Foreign voluntary workers compensation insurance can be an important part of an international insurance portfolio designed to protect employees while traveling overseas. Although a domestic workers compensation policy may offer some protection, it isn’t always enough. Domestic insurance policies may exclude endemic disease or accidents that occur outside of work.

Foreign voluntary workers compensation insurance provides U.S.-style workers’ compensation together with employers’ liability protection. Among other things, this insurance pays for loss of earnings and for medical expenses including those incurred during hospital stays. The level of workers compensation benefits can vary depending on the state in which the employee is hired. For instance, an employee from Massachusetts may receive a maximum of nearly $1.5 million in death benefits.

Foreign voluntary workers compensation insurance pays repatriation expenses, which include costs incurred when employees require medical treatment, transportation or mortuary services if they become ill, are injured or die while traveling internationally on business.

Because overseas injuries often require immediate medical attention, it is important to investigate whether the workers compensation insurance under consideration includes access to global emergency medical assistance. Emergency medical assistance programs can help employees navigate such challenges as hospital admission in an unfamiliar country, replacement of lost or stolen prescriptions and coordination of direct payments to local medical assistance providers. These programs may even arrange transportation for family members or others who need to reach the sick or injured employees that are sidelined in foreign countries.

Traveling overseas on business can expose employees to many risks, such as endemic disease and flying and driving hazards. As an example, a midsize distributor of carpentry tools worldwide sends its vice president of sales to China, the Philippines and Indonesia to sell its products to the furniture manufacturers. While in Indonesia, he is severely injured in a car accident. While being stabilized in a hospital in Jakarta, he needs to be flown back to the United States, because the local hospital is not equipped with the proper surgery equipment. Under foreign voluntary workers compensation insurance, the insurance carrier is able to contact its worldwide medical assistance service and arrange the escorted flight out of the country. Upon arrival, he is immediately taken to a local hospital, undergoes surgery and stays in the hospital for two weeks. He is later transferred to a rehabilitation facility for physical therapy. Three months later, he’s back on the job.

With foreign voluntary workers compensation insurance, the insurance carrier pays all the medical expenses that are incurred both in Indonesia and the United States, the cost of transporting him out of the country and the loss of earnings while he is out of work. His employer does not have to tap the company’s own financial resources to pay these expenses, and, best of all, the employee is able to recover and return to work.

Tom Gu, CPCU, is a senior underwriting officer in the Multinational Risk Group for the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies in Boston, MA. He can be reached at (617) 261-6195.