travel insurers...cancellation.

[freemang]

Does anyone know...If you and a partner cannot use flights you have booked due to a serious illness (cannot travel) and you produce a doctors note to the insurance company to claim the money back, does the insurance company have to contact you or your doctor to confirm/validate the note or is it just sufficent on its own?
Surely they cannot enquire/disclose information about you (medically etc) without your consent?

[noahboy]

You may have already given consent in the terms and conditions you accepted when you took out the insurance! Suggest you check your policy.

If you haven't given consent, a doctor wouldn't disclose info but bear in mind an insurance company is within its rights to verify the cause of any claim and it could be a requirment that you get additional information provided by your doctor. If this wasn't the case, there would be loads of doubtful claims!

[Ethel]

The insurers will need to be certain this was not a pre-existing condition which would nullify the claim.

I would be very surprised if an insurance company took a doctor's 'sick note' as the only source of information.

[Rosetta]

I broke my leg three weeks before going on holiday last year. My insurere sent me aform to complete giving details and costs involved The doctor also had to verify the medical reason for cancellation And as Ethel states one question was whether I had a prior condition that might have contributed. One of the things I forgot about at the time was the excess, which was �50 per person in my case.
You may be advisable to check with your insurer whether you are expected to cancel your flights ( if you can, I am not sure how many will allow you to do this & under what conditions ) because then you would only be able to reclaim the portion that you had to pay out.
Sorry if that last bit was a bit convoluted, it was just something I remember on the form.

[factor-fiction]

The insurer can ask you to complete an Access to Medical Reports Act form (or something like that) giving permission for the doctor to disclose information. It's probably a condition of any claim that you provide such permission.