^{Updated April 11, 2023}

With COVID-19 vaccines and boosters in place, most governments have been relaxing their travel restrictions. Therefore, international travel has increased in 2023.

However, COVID-19 is still a real concern, and people are taking into consideration getting infected while visiting the US and whether or not they would be covered.

Many elderly people visiting the United States may have several pre-existing conditions and be further concerned whether visitors insurance would still cover COVID-19 related expenses simply because they have pre-existing conditions. They may have questions about the best health insurance for visitors to the USA with pre-existing conditions as related to COVID-19. 

Q: Do you have any visitors insurance that provides coverage for COVID-19?

A: Yes, we have many such insurance plans. Please look at this article for further details.

Q: What are pre-existing conditions?

A: In general, any medical condition that existed prior to the effective date of the policy is a pre-existing condition.

Q: What is acute onset of pre-existing conditions?

A: In simple terms, an unforeseen emergency occurring after the effective date of the policy without any prior warning or symptoms that requires treatment within the next 24 hours. More information

Q: Would the insurance plan still provide COVID-19 coverage if my parent has pre-existing conditions?

A: In many visitors insurance plans, COVID-19 is covered just like any other new sickness that occurs after the effective date of the policy.

Therefore, in such plans, as long as you are infected after the effective date of the policy, you would be covered for COVID-19 treatment, as it is an acute medical condition.

It is possible that COVID-19 symptoms may become worse due to other pre-existing conditions. However, that does not mean that for all people with pre-existing conditions, COVID-19 treatment would be excluded.

Q: But I read on one of the Facebook groups that the companies like WorldTrips , IMG , Trawick etc. deny COVID-19 claims because the person has pre-existing conditions. They have even posted the Explanation of Benefits as proof. Who should I believe?

A: There are certain people who are the competitors of Insubuy and the companies such as WorldTrips , IMG , Trawick . They have been consistently making fake posts and doing the badmouthing. Those complaints are counterfeit.

If you look at the Facebook profile of some of those people, they don't even live in the US and they complain about their parents' claim being denied when they were visiting them in the US.

Many of those people are claiming that all the products from various companies are bad such as Patriot America Plus (IMG), Atlas America (WorldTrips), Safe Travels USA Comprehensive (Trawick), and a few others. The same poster cannot possibly have had the same experience with all of these companies.

If you notice, the poster will consistently recommend another provider that they allege would cover COVID-19. Obviously, those posts seem to be highly motivated towards sending customers to one specific company.

The following is an example of such a counterfeit and fraudulent post:

We have verified with various people in the WorldTrips claims department, including the senior management, and confirmed that it is counterfeit. They have no such customer who is posting these. They even researched the dates and the amounts and there is no such claim.

In fact, there are many things wrong with it, including but not limited to:

• The service date of 08/26/2020. Around that time, the PPO network should have been 'United Healthcare' and not 'First Health'.
• Under 'Reason Code Description', genuine WorldTrips EOB would have '23 This condition is not covered due to Pre-existing limitation'. But the counterfeit one says '51 These are non-covered because this is a pre-existing condition'.
• The service codes are also not accurate.
• Legitimate EOB from WorldTrips has a QR code type square on the top right which this one lacks.
• Right above 'Dates of Services', genuine WorldTrips EOB would have Certificate # and Claim #. Both are missing in the counterfeit one.
• Genuine WorldTrips EOB would say 'Total Patient's Responsibility', but it says 'Patient's Responsibility' in the counterfeit one.
• Genuine WorldTrips EOB would have 'Total Net Payment' and not 'Total Payment Amount'.
• Genuine WorldTrips EOB would have 'Other Credits or Adjustments' above 'Total Net Payment' which is missing from the counterfeit one.

In fact, Insubuy's Principal joined a couple of these groups and posted this message:

I am a Principal of Insubuy, and we sell visitors insurance from WorldTrips, IMG, Trawick etc. As a broker, we work for our customers. I am not sure whether you are our customer or not, but in a special case, irrespective of that, I would be glad to help you if you are having any genuine issues with your claim with WorldTrips. Once I know the details of your specific problem, we will make sure that if you have a genuine claim issue, it will be taken care of and paid. Therefore, please contact me at +1 (972) 985-4400 at your earliest convenience. I look forward to helping you soon.

First, all of those replies were deleted and then later his membership was banned. If someone is offering genuine help, there would be no reason for such responses to be deleted. There would be no reason to get banned, other than the fact that some of these groups are either run or funded by competitors.

Insubuy only works with reputed insurance companies that are rated A- "Excellent" or better by A.M. Best. The most ironic matter is that the competitor orchestrating such activities themselves is selling the insurance from one of the same insurance companies (underwriters) as the one Insubuy sells. Of course, the same insurance company would not treat customers differently based on from where the sales are made.

Insubuy itself has been in the visitors insurance business for 20 years and the insurance companies that we work with have been selling visitors insurance for even longer than that, some of them for more than 30 years. If they didn't pay legitimate claims, they would not have been in business for such a long time.

Moreover, to claim that only one of the companies is paying COVID-19 claims while all others are denying them due to pre-existing conditions does not seem convincing by any means.

Update 02/24/2021

Ever since we added this article on Feb 14, 2021, and posted the links to it on some of the Facebook groups where such fraudsters are active, they have stopped posting the above fake Explanation of Benefits (EOB) in their responses. That further proves how fake they are.