When health complaints following an accident are compounded by a huge administrative burden and unanswered questions, many people soon feel left in the lurch. This is where so-called ‘assistance services’ come in, as a way of quickly obtaining an overview of the situation and available options. V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a offers such services in partnership with Mobi24. They take care of administrative support, coordination of medical assistance and advice on the ground, and organise return flights while ensuring communication between service providers and the accident insurer.

Your wallet is full of cards – but which is the right one now? Am I even covered abroad? In emergencies, questions arise that we tend to brush aside in everyday life. But at such times in particular, it can be crucial to dial the right number quickly. It is therefore advisable to always save the assistance hotline’s contact details on your smartphone.

Every accident, every situation, every scenario is different. That is why V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a and its assistance partner attach great importance to getting an overview quickly. A clearly structured list of questions helps to extract the essential information and to determine the next steps on that basis. V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a always puts the human element – the insured individual – first. Responding to individual situations in a needs-based way – that is the guiding principle. What is important right now? What can be done to improve the situation?

Our international network helps to ensure that V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a, together with its assistance partner, can quickly organise assistance, even in remote corners of the world. Local healthcare service providers or internationally operating partners make sure that everything runs smoothly and in a manner that is appropriate for the situation. Swiss Air-Rescue (Rega) provides medical support and care for those involved in accidents and works with us to ensure that the right decisions are made.

To avoid the risk of uncovered costs in high-cost countries like the USA, top-up medical costs insurance is recommended. Alternatively, individual travel insurance can prove worthwhile if an insured event occurs.

Our assistance partner informs us about the case. That usually means we soon have access to all the relevant key details, such as the circumstances of the accident, the type of injury and any specific conditions at the scene. Close attention is also paid to administrative matters, namely whether the person affected by the accident is actually insured with us and, if so, what cover they have. So we also need information about their employer and level of employment.

Once it has been established whether the person concerned is insured and what kind of insurance they have, we can quickly decide on the extent of out-of-pocket expenses. There are limits under compulsory accident insurance, but not under top-up medical costs insurance. Together with our assistance partner, we then decide on the next steps.

Since we aim to be ‘close to the people’, we try to put ourselves in the insured person’s shoes. As I’ve travelled extensively myself, I can very well understand how people feel when they have accidents in exotic and remote places. That knowledge motivates me all the more to provide swift assistance and to help them towards a positive outcome, at least in terms of service.