In January 2025, in Cologne, on the first night of our planned 19 day tour of Germany, my wife tripped on a section of raised pavement on a darkened street near the Hauptbahnhof. She was told in the ER that she had a fracture of the bone in the floor of her eye socket, and hospitalized overnight. The next day she was seen at the Uniklinik Köln Hospital in Cologne and told that she could not fly home until after surgery because she would be at risk of serious eye injury if she were to fly. She was told that the surgery would be done early the following week. The next week, when we heard nothing from the hospital, we sent an email to the “International Office” of the hospital. The reply stated that Medicare was not accepted and that we would need to make a 13,000 euro deposit in order for the surgery to be scheduled and hospitalization provided.
We were fortunate to be able to transfer the deposit the next day. But the surgery occurred not 5 days, but 15 days after her fall. On the day of her operation she was told that she would have to wait another 2 weeks before she could fly home.
The travel insurance we included in our Expedia flight reservation included Medical Assistance. Within a few days of my wife’s injury I filed a claim with the insurance company. The response was quick. Because it points out some of the documentation requirements we needed as we sought reimbursement once we got home, This is a portion of the initial email we received upon filing a claim.
“Below is a summary of what documents we would require, and our process should adjustments need to be made for your travel home due to the medical issue.
1. Completed and signed Release of Information Form from patient (blank form included)
2. Copy of the original flight / travel itinerary
3. Copy of the information page of all passports of the individuals needing help with travel
4. Copy of the medical reports from the treating physician
5. Completed Fit to Fly Form from the treating physician no sooner than 3-4 days before the patient is cleared to travel (blank form included)
Once we have these documents, they will be reviewed by our medical staff to put in travel recommendations. Once that is confirmed we can then work with claims to confirm how coverage applies under the policy for these costs and if they are anything we can prepay or if it is something you would initially pay for upfront and then submit to claims for reimbursement once you get back home.”
As we only were traveling with an Apple iPad, completing the release of information and printing out the Fit to Fly forms for the hospital was especially challenging. The insurance medical unit contacted me daily for updates on my wife and to offer assistance.
On the initial phone contact with the insurance company we were given instructions on how to submit documentation of expenses, documents and bills to the insurance company’s website. In most cases, we submitted them on the day we received them. Despite this, when we got home the claims-processing part of the company said that they did not have access to these documents, so we had to submit them again. Similarly, after getting several emails saying that we needed to fill out claims forms, we realized that our initial claim had not been forwarded. The forms were not included in the emails requesting completion, and we finally realized we needed to request them.
After the initial Uniklinik appointment we stayed in a hotel near the train station for a couple of nights, but it quickly became clear that we would need to stay in Cologne near the hospital for an indeterminate length of time-not only until the surgery, but also until the last post surgery appointment and clearance to fly home. We were able to find an AirBNB a few blocks from the hospital. Because of the surgery delays the initial apartment reservation ran out. Then we moved to another AirBNB where we stayed until the final post-surgical appointment.