A while ago, I had to cancel a holiday to help a relative with some medical appointments. I notified the airline, and although I had the cheapest version of my ticket and it was not refundable the people I spoke to suggested I ask the refunds department and if they didn’t refund then go to customer care. My general advice with sudden changes to flight arrangements is always call the company rather than try to work it out through a website.
It remains to be seen if I can get a refund, but my travel insurance does have a feature that allows me to make a claim if there’s a medical problem that stops me from flying, as long as the medical condition wasn’t known at the time I made the booking.
Not unreasonable.
I could understand why they wouldn’t want pay for a cancelled flight due to something that was likely to lead to cancelling the flight before there actually was any intention to fly.
Another stipulation is that the GMP (General Medical Practitioner)of the person that is sick has to verify that person who is sick is actually sick.
Not unreasonable.
I dropped in a form to the patient’s GMP and was phoned shortly after to be advised that the actual patient will need to consent in writing to the GMP releasing details of a medical condition to the insurer.
Not unreasonable.
Then I was asked to provide an email address so they could send me a letter and inform me of the cost of getting the GMP to sign the form. When I pay the money, then they will sign the form.
Is that unreasonable?
It made me think. I need that form signed and obviously I am going to pay him the money as the flight cost a lot more than the fee for signing the letter. And the form isn’t actually part of the medical treatment of the patient and not even an insurance claim by the patient.
So he's within his rights to charge me for filling out the form. But to me, it seemed a bit petty.
I often get asked to sign forms for patients who are claiming refunds on tax payments or tax deductions based on their orthodontics treatment (ask at the Swords Orthodontics front desk about the Med 2 form for tax relief on orthodontic fees) and sometimes get asked to fill out insurance forms based on the IOTN (Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need) or even insurance forms in the event of an injury that has had orthodontic consequences for a patient.
It never occurred to me to charge the patient for any of this.
What do you think?
