Access America ( Travel Insurance & Associates), Richmond, VA
Complaint 67666 Details

I purchased 2 roundtrip airline tickets ($1,411.80) online from US Air, Tampa to Rome, and paid for the added option of trip insurance ($84.70) on October 31, 2011 for travel March 12/22, 2012. We had been told on September 27, 2011 that my husband, though hale and hearty, had a rare form of cancer that would be best treated on a wait and see how and if it develops basis which would require CT scans every couple of months. On November 2, 2011, we obtained a second opinion that provided for immediate treatment (chemotherapy and recovery period, surgery and recovery, and then 6 weeks radiation) lasting at least through April 2012. We chose this second option and chemotherapy began November 15, 2011, and was completed January 17, 2012; surgery is scheduled for February 21, 2012. My husband's oncologist said the trip needed to be postponed and travel outside the country was not an option until late April at the earliest. I applied for a refund with Access America and was told the claim was denied because the cancer was a "pre-existing" condition when we bought the insurance, which is totally not the point. That could possibly be an issue for Access America if my husband was too ill from the cancer to travel in March but that is not the case. At the time of the airfare and insurance purchase the treatment plan did not exist...and therefore not a pre-existing condition. Access America's refusal to honor the claim is a scam...the company looked for a way not to pay a legitimate claim.