AXA Health: untrustworthy

AXA Health has been untrustworthy and not there in an emergency. My doctors state that had I not taken the actions that I did I would now be blind in my left eye and possibly the right too which also had to have emergency treatment to the retina. Stress induced perhaps. Flying back on the only seat I could find in economy was not helpful and my sight will not be the same as it was before March.

Thank you AXA.

AXA Health: slow to pay

AXA rang several times while I was being treated in Paris. Asking why I had not flown to Mexico for treatment? Why had I not gone to the USA? They had done no research and were unaware that most direct flights from Caribbean islands go to country of origin. ie French island has direct flights to France. Almost all flights are 5+ hours. Mexico via Miami, Miami via San Juan with occasional flight direct to Miami but they are usually full.

Though AXA agreed to meet all my medical expenses in Paris direct I received invoices from the Paris Hospital which on research had not been paid. According to AXA this was because the invoices were being translated from Frenchwhich took several weeks. In June I received a benefits statement showing payments made for the Paris Hospital treatment.

AXA prevaricated over other expenses including travel home as it had not been pre-authorised. How could it have been they had no one on duty to help? Their international emergency telephone line was not functioning. I have sent the paperwork to the insurance ombudsman who has asked AXA for my file and a month or so on it has still not been received. As I sent the paperwork to the ombudsman I received a demand for payment from the Hospital in Paris for my treatment in April. I asked AXA how, when I had received a benefit statement showing settlement this had occurred. I received another benefit statement showing payment in November. They then wrote and thanked me for my forbearance. Can I believe this debt has been settled?

Meanwhile my husband had outpatient pathology tests which were preauthorised in 2008. The hospital in Bristol kept requesting payment. AXA kept saying that they had settled the bill. Eventually, as we were working abroad and she was in a cleft stick with who had paid what, my mother paid this. When I tackled AXA again in writing they said that they hadn’t authorised inpatient treatment. Well, no need, there was no in-patient. I pointed out to them that hospitals have to admit outpatients for pathology tests so that the numbers of people to account for in case of fire is known. Their reply? To misread inpatient as outpatient was an understandable error. The problem for me was the complete lack of communication when they had a query. Just a refusal to pay for what we considered authorised treatment and to pretend that they had paid it when they had not.

AXA Health is hard to contact

My husband and I have worked in the Caribbean during the winer for the last 8 years. One night at the end of March 2009 while walking down a street on the Caribbean island of St Barths the retina of my left eye detached. I lost the sight in that eye overnight. Early the next (Sunday) morning I saw a doctor who stated that I should seek immediate assistance but that there was none either on St Barths or the larger island St Maarten as the only qualified person was away sailing for 2 weeks. I should go ‘somewhere else’ for help.

I telephoned the AXA international emergency telephone number. There was a recorded message requesting that I use a different number. With failing sight and body going into shock I did not need to find pen, paper and phone again on an international line. The given number was the national line and I had to hold for some time. The agent when told of my condition said that it didn’t sound nice. That she could authorise treatment but that there was no-one available for repatriation advice. ’Its Sunday.’ Do medical emergencies take note of this?

Alone, I had an horrendous journey back to Paris where I was advised to travel no further but to get treatment as every part of the journey increased the risk of my losing my sight permanently. My brother contacted AXA to authorise treatment in Paris which they did. They then rang me and asked why I had not come flown back flat with a doctor in attendance as that that is what they would have arranged. Only, they did not.

By the time I reached Paris I had no phone, no credit and no cash. With the help of my brother these were organised and he made an appointment with a good eye doctor who took over and I could at last just collapse and be ill without stress.