Sending staff overseas: what are my insurance requirements?

Businesses are increasingly mobile and international these days, with many companies looking to send their staff abroad to meet their global needs. Working overseas can be an exciting opportunity for people, but it can also be a time of high uncertainty. There are many things to consider when you’re posting an employee overseas, and one of the most important considerations will be what your insurance requirements are.

Taking responsibility for the health and wellbeing of an employee acting overseas for your company is a common thing. However, how well do businesses know what they should be taking care of? A UK-based survey highlighted in the International Travel & Health Insurance Journal found that as little as 7.8% of business owners were aware of the insurance requirements their business has when sending staff overseas.

On the flipside, 67.3% said they didn’t know what they should be doing, and 24.9% admitted that they weren’t entirely sure. In Thailand there are laws that dictate what insurance coverage businesses themselves must have, but do you know whether or not it covers your staff outside the country? This week, Pacific Prime Thailand outlines just what you need to know when your people are working abroad.

Business insurance requirements in Thailand

Operating a business in Thailand without adequate insurance can be risky, leaving your company open to expensive claims and potential bankruptcy. Here are a few of the recommended and required business insurance types that can help you avoid a headache in Thailand:

• Public Liability: Protects your company from the costs of being found legally liable for injury or damage to people or property.

• General Liability: Also protects against liability for injury or damage to people and property, except for automobile and professional liability coverage.

• Employer Liability: Some circumstances may require a business to provide additional coverage to the state social insurance scheme.

• Product Liability: Certain products assembled or manufactured in Thailand may require the business to hold product liability insurance in the event that loss is incurred through their use or malfunction.

• Property Insurance: Covering damage suffered to your building and its contents due to unforeseen circumstances, such as extreme weather events.

Employer-provided health insurance is optional in Thailand, meaning you don’t actually have to provide medical coverage to your staff. However, both companies and candidates alike recognize that securing health insurance through a work plan can make employers more attractive and increase retention rates with staff. That said, we’re talking workers travelling overseas; will any of this cover your travelling employees?

What can help keep my employees safe and healthy overseas?

There are some aspects of your own business insurance that can act as a form of security for your overseas-posted staff, however here are a few things you should also consider:

Local healthcare systems and laws

Some countries will have generous public healthcare systems, while others will be places where holding private insurance is an absolute must. There are healthcare systems in between, and here are a few examples:

• National Health System (NHS), United Kingdom: A well funded public health service that provides extremely low cost care to anyone, including visiting expats with a legal right to reside in the UK (such as a work visa).
• Couverture Maladie Universelle, France: Workers in France, including expats, pay into a national health insurance scheme through their wages which grants access to around 80% of your medical treatment costs.
• Medicare, Canada: Citizens, residents with valid work permits, and immigrants may have access to the publicly funded medical care service, Medicare, which grants free healthcare in various provinces.

• Reciprocal Agreements: Countries such as Australia, and economic groups such as the European Union, can have agreements with other nations that allow their citizens to seek out healthcare as if they were citizens of the country they are visiting.

There are also countries where holding a certain level of private medical insurance is mandatory for entry. The United States and Dubai are such countries and the levels of coverage will vary from place to place. To find out more about these places, check with your foreign affairs authority, an embassy, or call an insurance broker.

Travel, local and international insurance solutions

Travel insurance is an obvious option for anyone heading overseas and, for short business trips, it can be a good option. They’re generally more affordable than other plans and cover other travel-related mishaps such as lost luggage and travel documents. A weakness of travel plans is that their health benefits can often be limited to solely getting a traveller well enough to fly home. They’re also generally for short periods of up to six months.

Getting a local insurance plan from the country your employee is heading to can be an easier way to meet your insurance obligations. Local plans are often tailored to meet local laws and interact well with local health systems. In Dubai, for example, local plans should meet all of the Dubai Health Authority laws, and provide both coverage for a foreigner resident and supporting proof for the granting of a visa.

The most comprehensive and convenient option, however, is to purchase an international insurance plan for your staff. These premium plans can cover your employee’s health in Thailand, their overseas destination, and nearly any other country imaginable meaning you won’t have to purchase separate plans for staff that travel frequently. They’re highly customizable too, meaning you can add dental, vision and maternity if desired.

What about my business insurance?

When it comes to covering your employees’ health abroad through your own business insurance, you need to understand how it differs from providing them a health plan separately. Many employers’ liabilities insurance can cover mishaps that staff experience, but those working overseas on long stints may fall outside the business policy. Some plans may not cover international liabilities at all, requiring you to buy a liability policy in that country as well.

If you find that your business insurance will cover the health and wellbeing of your staff overseas, it may often be a case of your employee needing to make a claim on your business which then needs to be processed by your company. In an international situation, this can mean a lot of communicating through time zones and waiting for documents and quotes that can hinder your people getting the treatment they need.

It may also be that using your business policy to meet your insurance requirements for overseas-based staff runs the risk of unnecessarily impacting your company premiums. Filing a number of claims for damages suffered by employees abroad might mean you end up paying more in business premiums than the increase might be if your people were simply making claims against a health policy.

While it can be possible that you and your staff might get by with the coverage your company insurance provides, Pacific Prime Thailand would highly recommend considering a separate health policy for your staff for the ease of use on their end, and to keep your business and employee health insurance affairs separate.

Finding the right insurance solution for your staff, your company and the countries you operate in

All corporate health insurance and business policies are different and it really depends on what your plan says and where your people are going when it comes to considering your insurance requirements for overseas postings. That’s why engaging the help of an experience international insurance broker is often the smartest choice you can make before your employees pack their bags for their new expat life.

The right broker will often have a good understanding of the health system and laws in the country you’re moving staff to, a wide range of comprehensive and affordable insurance solutions to choose from, and can even play a support role for the life of the policy to assist you and your staff with any claims that may need to be made whilst they’re working overseas. If this is something your company needs, get in touch with Pacific Prime Thailand today.

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luther

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