It all came down to a puffer.
When Ray Hamill had cold symptoms, his doctor prescribed one to the 77-year-old renovation contractor and motorcycle enthusiast.
Months later, after Hamill was injured in a motorcycle accident near Las Vegas in 2023, while on a vacation with friends, that puffer gave his Canadian travel insurance company a reason to deny his $10,660 bill from Valley Hospital.
And it did.
“What a muddle,” Hamill told Global News in the backyard of his London, Ont. bungalow.
“This didn’t have to happen,” he said.
Hamill has been in back-and-forth exchange with TD Travel Insurance and Global Excel, which describes itself as a “full-service cost containment, claims management and medical assistance company”.
“Talk about customer avoidance techniques, it was the greatest runaround I’ve been in in my life,” Hamill said, describing his experience with the insurance division of TD and Global Excel.
Hamill buys annual travel insurance through TD and has done so for decades, he said. He assured Global News he is forthright about his medical conditions, including high blood pressure, and has previously informed the insurer that he takes two prescription medications.
But when he had a cold months before the Las Vegas motorcycle trip in October of last year, he received a prescription puffer from his doctor and used it briefly. He said he never thought the puffer could interfere with a future insurance claim.
“I never thought of that,” he said, adding the cough went away.
But months after Hamill’s motorcycle accident, which required stitches to his right shin, the puffer became the reason the insurance company would deny the claim.
“If you have a change in your medication or a change in your condition between the day you bought your policy and your departure date from your province of residence, you must disclose it,” said Michael Camacho, past president of the Travel Health Insurance Association, commonly known as THIA.
It represents travel insurers, brokers, underwriters, re-insurers, emergency assistance companies, air ambulance companies and allied services in the travel insurance field. TD Insurance is a member of the association but did not provide on-camera comment to Global News.
In a statement, TD Insurance wrote that it is “committed to supporting its customers and putting the customer first in every decision we make. We have worked with the individual to resolve the claim,” it read.
“We encourage customers who have any questions about their policy to contact us,” the TD statement concluded.
The travel insurance industry cautions customers that a failure to disclose any medication or prescription medication — whether it’s a puffer for cold symptoms to antibiotic ointment for nail or foot fungus — could be problematic.
“However small it might appear to be you’ve got to call the insurance company or your insurance adviser and let him or her know that there has been a change,” Camacho said in an interview.
“The (insurance) rates are based on disclosure of information,” Camacho added.
Hamill’s case — in which it took months to get a denial — also meant the hospital bill rang up higher than necessary. The hospital initially agreed to give Hamill a $6,396 discount off the original $10,660 emergency department bill.
In the billing statement, it was referred to as a “905 Foreign National Discount”.
But, because the bill was not paid by anyone for almost a year, the file was given to a collection agency in Sweden, Hamill said.
“I was put into debt collection because TD and Global Excel just kind of sat on this for months and months and months,” he said.
Now, they wanted the unreduced amount.
Hamill called Global News when he said he could not get a review of his denial from either company.
Eventually, the companies reviewed Hamill’s case and have agreed to pay the collection agency to settle the bill.
“Without your help I wouldn’t have had a chance,” Hamill said, who has been assured by TD Insurance that he will not be responsible for additional charges.
Global News has reviewed a letter promising to “confirm that your claim has been paid in full” once it receives information from the collection agency.
Canadians travelling outside their home province should review their individual travel insurance policy, read the terms and conditions or risk a costly insurance claim denial they