Medical Assistance Companies Target Travel Buyers.

<FONT SIZE="+3"><B> Medical Assistance Companies Target Travel Buyers</B>

By David Marcus

<I>New York </I>- As corporate travelers increasingly penetrate the far reaches of the globe, a new opportunity to improve the bottom line may be opening for travel managers: negotiating with the proliferation of medical and emergency assistance suppliers that are targeting companies and travel agencies.

These vendors offer a cornucopia of products and services that address crises on the road. The question, however, is: Do they offer added value, and who on the buyer's side should negotiate with them?

Many emergency-service vendors have been leisure-oriented and have only recently focused their attention on the potentially lucrative corporate market. One of the larger medical assistance companies, Philadelphia-based International SOS Assistance, has worked with corporate clients for the past three or four years, although the firm has been in business since 1974, said spokesman Stephen Schechter. The company offers a variety of insurance, medical and communications products for travelers, with sales activities zeroing in on three key company areas: human resources, travel and medical.

Another large firm, Bethesda, Md.-based US Assist, began targeting the corporate market as far back as 1988 and offers an array of services, including evacuation, site inspections abroad, medical consulting, multilingual assistance and pre-departure kits. It also offers negotiated rates.

"In the past, we have talked with human resources, medical directors and risk management," said company spokeswoman Kelly Brown. "Now, we're establishing distribution agreements with travel agencies and consortiums that have corporate clients."

Woodside Travel expects to ink a deal with US Assist within the next few months. "We would offer US Assist to our partner agencies, who would then offer it as an option to their clients when negotiating agency agreements," said vice president of supplier relations Harvey Rosenthal.

Another company, Ft. Lee, N.J.-based Emergency Medical Systems Inc., a leisure-based supplier that recently began eyeing the corporate market, holds electronic copies of an employee's medical records in its database, quickly enabling doctors anywhere in the world to access an employee's medical records, according to EMS president Paul Siegal. If a client loses a prescription in another country, for example, the service quickly accesses clinical information, Siegal said.

Baltimore-based Medex negotiates directly with corporations. The company offers a variety of medical services and limited evacuation assistance, as well as fully paid evacuation plus travel costs for visiting a relative in a foreign hospital. Medex, which formerly was an insurance provider before its corporate clients requested expanded medical services, offers standard rate programs for individual companies, "but if the company has a large travel volume, we offer negotiated rates," said a spokesperson. However, rates are negotiated with risk managers, medical directors and human resource managers.

The fact that travel is seldom included in the purchasing process makes Rolfe Shellenberger, a consultant with Runzheimer International, skeptical about medical assistance companies.

"The thing that bothers me most is that they are not buying cost-free services, only communication services," he said. "My immediate reaction was that it was a fee-splitting deal. They put you in touch with people who pay for referrals. I wouldn't be surprised if there are finder's fees every time there is a crisis."

Travel managers said they were happy to have these products, although they acknowledged that they have little, if any, involvement in buying them.

Cyndi Perper, director of corporate travel for Colgate-Palmolive in New York, said she has used SOS' Global Premier card when she was hurt overseas. "It gives you a network you can contact when you have an emergency," she said. Rates are negotiated with the company's security department.

In some companies, the medical department makes the decision to buy these programs. "We're primarily concerned with the availability and accessibility of medical care in certain locations," said a source at Ford Motor Co.'s medical department, which uses SOS. "They can give me information in advance regarding risks and health problems in different locations. SOS also can help us in situations when a hospital doesn't accept a corporate card."

Shellenberger, however, said that corporate cards provide the same type of services, so there is no extra value for the cost.

American Express spokeswoman Melissa Abernathy said that a communication hotline and evacuation services are an included corporate benefit in Amex's payment system. Amex offers three levels of benefits: Global Assist Hotline, which covers information services, medical referrals and travel assistance; Global Assist Plus, offering medical and financial assistance in medical or non-medical emergencies; and a customized plan with a flexible fee structure.

Gary Tice, president and CEO of SOS, counters that the card companies offer only "reactive" programs, as opposed to a "proactive approach" to on-the-road emergencies. "We provide travel health reports, referrals, traveler information on inoculations, risks, consular and embassy phone numbers and security information," he said.

Donald LePard, manager of travel and fleet for SOS client ABB Business Services in Windsor, Conn., favors a medical program that supplements a card program. "Amex is the best, but the best of everything is an assistance program," he said. "The card has a phone number that someone can dial and get a recorded message that says who's authorized to handle your evacuation."

Shellenberger believes travel departments should take a more active role in purchasing such programs because the service is geography-related. A possible corporate model for purchasing these services is Boeing, which uses a team approach when bidding for medical assistance programs, according to spokesman Bob Jorgensen. It employs an interdepartmental team headed by purchasing, with representatives from medical, human resources, travel and other departments.