This  year’s event will be on Saturday the 26th of September, at the Crown Plaza Mutiara, and is organized jointly with MANZA. This is to be a family event. While you enjoy the game on the big screen, your kids – or those of your friends – can enter many competitions, including an AUSKICK Handball tournament, and win many prizes.

Of course, we’ll be there ! Will you ?

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For more information you can give a buzz to MANZA or contact us, we can provide you the contacts for Paul McCalman and Ben Simpson – the two jolly organizers

The IHI-BUPA policy was adapted and customised from a Travel Insurance policy to cover you guys on and off the field when you travel overseas. This does mean that it can only cover you for treatment required outside your country of normal residence. Hence, once you return back home, coverage and validity ceases, and your regular insurer shall take over and provide coverage for you thereon. We will now explain further the four points you raised.

When is your claim valid?

• You have suffered an injury or illness overseas
• and requires immediate medical attention
• The injury/illness is sustained and treatment commences during the insured period
• For treatment received/completed while you are still overseas

When is your claim not valid?

• For treatment after the the insured period has expired
• For treatment after returning to your country of normal residence

In the event of mis-diagnosis?

• The validity of any such claim will always be at the sole discretion of the insurer
• Favourable discretion will be influenced by the nature of the claim
• and the frequency of similar incidents previously

What if the seriousness of the injury only becomes apparent the following day?

Your claim should be valid provided:

• Your coverage period has not expired
• The injury/illness is acute and requires immediate medical treatment
• You have not returned to your country of normal residence

You can also read your policy’s general terms and conditions by downloading the following documents:IHI-BUPA Coverage and IHI-BUPA Brochure.

Some further points you should consider:

The function of the Footy Coverage

Despite the confusion and misunderstanding in some quarters, the policy is still fulfilling its original task and function; that of providing protection for you guys against serious injury on the ‘field of battle’, and it does so in a very cost effective and flexible manner.

Tour coverage

Unfortunately, there have been several instances these past two years where the seriousness of some injuries have only become apparent after match-day. You will only be covered if your coverage-period is still valid. Yet, despite many reminders to all clubs these past 2 years, many players still take only match-day cover. If you do not have full International Healthcare insurance you really should be covering yourself for the entire tour, not simply the match-day!

Full coverage

Should you wish to be covered for follow up treatment, or even home game, training and other sport related injuries, you should consider a full International Healthcare insurance which includes sports cover. We do represent companies able to provide this level of coverage, and will be happy to explore these options with you. To do so, feel free to drop us a line, or simply post in the section here under ‘discussion thread’.

Guidelines during the coverage period:

• Carry your cover-note on your person at all times (or in your kit-bag when on field)
• Get immediate medical treatment in the event of acute injury/illness during your coverage period
• Contact IHI/Bupa or Lighthouse if you have a query/question relating to the medical event
• Complete your treatment before returning to your normal country of residence. If this results in you missing your return flight, the insurance will replace it provided the claim is valid

What happened?

I received a call on the afternoon of the ANZAC day informing me of that one player was injured, but unfortunately he could only check in a hospital the following day. As his insurance was only for one day, we wanted to confirm his cover with IHI-BUPA and promptly liaised with them to ensure he was covered fully for his Thailand expenses. Luckily, the injury was less serious than expected and the player did not need surgery.

A few days later, we received another request for a claim from a second player who was also injured on the field, but preferred to wait until back in Thailand to get treatment. Unfortunately, as his bill was from a doctor in the country he resides, IHI-BUPA could not cover him.

The IHI-BUPA policy was adapted and customised from a Travel Insurance policy to cover you guys on and off the field when you travel overseas. This does mean that it can only cover you outside your country of normal residence. Hence, once you return back home, your regular insurer shall take over and provide coverage for you thereon.

Where we suspect the current confusion has come from was from a claim made by a player at the Bangkok Champs two years ago. The player concerned submitted his claim from Australia almost 2 weeks after the Champs. The reason that the claim was paid fully was that the player did (and could prove) seek medical treatment in Bangkok on the day of that Champs.

So, the moral of the story here is that you are covered by the policy:

1. Whilst on tour or traveling outside your country of residence
2. Only for the period stated on your cover-note, commencing 0001 hours and finishing 2400 of each day stated
3. If you are injured whilst under coverage, you should seek medical attention in that country during the cover period or as soon as physically able.
4. Make sure you get evidence (medical certificate) at that hospital for attendance and treatment; this is to facilitate your claim processing with IHI-BUPA. * updated on 20-05-2009 – see here under.
5. If you choose to delay the seeking of medical treatment or advice until you return to your country of residence, there is a good chance that a claim will not be accepted by IHI-BUPA. So please do take note of this.

Hopefully this clarifies this little misunderstanding; of course we invite your feed-backs and questions in the comment section here under.

The fine print for your AAFC sport coverage can be found here.

* Updated on 20-05-2009 – IHI informed us recently they never cover when the policy holder has returned to his or her home country – even if mis-diagnosed.

In addition to the three football games, there will be activities for kids and families. Girls and boys aged 5-14 can discover Aussie Footie thanks to the Auskick Clinic, while those who don’t feel like kicking the ball can hop into a Jumping castle.

I personally will be helping Ken with the score board. So feel free to drop by, say hi, and share a drink !

Almost forgot, the Warriors have a wonderful BBQ and Bar going on. Some of the best Sandwiches I had in Malaysia, with some fresh drinks to help digestion. With all of these, you’d need a very strong reason to not be there this Saturday !

Quick summary
Where: Alice Smith Secondary School at Equine Park, Sri Kembangan
When: Saturday 25th of April 2009, 1PM onward
For more info, and a map to the Equine PArk, refer to this PDF

You landed at the right harbour to continue the discussion we opened in the email you received.

We should start by refreshing memories, and getting up to speed those who did arrive here not having read the email entirely;  we started the discussion with the following open questions:

• Is your coverage comprehensive?
• Is it really appropriate to meet your needs?
• Does it provide value for money?
• Does your coverage and protection meet only your immediate medical bills?
• Or does it extend to ongoing medical bills?
• Does my coverage includes some income replacement benefit if my injury or illness has a long-term impact?
• Am I covered for global hotspots should my work take me there? And what limitations apply even if I am covered?

The idea here is that you formulate your own questions, which will inevitably lead to a wide variety of answers – or potential answers. Some answers will be positive, some negative, and some will be “don’t know”, “perhaps” or “not sure”.

Following this idea, instead of us writing about what we  guess you want information about, why don’t we turn the sand-clock around, so that you tell us about your priorities? This way we ensure we provide you with real nuggets of information you are looking for, answering your needs and objectives.

You have two ways to reach us. The first one is to email us directly. The second is to share your question here by leaving a comment at the end of this page, so we can continue this discussion together.

Looking forward to hearing from you !

We’ve been working closely with the AAFC and the Malaysian Warriors for nearly two years now. Last year saw great display of skills at the Asia Champs, the Indochina Cups, or the Manila Cup; unfortunately, we also saw a few claims against the insurance. You will be pleased to hear that they were met fully by the insurer with professionalism and good speed; even including one claim submitted several weeks after the injury actually took place.

Looking forward to 2009, we want to keep you in the loop on your cover and its details so that you can play footie at true confidence, knowing you are fully covered while traveling for your international game.

Your team plans the number of players traveling and the cover period needed, and we issue your personal cover-note to you directly. These cover-notes ensure you are accepted without question at the hospital should you need to. Your team also has a few Insurance cards with your general cover details should you not have yours at hand – a worthy precaution.

Should something happen, you can go to a hospital by ambulance, be examined and treated accordingly. The beauty of this scheme is that most medical emergencies will be cash-less – Bupa has one of the largest direct-settlement-networks of any global healthcare company. Evacuation/repatriation is of course included as standard. To summarize, your cover includes:

• Emergency and outpatient treatment
• Hospitalisation
• Ambulance transportation
• Medical evacuation / repatriation

Should you wish to read the fine print, you can follow this link.

Updated on 13/05/2009 – The IHI policy was adapted and customised from a Travel Insurance policy to cover you guys on and off the field when you travel overseas. This does mean that it can only cover you outside your country of normal residence. Hence, once you return back home, your regular insurer shall take over and provide coverage for you thereon – this includes follow up treatments to an injury sustained abroad.

Related post: Footie – Where does your cover start, and where does it finish ?