Medical Travel Today Interview with Jim Krampen on the New Seven Corners Medical Tourism Insurance

Medical Travel Today spoke to Jim Krampen, one of the co-founders of Seven Corners to learn more about how the product was developed, how it works, and why medical tour operators are calling it a "godsend."

Medical Travel Today (MTT): Please provide some background on yourself and the founding of Seven Corners.

Jim Krampen (JK): Seven Corners was founded in 1993 by me and Justin Tysdal. Prior to that, we both worked for another local insurance firm.

At that time, international travel insurance was very much a commodity product. The only difference was customer service, which was something clients didn't really get to experience unless they had a claim.

Justin and I thought we could "build a better mousetrap." We felt that if we put an emphasis on customer service and client focus we would be offering something better, something different than what was being provided in the industry The thing about insurance is that when you buy it, you're paying for a service you can't see, touch, or feel. It's all about trust. Honestly, you're paying for something you're hoping you never have to use.

So we decided to show our customer service to people up front and build that trust with them before they became insured clients. That included being responsive, caring, and always having a live person answer the phone. That was our approach then, and it's still our approach today. When a customer calls us they don't get a phone tree. Not even at three in the morning. They get a live operator who responds to their needs.

MTT: When and how did you first become aware of the need for a supplemental medical travel insurance product?

JK: There was an article in the December 2006 issue of Business Insurance Magazine. It was a brief piece on medical tourism that caught my interest. Then in March 2007, I started getting Google alerts on medical tourism. From that point on I was reading eight to 10 articles or blogs a day on medical tourism.

A year ago I approached some of our underwriters, including Lloyd's of London and AIG Accident and Health Division, to develop an insurance program for medical tourism patients. We brought with us the research from our actuaries and a plan for building and administrating the product. We have such a good longstanding relationship with these groups and our other underwriters (Nationwide, Fairmont Specialty, and Virginia Surety) that they trusted our data and assumptions and gave us the go-ahead.

MTT: Why would a consumer need your product? What does it cover that a medical tour provider does not?

JK: The research we did shows that 65 percent of the people using medical tour facilitators are going for elective, cosmetic, or dental surgeries. These are things that are not covered under any medical plans. In order to do this, they must generally pre-pay 50 percent for their treatment before they go. What we do is cover them in two unique ways. First, lets say you're getting a breast augmentation for $5,000. You pay the required $2,500 upfront. Now, if the week before the trip you have a car accident, theres a hurricane, or for whatever eligible reason you cant make it, regular trip insurance covers the cost of the trip -- airfare, hotel, etc. However, the money paid to the medical center would not be covered. Our policy covers that.

Currently all insurance products exclude travel to be treated for medical conditions. We do not exclude that. That is the purpose of your trip so it should be insurable.

Second, lets say you get your surgery, then within 60 days after that, no matter where you are in the world or if you've returned home, you experience a medical complication, we will arrange and pay to get that medical complication treated.

The truth is that if youre on the operating table for a cosmetic procedure and have a stroke, the contract with the medical facility only covers you for the services you signed up for. Any complications that arise, youve got to pay for those out-of-pocket. Our policy would pay for the complication that occurs in or shortly after surgery.

Our policy covers you for acute illness and injuries or anything thats non-pre-existing. That includes an appendectomy or being hit by a bus and breaking your arm.

MTT: Who was involved in the creation of the offering?

JK: In May 2008 we contacted 12 medical tour providers—all U.S.-based—and interviewed them. I asked them each eight questions from an insurance perspective to gauge what benefits would be most important to the medical tourist. Through that, they offered me really good information on why people don't travel for medical care -- the "what if" point that keeps them from making the leap. And what we found was that the “no guarantees” aspect was the biggest obstacle.

When I explained to them what I was thinking, they immediately recognized how this could assist them in their sales. So we took the data gathered in the interviews/surveys and matched it with our own actuarial information to come up with the Seven Corners Medical Tourism Insurance plan.

At this point what I'm doing is contacting those same folks to say "here's the promised insurance plan." A number of them are looking at actually embedding it into their offering, which means the cost of the insurance would be provided as part of the entire package. This gives the medical tour operator a unique selling point and a meaningful differentiator.

Other operators are talking about including it as a retail offering on their site -- a sort of "click here" if you'd like to add this to your package. We're also open to having them simply refer people to us.

MTT: How do you anticipate the product being accessed, for what need, and on what data is that prediction based?

JK: Recognizing that my data collection method is very unscientific, what I found is that U.S. medical travelers are going for:

• 65 percent dental and cosmetic
• 10 to15 percent knee and hip, carpal tunnel, and lumbar
• 10 percent bariatric (Mexico)
• 5 to 10 percent infertility
• 5 to 10 percent cardiac

In reality, travel for cardiac is very rare. Not a lot of people in need of heart surgery sign up for long plane flights. However, this area does offer the biggest cost savings, and it gets a lot of media attention. It's a much better story than a nose job, but it doesn't really represent what's driving people to travel for care.

MTT: What has the reception for the product been thus far?

JK: My favorite quote from a medical tour operator so far is: "This is a godsend to the medical tourism industry." Another said, "I don't know how you did this, but it's what the industry needs." People recognize that this will significantly help medical tour operators. It alleviates that one last concern their clients may have.

Go to www.sevencorners.com/medicaltourism for more information.

About Jim Krampen
James Krampen, executive officer and co-founder of Seven Corners, brings nearly 20 years of underwriting and reinsurance expertise to his role at the company. In this capacity, he offers extensive depth and breadth of knowledge and experience in the areas of underwriting custom group insurance programs, expatriate medical insurance programs, and private label expatriate plans. In addition to serving as a resource to the Seven Corners leadership team, Mr. Krampen also works directly with clients to design customized insurance programs.

As a well-respected authority on international expatriate medical insurance, Mr. Krampen has been called to testify as an expert witness in many court cases and legal proceedings. Prior to co-founding Seven Corners, he worked for various international underwriting and brokerage companies providing expatriate medical insurance to individuals and groups.

Mr. Krampen holds a bachelors degree from Purdue University in Lafayette, Ind. He is a member of the Self Insured Institute of American (SIIA) and serves on the Travel Medical and Legal/Compliance committees for the United States Travel Insurance Association (UStiA).

About Seven Corners
Seven Corners is one of the industrys most experienced travel health insurance providers. The company serves leisure, student, business, government and missionary/volunteer travelers. It offers an extensive selection of international medical and travel insurance policies to U.S. citizens traveling overseas or foreign nationals visiting the United States. Seven Corners has thousands of policy holders and a worldwide network of 30,000 agents. The company created and maintains the industrys most comprehensive network of international health care providers that includes thousands of doctors, pharmacies and hospitals around the globe.

Seven Corners is a member of the United States Travel Insurance Association, is GSA certified and is currently pursuing a SAS 70 Type II compliant designation. In addition to travel medical insurance, Seven Corners also offers health care administration to the government sector. The company is privately held and headquartered just north of Indianapolis in Carmel, Ind. For more information about Seven Corners, please call 800-335-0611 or visit www.sevencorners.com.