance was to be covered when you have an accident....

I am frustrated that people give them such high reviews. Reviews from people who did not file claims aren't an accurate assessment of the company.

UPDATE: As of 11/29 I have not been reimbursed. I was told that my claim was closed because I did send a from that my hospital sent to them on the day of my accident.The front-line reps are very uninformed- many contradicting each other. The last guy told me it was a bad idea to pay my claim myself (I had to to get my passport back from the hospital), which was exactly the advice I received from HCC several months ago.

When an InsureMyTrip rep contacted them directly it was discovered that 2 pieces of paper were 'stuck' together and they would reopen my claim. Very unprofessional.

UPDATE Feb 2 2016

I finally received my claim check. I was reimbursed for the total amount of my claim, minus a deductible and small fee for the exchange rate.

I'm happy about this, however still unhappy about the 5 months it took to be paid. The company sent 4 checks to me that never arrived and after a number of phone calls they finally UPS'd one to me. How can 4 checks get lost in the mail?

Anyway, look elsewhere. I'm currently using IMG Global as they were very responsive to my questions about their policy, however I have not had to file a claim yet.

HCC insurance did not allow you to send any documents or claims by email and you have to mail by courier. If you live outside of the United States you'll incur further costs.

HCC took 3 full months to send me my reimbursement for a pricey visit to the doctor while on an international vacation. Along the way, I checked in frequently, and it seemed their internal processing time was exceptionally slow. That said, when I started to wonder if this was a scam, I read that other reviewers had the same experience, but were ultimately paid. This is how they operate. HCC is by far the cheapest cost for the most comprehensive coverage. How often do you really have to file a travel insurance claim? If you have the patience to wait, and are willing to roll the dice a little, this is a good buy. If you want certainty, professional service, and speed, pay 3x as much for a better company.

I found this plan to be an excellent price for the amount of coverage provided. The only negative with my plan was that I paid additional premium to remove the deductible, but the one time I went to the doctor I still had to pay out of pocket because it qualified as private insurance.

I purchased insurance from HCC Medical Insurance Services several times in the past. This was the first time I filed a claim. I contacted the company right after I had an incident which resulted in a short hospital visit. The representative of the insurance company told me I should fill out the claim documentation and send it in the mail. I sent the expense report from the hospital, together with the form to the claims department address. After waiting for a while, I checked with a representative of the company over "live chat" if everything was okay and he told me he couldn't give me any information since the case was under review.

I had to exchange a few emails and contact customer service a few times to get some information on the claim status, but in the end I received the check via mail. You need to have patience, but all of the medical expenses were paid.

HCC's customer service representatives were very ignorant regarding the terms of the plan, and the associated clinics and hospitals abroad. They gave me wrong information, and were unsupportive when I was sick while traveling. Claiming was a terrible, long hassle that only got better once InsureMyTrip got involved and helped me out.

The worst part was when they finally reimbursed the claim they sent it as a check to my permanent residence, which is in the United States. So I was traveling, flat broke and unable to access the money I had to spend that I wasn't supposed to have had to spend in the first place. This insurance was a nightmare. InsureMyTrip is amazing and I love their customer service, but using HCC was a truly dissatisfying experience.

I did not use the coverage, but I was completely secure that I had sufficient insurance. I appreciate the way I was treated and your follow up.

Travel insurance isn't something you expect to review -- you buy it, you hope nothing goes wrong, then you come home and forget about it. If, something goes wrong and you need to make a claim, however, you expect the worst in paperwork and hassle. Unfortunately, we had to make that claim, but surprisingly, the experience was very quick and easy.

We were traveling with a 1 year old who got a high fever just after we got to Paris -- we thought we would go to the ER just to get checked out, maybe a prescription for some fever reducer and be on our way. Well, our 7pm visit turned into an all-night nightmare and 2-night hospital stay (another story for the hospital review!).

At 4am, when it became apparent that she was going to be admitted, I called the claims number from my mobile phone. Thankfully, the call was quick and easy. The representative took down some basic info and was very flexible when we didn't have some info like the hospital address or fax numbers. He gave us a fax number where the hospital could submit paperwork and that was basically it -- I asked if there was anything else we needed to do to get pre approval, and he said we had already fulfilled our responsibility in notifying them. Great! When it came time to visit the hospital billing department, they had local numbers in France with French speaking representatives -- this was a big help and big relief for us as it meant that all the details could be worked out directly between the hospital and insurance company. (The only complaint here was that the hospital staff got put on hold for several minutes waiting for a representative, with people waiting behind us, I thought she was going to give up.) With that exchange of info, we were done! I haven't heard from the hospital or insurance company since -- and that's the way you want it!

While I hope no one has to have their holiday ruined by similar circumstances, at least based on this one experience of mine, you can know that this company came through when we needed them, provided great service, and did exactly what an insurance company should do in exchange for all the times that we pay them and nothing goes wrong.

And by the way, if you are traveling with a baby, I highly recommend getting travel medical coverage -- it's so easy for small kids to get sick and you need that peace of mind that you can go see a doctor if you need to and not worry about costs. Maybe you don't need a million dollars in coverage, but go with the lowest deductible that you can afford.

Happy and safe travels to you all!

Horrible coverage, very slow to response, all in all garbage company.

My unhappiness is due to the fact that I was only reimbursed for 80% of the total cost of my wife's medical care (I am sure this is stated in the fine print somewhere, but I didn't see it) and it took over a month and a half to receive a response from HCC.
I am not poor and could easily have covered the entire cost of my wife's medical care out-of-pocket. What really annoys me is that I purchased this insurance from you to protect myself against a catastrophic (but extremely unlikely) medical expense, but I now know that due to the 80% rule, I would have been out-of-pocket for $5000, $10,000 or even $20,000, which I definitely could not have afforded.
On a happier note, I called HCC customer service before taking my wife to the doctor, and the person I spoke to was courteous, efficient and knowledgeable.