Travel insurance red tape costs GPs 110,000 hours a year

GPs are being forced to divert more than 110,000 hours a year from patient care to provide the necessary medical records that allow insurers to validate and process medical travel insurance claims.

This is according to new research by travel insurance provider Staysure and conducted by the Centre for Economic and Business Research (Cebr), which found that 69% of GPs say travel insurance claims are a burden on their already stretched workload.

Currently, GPs are required to provide customer medical records to insurers to validate a medical claim when a customer is taken ill on holiday. The research found that it takes on average 38 minutes of GPs’ time to process the required medical report. 

Further, each medical claim costs the claimant anything between £25 and £170 as there are no set fees agreed by GPs. 

Simon McCulloch, chief growth officer at Staysure, said: “This research exposes the true scale of the problem.

”Outdated systems are wasting millions of pounds of NHS resources, eating into GPs’ time and leaving patients stranded abroad waiting for urgent care.” 

Call for a new offering

Staysure is calling for the creation of open travel Insurance – a system which allows insurers to seek permission to access customer’s medical records at the point of sale, innovating how travel insurance is sold and alleviating the laborious claims process.   

This offering would reduce rejected claims, with policies automatically tailored to individual medical histories and speed up overseas treatment.

McCulloch added: ”Open travel Insurance could offer a smarter, fairer alternative – a seamless system that would give customers instantly tailored cover, reassure them that they have fully disclosed their conditions, ease pressure on GP and ensure that patients abroad can get the treatment they need without delay.” 

Commenting on the potential impact of open travel Insurance on GPs, Dr Asimah Hanif, practicing GP and medical expert, said: “Open Travel Insurance is an exciting, forward-thinking idea.

”It’s important to note that while open travel Insurance could reduce GP workload and speed up insurance applications, it must be carefully designed with strong safeguards in place. Clear consent, robust security and professional oversight will be essential in order to mitigate risks for all parties. Engagement with all stakeholder groups on the implementation of this initiative will be essential.”