Is it ok to have 2 secondary policies? I already have a policy with Celebrity

Hi,

I purchased Celebrity's Cruise Care coverage when I booked the trip and so have their CFAR feature that provides 75% credit towards a future cruise, but since their medical coverage is only 10k and evacuation 25k (both amounts being pretty low), I'm considering adding another policy primarily to boost up the medical coverage. I will be in South American / Antarctica and obviously any needed medical evac will be far more than what Celebrity covers.

Can you have 2 secondary policies? Doesn't that get a bit tricky as to who pays what when? I talked to Celebrity and they indicated that there would be no problem having an additional policy. Since Celebrity is already secondary coverage to my existing health care with Blue Cross, I suppose it's no big deal but I'm wondering which would kick-in first..the cruise line policy or another?

I have been doing research online and will continue to do so - primarily looking for a policy that concentrates on medical coverage since the cruise line's policy has the trip cancellation / interruption features found in most trip insurance.

Any suggestions appreciated...

Thanks,

Keith

Hi,

 

I purchased Celebrity's Cruise Care coverage when I booked the trip and so have their CFAR feature that provides 75% credit towards a future cruise, but since their medical coverage is only 10k and evacuation 25k (both amounts being pretty low), I'm considering adding another policy primarily to boost up the medical coverage. I will be in South American / Antarctica and obviously any needed medical evac will be far more than what Celebrity covers.

 

Can you have 2 secondary policies? Doesn't that get a bit tricky as to who pays what when? I talked to Celebrity and they indicated that there would be no problem having an additional policy. Since Celebrity is already secondary coverage to my existing health care with Blue Cross, I suppose it's no big deal but I'm wondering which would kick-in first..the cruise line policy or another?

 

I have been doing research online and will continue to do so - primarily looking for a policy that concentrates on medical coverage since the cruise line's policy has the trip cancellation / interruption features found in most trip insurance.

 

Any suggestions appreciated...

 

Thanks,

Keith

Which insurer would pay first might be decided by your state's department of insurance. They have a "coordination of benefits" procedure exactly for these types of situations. I'd file a claim with both and let them fight it out.

In talking with a rep at a well-known trip insurance website, he suggested something that would not have occurred to me - which is to simply use $0 as a trip cost if the goal is simply to add additional coverage such as boosting up the medical amounts which is what I've been meaning to do. So I will keep the X insurance cause it's cheap enough and has the trip cancellation features, but will supplement with a secondary policy that carries 0 trip coverage but adds much more on the medical side. Had no idea you could do this.

Having 2 (or more) medical secondary policies is OK, and we saw a lot of these situations during our career in the government health insurance industry. That being said, it is generally a waste of your premium dollars since, in nearly all cases, it will not increase your reimbursement (it can increase if one company covers something not covered by others).

As to filing a claim, the existence of multiple policies can sometimes delay the final adjudication of a claim...as the insurance companies work out coordination of benefit (i.e. Third Party Liability) issues.

But everything I said applies ONLY to the medical/evacuation insurance. When it comes to the trip cancellation issues it is hard to understand what happens. Technically, most trip cancellation is not even insurance (and some cancellation policies actually say they are not insurance). You might notice that several major cruise lines will specify that their cancellation provisions are a waiver of cancellation fees by the cruise line...and in many cases might include a future cruise credit rather then actual reimbursement. That type of policy may not even be regulated by the government (insurance commissions) and its anybodies guess how they would handle a coordination issue (if they know).

Hank

Hlitner,

Interesting. Are you saying that because I have the Celebrity policy (which only pays 25k medical evac) an additional policy that might offer higher medical evac (or other medical expenses as well) will not kick in and that the costs will be satisfied solely by the Celebrity policy with the rest being out-of-pocket? Somehow that wouldn't seem right. Your statement about having multiple secondary policies for medical coverage as not increasing the reimbursement doesn't make sense to me. Wouldn't the one policy cover what the other doesn't?

Let me ask this another way. Let's say I wind up with an emergency medical evac situation that costs $250,000. Being that I have the Celebrity policy that I purchased at time of booking, does what your saying mean that I will get $25,000 reimbursement from Celebrity and need to pay the remaining $225,000 myself? This is what I'm reading into your statement about having the additional policy "not increasing your reimbursement". OR...since the other policy I was planning on purchasing provides over $1 million in medical evac, would that policy then cover the additional amount? Please clarify this for me. In talking with the agent from the company I was thinking of buying additional coverage from, he never mentioned anything about this. Yet another factor in all of this is what my regular Blue Cross policy would cover. I talked to them awhile back and they seemed to think there would be no limit on the medical costs involved. They would certainly be primary to either Celebrity or another company.

I am copying in a paragraph from the policy that I was planning on purchasing: This pertains to emergency medical coverage and transportation:

"Benefits payable as a result of incurred covered expenses will only be paid after benefits have been paid under any Other Valid and Collectible Health Insurance in effect for you. We will pay that portion of covered expenses, which exceeds the amount of benefits payable for such expenses under your Other Valid and Collectible Health Insurance."

With this in mind, doesn't this make it worthwhile to purchase the extra policy?

I'm curious to this as well. Hlitner - what would your answer be?

All companies providing medical coverage for the same incident will co-ordinate with each other as to who is the primary carrier, who is secondary, and who may be third. This is called "co-ordination of benefits".

After the primary carrier pays what they allow, the claim goes to the secondary carrier, who then will pay what they allow. If you have a third policy and there is any remaining balance, the claim will then go to them.

Hopefully, this will cover your claim in full. But, all the payments made will not total more than your covered charges.

But what can get real interesting is that if there are more then 1 secondary policy. Each insurance company has a special internal section that deals with coordination of benefits and "third party liabilities." The more policies, the more complex the situation. We would not want to even speculate how long it could take more then 2 insurers to work out claims issues. The Primary insurer will normally review the claim and determine what they are obligated to pay. Then the secondary policy determines how much they will pay. If there is more then 1 secondary policy...those companies have to coordinate which can get tricky. This is generally done by the insurance companies (although there are sometimes ways in which the insured can help) but the process can take longer then one would prefer.

Hank

File with the best policy first.

If there is any uncovered charges, file with the next policy.

I can't help but to have some overlap. I don't need to exercise my chase sapphire benefits as I had other coverage.