Info Is DAN Insurance worthwhile?

[Kupu]

On the website it says "DAN must arrange transportation for covered emergency medical evacuation fees to be paid." They were doing so but it seemed they were getting the run around.

That's what I remember from their documentation, that they have to arrange the medical evac, or you probably won't be getting that reimbursed.

A few years ago my dive partner took a DCI hit and became non responsive, this accident occurred in the US.

My first call was 911 which triggered helicopter medevac, the short version of the story is that DAN was not contacted until shortly before EMS arrived on location and DAN did not participate in arranging transportation or any medical services provided that day.

Initially we were concerned that DAN would deny reimbursement as they had not arranged the evacuation, but DAN agreed that I had made the correct decision to activate emergency services first before informing DAN of the accident.
Once primary insurance processed the claim, DAN paid all remaining costs without any pushback at all.

 

[JoeTPhilly]

You don't need the $30k in hand, you just need a CC.

Where on DAN does it say the insured needs to pay out of pocket? I see testimonials where they paid directly for the insured's treatment. I do not see anywhere saying the insured need to pay in advance.

 

[tursiops]

I don’t know about the banks Woody’s cards were through, but I’m with Chase and when I went to notify them I was going to Mexico last year, the Chase mobile app said they no longer need to be notified. They use other metrics to prevent fraud. I even called and asked and they said they didn’t need to know.

Navy Federal has an on-line way to provides one's travel plans.

 

[JoeTPhilly]

I don’t know about the banks Woody’s cards were through, but I’m with Chase and when I went to notify them I was going to Mexico last year, the Chase mobile app said they no longer need to be notified. They use other metrics to prevent fraud. I even called and asked and they said they didn’t need to know.

My experience too. I think the issue was the high dollar value which set off the fraud alerts.

 

[Vicko]

A medical diagnosis wouldn't prevent drowning. Going down with a buddy to monitor and assist is the sop for IWR. The risk is mitigated this way and is better than staying at the surface.

And when dcs turns out to be a heart attack or IPO who is going to be responsible for recovering the monitored body from the water?

I'm not arguing for or against IWR, I'm just saying that it's a medical procedure and no organisation wants to take liability for recommending it.

 

[crofrog]

I have had DAN coverage since 1992; have had a handful of claims over three decades, involving a ruptured eardrum, urchin spines, and dental barotrauma — and have nothing but good things to say about them . . .

hey paid for everything, including first class flight and transportation to my home in Suwannee County.

The situations are are not anywhere close to the same as needing immediate evacuation to a hyperbaric chamber. The research is quite clear that getting recompressed quickly leads to better outcomes.

I know that a few years ago in a case I was involved with that calling DAN was waste of time and had their suggested path (which was in Florida yet the timeframes that DAN laid out to get treatment were actually longer than the timeframes they told Gus and Woody) been followed the bent diver would have been most likely had severe long lasting impariments. We instead took another path that did work and the diver made full recovery, but truthfully most divers would not have had the resources/expertise/experience readily available to follow the path we did.

This seems to be fairly common for people who need things "right now."

 

[Baker_Dive]

If you watched the video, his visa and mastercard were both denied repeatedly, even after he contacted them, and for a much lesser amount.

I think this is a major part of the story, Woody obviously had the available credit when the cards were ran, for some reason they kept getting flagged and denied. Makes me want to get an Amex card for this.

 

[The Chairman]

The situations are are not anywhere close to the same as needing immediate evacuation to a hyperbaric chamber. The research is quite clear that getting recompressed quickly leads to better outcomes.

I didn't say they were. But they acted incredibly quickly, even though it was -NOT- a time sensitive scenario.

Makes me want to get an Amex card for this.

They didn't accept my Amex in the Fiji hospital. Dan was really a second thought and they made things happen quickly. I won't leave home without either, now.

 

[TheCatFish]

He had symptoms that are closer to IPO, not neurological DCS (based on the video, who knows what happened between the clickbait and reality). So a chamber might not have been the right answer and the right use of DAN funds?

IPO wouldnt have immediate improvement in a HB chamber, plus pressure reactive tinnitus doesn’t fit well with IPO either.

 

[crofrog]

Oxygen is actually a controlled drug, and doing treatments with a controlled drug when not a medical professional is .. well illegal and that aside one hella way to take on big liability.

This feels like fear mongering.

Medical grade O2 is a "controlled" substance, things like ABO are not. I'd recommend researching good samaritan laws, assuming that a reasonable person would consider providing O2 to a good course of action. I think Considering that DCI or IPE are both improved by providing O2 and until recently heart attacks were given O2 as well it seems pretty reasonable.

the issue is that having some dive pros trained to do IWR isn't the answer either.

Dr Doolette and Dr Mitchel have both advised that they do not want to see it turn into something with dive boats advertising "IWR here"

I have an AL80 of O2 I keep in my truck with a single 2nd and spg for just this type of incident. Breathing that while waiting on an ambulance or grabbing it and going back down until its empty is its purpose in life. At the end of the day I'm safer with it than without.

You should look into a non-rebreather mask hooked up to a BC low pressure hose adapter.

Also IWR with no definite diagnosis is also a great way to get drowned.

Read this: In-water recompression - PubMed