International Health Insurance

During a research stay or an official trip abroad the normal health insurance principally remains valid. It is, however, possible that e.g. costs for a specific treatment required abroad exceed the remuneration guaranteed by the normal health insurance. The difference has to be paid by the employer, in our case the university.
For this reason it is important that the employer (i.e. the institute or the CRC) concludes an international health insurance for the travelling person concerned. For this purpose the university offers a central service.
The insurance coverage includes the official trip with the weekends and a certain amount of holidays (generally up to 5 days off). In case of the combination of a research stay/official trip with a longer period of holidays, the health insurance coverage ends with the beginning of the first holiday. It is therefore recommended to conclude a private international health insurance for the holidays and the return trip.

In practice:

1) Procure information
First of all call Mrs. Lehmann
Personaladministration und -entwicklung / OrdNr. 5245 Goßlerstraße 5/7
37073 Göttingen
Telefon: +49 551 39-91263
Fax: +49 551 39-1891263
E-Mail: marion.lehmann@zvw.uni-goettingen.de
and give her details about the official trip or research stay, e.g. requested period of the insurance coverage, rate and particular features of the trip. An example for the last mentioned point: Is the insurance coverage valid if you enter Mexico from the United States for a weekend trip?

2) Clarification cost centre
The insurance costs have to be paid by the CRC or the institute. The CRC is not able to pay the costs via travelling funds nor project funds. The CRC has only a very small budget (cost centre) to cover the expenses of the insurance. Therefore it will frequently happen that an institute?s cost centre is asked to pay the additional international health insurance. The expenses for an international health insurance are not really high (short-term tariff (up to 90 days): 0.25 Euro/day, long-term tariff 67 Euro/month.

3) Application for the insurance coverage
The application is carried out by the CRC-office or the secretariat of the institute depending on the cost centre. An informal letter is sufficient (address, see above), indicating the cost centre, the exact travel dates (departure and return) and the country of destination. Furthermore a copy of the ?Application of approval of an official trip? is necessary.
Important: In case of a change in the travel dates, Mrs. Lehmann has to be informed immediately.

4) Contact own existing health insurance
Please inform the existing health insurance of the conclusion of an international health insurance and possibly get some helpful tips and tricks.