Dan Travel Insurance failed us again are there any better alternatives

[outofofficebrb]

I believe that DAN Americas is quite different from DAN Asia Pacific, and covers within one's home country - as do many trip/travel company policies.

DAN accident covers international and within US with no minimum distance from home. I suppose you could have a dive accident in your pool and it would be covered.

 

[Ankush Mittal]

@DandyDon DAN Asia Pacific also covers same country of residence, but I was just warning others to be cautious and double check for any Dive Insurance they may opt for.

@outofofficebrb

This is precisely why I said please double check coverage. I have gone over the DAN Insurance handbook for USA and it clearly states as follows:

Your evacuation coverage begins when you travel at least 50 miles/80 km from home and call DAN TravelAssist to arrange your evacuation

This applies to every TravelAssist feature which exists.

I don't take insurance without going over the fine print. Most insurance companies look for a reason not respect your coverage. Please don't give them a reason to.

 

[outofofficebrb]

@Ankush Mittal

DAN travelassist is a feature available to all DAN members and covers any medical emergency regardless of whether you are diving or not. You can be a DAN member without purchasing dive accident insurance. Travelassist is one of those benefits of being a member in addition to getting Dive Alert magazines. This evacuation is limited to an aggregate of $100K per member. Please read the handbook again and call DAN to confirm. Some details are here: Join DAN — Scuba Diving Membership — DAN | Divers Alert Network

Being a DAN member gives you the ability/opportunity to buy their dive accident insurance and travel insurance. I also think it’s a bad idea to just have DAN’s membership and no dive accident coverage from them.

DAN Dive accident insurance which is an additional plan that you pay for on top of DAN membership, as I am discussing, would cover medical evacuation and treatment, bills, etc. from a dive accident and that is coverered anywhere, regardless of how far or close you are from home and is a separate thing. While travelassist limits the medical evacuation to an aggregate of $100K per member, the dive accident coverage does not limit what proportion of your coverage is used for medical evacuation vs hyperbaric treatment vs other costs. Its limits are based on which plan you have which will determine whether it is per occurrence or lifetime. I am not referencing DAN membership benefits alone here which is what you are referring to for TravelAssist alone. I specifically referred to DAN accident in my post. The thing they do share in common is that you must call their emergency line first so that they arrange medical care and evacuations for you to ensure that it is covered 100%.

 

[Ankush Mittal]

@Ankush Mittal

DAN travelassist is a feature available to all DAN members and covers any medical emergency regardless of whether you are diving or not. You can be a DAN member without purchasing dive accident insurance. Travelassist is one of those benefits of being a member in addition to getting Dive Alert magazines. This evacuation is limited to an aggregate of $100K per member. Please read the handbook again and call DAN to confirm. Some details are here: Join DAN — Scuba Diving Membership — DAN | Divers Alert Network

Being a DAN member gives you the ability/opportunity to buy their dive accident insurance and travel insurance. I also think it’s a bad idea to just have DAN’s membership and no dive accident coverage from them.

DAN Dive accident insurance which is an additional plan that you pay for on top of DAN membership, as I am discussing, would cover medical evacuation and treatment, bills, etc. from a dive accident and that is coverered anywhere, regardless of how far or close you are from home and is a separate thing. While travelassist limits the medical evacuation to an aggregate of $100K per member, the dive accident coverage does not limit what proportion of your coverage is used for medical evacuation vs hyperbaric treatment vs other costs. Its limits are based on which plan you have which will determine whether it is per occurrence or lifetime. I am not referencing DAN membership benefits alone here which is what you are referring to for TravelAssist alone. I specifically referred to DAN accident in my post. The thing they do share in common is that you must call their emergency line first so that they arrange medical care and evacuations for you to ensure that it is covered 100%.

Insurance is so confusing and it frustrates the living daylights out of me. Precisely why I have DAN and I take Travel Insurance separately for each trip.

While I stand corrected, the loophole here is that DAN TravelAssist says

Coverage is provided 24 hours per day, seven days per week to those traveling on a trip at least 50 miles/80 km from the person’s permanent residence as listed in the DAN database.

While the first paragraph on coverage says "Evacuation" the above paragraph does not narrow it down. So I am confused as to whether if you were to call TravelAssist and say "Hey someone with DCI who was diving in a lake 20 km from his DAN Registered Address is heading to a Hospital to receive Hyperbaric Chamber treatment please cover the expense" will they deny it?

In my opinion they will. They will definitely not evacuate the victim to a hospital that I think we can agree on, but I am guessing you will have to pay for it all yourself and then file a claim with DAN. Is that correct?

For me its all speculation anyways, I live in New Delhi, not really lakes in India diveable and everything else is hundreds of kilometers away if not thousands.

 

[outofofficebrb]

Insurance is so confusing and it frustrates the living daylights out of me. Precisely why I have DAN and I take Travel Insurance separately for each trip.

While I stand corrected, the loophole here is that DAN TravelAssist says



While the first paragraph on coverage says "Evacuation" the above paragraph does not narrow it down. So I am confused as to whether if you were to call TravelAssist and say "Hey someone with DCI who was diving in a lake 20 km from his DAN Registered Address is heading to a Hospital to receive Hyperbaric Chamber treatment please cover the expense" will they deny it?

In my opinion they will. They will definitely not evacuate the victim to a hospital that I think we can agree on, but I am guessing you will have to pay for it all yourself and then file a claim with DAN. Is that correct?

For me its all speculation anyways, I live in New Delhi, not really lakes in India diveable and everything else is hundreds of kilometers away if not thousands.

You are still just reading the section that only applies to benefits of a DAN membership. The point I am making is for people WITH dive accident insurance through DAN.

Having DAN membership does not mean you have DAN accident insurance unless you paid for it.

In the example you gave, if the member is just a DAN member AND does NOT have DAN dive accident insurance, they would be denied medical evacuation if they are less than 80km/50mi from home because they don’t have DAN dive accident which does not have distance stipulations. They would also be denied for any dive accident expenses like hospital or treatments because of this. In this example, this member only has DAN membership and not DAN dive accident. If they had DAN accident then everything in the example you gave would be covered because distance from home is not an issue under the plan. Distance is only a problem with travelassist which comes standard with DAN membership. With a membership only and no accident insurance, under travelassist, they would NOT be able to claim anything at all. If they had health insurance they can try to claim coverage there but many health insurance policies do not cover diving or they have extremely low limits like $20-40K.

However, the point I raised was with DAN dive accident insurance. If a DAN member has DAN dive accident insurance, they would be covered no matter where they are, even if they have a dive accident in the lake behind their house. It would cover transportation to the hospital, hospital fee, hyperbaric treatments, everything, up to the plan coverage amount for lifetime or occurrence depending on the plan.

 

[DandyDon]

While the first paragraph on coverage says "Evacuation" the above paragraph does not narrow it down. So I am confused as to whether if you were to call TravelAssist and say "Hey someone with DCI who was diving in a lake 20 km from his DAN Registered Address is heading to a Hospital to receive Hyperbaric Chamber treatment please cover the expense" will they deny it?

In my opinion they will. They will definitely not evacuate the victim to a hospital that I think we can agree on, but I am guessing you will have to pay for it all yourself and then file a claim with DAN. Is that correct?

Not under the Travel Assist benefit of membership as while it has several other aspects, the evacuation benefit is for needs further from home. If the member also had DAN dive insurance, then yes: "Ambulance transportation by ground, air or marine ambulance services to the nearest Hospital or Hyperbaric Chamber where prescribed care or treatment can be given" From Scuba Diving Accident Insurance — About Scuba Insurance Programs — DAN | Divers Alert Network

 

[Ankush Mittal]

@outofofficebrb and @DandyDon

Thanks for the clarifications. While it wasn't really an issue for me as I explained I have no diving within hundreds of kilometer of residence, it does help me in ensuring that DAN would then still be the best way to go forward if I was diving within the 80km radius if I shift to somewhere where there is diving near enough.

Hope this discussion also helps others clarify any doubts.

 

[jlcnuke]

DAN "travel" insurance (annual or not) has mileage limitations:

DAN "Dive accident" insurance (purchased separately from DAN membership and/or DAN travel insurance) does not:

That's one of the reasons I have both annual travel insurance AND dive accident insurance (even though they have some overlapping coverages).

 

[DandyDon]

@outofofficebrb and @DandyDon

Thanks for the clarifications. While it wasn't really an issue for me as I explained I have no diving within hundreds of kilometer of residence, it does help me in ensuring that DAN would then still be the best way to go forward if I was diving within the 80km radius if I shift to somewhere where there is diving near enough.

Hope this discussion also helps others clarify any doubts.

I'm quoting from DAN Americas. I think yours is different in ways.

 

[Ankush Mittal]

DAN "travel" insurance (annual or not) has mileage limitations:

View attachment 437302


DAN "Dive accident" insurance (purchased separately from DAN membership and/or DAN travel insurance) does not:

View attachment 437303

That's one of the reasons I have both annual travel insurance AND dive accident insurance (even though they have some overlapping coverages).

Interesting.

I believe they have combined the two for Asia-Pacific,