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My girlfriend had to visit AMC (Amsterdam Medical Centre) for a medical emergency. She was a tourist from Indonesia and hence only carried travel insurance. The hospital treated her without us paying any money upfront and informed her that the bill will be mailed to her address in Indonesia.

It has been more than one month and she hasn't received any bill yet. Upon contacting the hospital they informed that as per their policy they only send the bill after four months. This is unacceptable to her as she needs to claim the bills within three months according to her travel insurance agreement. We have no idea how much the amount might be. I am guessing somewhere in the €300-500 range.

Is there anyway to speed up the billing, if the billing department refuses to process it earlier?

And what happens if she decides to ignore the bill, is this going to affect her future visa applications in Schengen or other countries which share the same database?

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    It does suit. It was a reality check for me. I always assumed that my grammar was good enough.
    – Max Payne
    Commented Feb 10, 2017 at 11:43
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    @JonathanReez in general the hospital wont care, because its supposed to raise the bill, recoup the cost and then refund the government for the service as the government has already paid the hospital for the care. As the hospital has already been paid, the rest is extra work to it - it doesnt care if there are repercussions to you.
    – user29788
    Commented Feb 10, 2017 at 12:11
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    @JonathanReez Of course. But I am not sure if we have actually contacted the right person. No response on emails so far, and I am not exactly sure if my phone call reaches the actual concerned department or some reception where they dismiss random queries without further processing.
    – Max Payne
    Commented Feb 10, 2017 at 12:29
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    Are you certain that the three-month deadline is measured from the date of the medical service? Perhaps it is measured from the date of the invoice.
    – phoog
    Commented Feb 10, 2017 at 14:29
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    What does the insurer say?
    – Giorgio
    Commented Feb 10, 2017 at 16:39

1 Answer 1

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I don't know your particular insurance company, but I submitted claims to travel insurance a few times - although in USA, so take this with the grain of salt.

Typically travel insurance requires you to submit a claim within certain period. However "submitting a claim" doesn't mean "submit any and all of your bills", it is "letting your insurer know the covered event happened". The purpose of this is that certain events need to be investigated quickly enough to confirm the event happened, as the required evidence would be lost.

Thus what she needs to do is submit a claim to the insurance right away without the bills. She should describe treatment received, the location, etc. She should also put a notice that she was not billed directly by the hospital, and the hospital only said to send a bill in 4 months.

What would happen next is the claim adjuster will reach out to hospital themselves to confirm she was indeed treated there. They will also ask the hospital to submit bills to them directly. Then the claim adjuster will talk to her, and unless the bills are received, the claim would be left pending until - and if - she receives the bill.

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