If you have an expat health insurance policy with us, then the regular process to claim for medical services is to pay up front and then submit your claims through the claims link in your Feather account.
Typically, most claims are processed within 2-4 weeks, but can take up to 6 weeks, and you will receive the outcome of your claim via email.
However, in some cases, claims may take longer than usual.
Here we'll break down the most common reasons that your claim processing time may be delayed.
Missing or incorrect documentation
For any claims, we request the following documents:
Official invoice which includes diagnostic information, treatment provided and individual cost breakdown of the treatments/services
Prescription: if you are claiming for medications or aids, we require an associated prescription for these medication from your treating practitioner
Referral: If you have been referred to a specialist or physical therapist, please attach the referral to your claim
We require these documents in order to be able to accurately assess and process the claim.
Note: We cannot process claims with missing or insufficient documentation
eg a payment reminder or payment receipt, as these documents alone do not give us any information about the nature and scope of the claim.
In such a case, our insurer will likely request the documentation that they are missing/requiring and we will ask you to resubmit this to your claim.
Once you have submitted the requested documents, the claim should be processed within 1-4 weeks.
The claim may not fall within the scope of expat coverage
Expat insurance covers accidents, new injuries and new illnesses that first started after your cover started.
It does not cover pre-existing conditions, routine check ups (without symptoms) or other preventive care.
If you have submitted a claim and it may appear to be related to something outside the scope of cover, then we may need to learn more about the claim in order to determine if it falls within the scope of our coverage.
In such a case, we will likely reach out to obtain more information from you or your treating team (or both). Once we have received the necessary information back, we can then process the claim and will typically do so within 1-4 weeks of receiving the relevant information back.
Please note: In the case where we need to reach out to your treating team, we must wait for their information back before we can process the claim/s, and in some cases it can take some time to receive feedback from treating teams, which is a common reason for a longer processing time. In such cases, we will keep you updated and may also ask you to reach out to your treating team, as this can help receive their information back and speed up the process.
What if I have received no feedback at all and it has been over 6 weeks?
In a rare circumstance that you have not received any feedback at all regarding your claim, please reach out to us directly, so we can investigate and assist you further.
If you would like to learn more about expat health insurance or would like to sign up, you can do so here.