Studying abroad, vacations, sports team travel, and even spring break trips present wonderful opportunities for your students to learn and grow into adults that will make your institution proud. But what happens when illness or other safety issues strike while a student is away from campus? Perhaps a passport is lost, an injury is sustained, a student’s cash is stolen, or the student contracts a serious illness. Student Protection Plus Travel Assistance can help in all of these scenarios.

Whenever your students travel more than 100 miles from home, worldwide emergency travel assistance is just a phone call away. The Student Protection Plus Travel Assistance operations center is staffed twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, with multilingual, emergency certified personnel for medical consultation, evaluation, and, if the student is outside of the country, referral to English-speaking physicians.

With one phone call, Student Protection Plus Travel Assistance staff can help facilitate admittance to a foreign medical facility and/or validate the student’s medical insurance. When an adequate medical facility is not available, Travel Assistance can arrange evacuation under appropriate medical supervision to the nearest medical facility capable of providing appropriate care.

Travel Assistance through SPP will also help your students locate lost luggage or personal belongings, and assist with the replacement of lost or stolen travel documents including passports, permits, credit cards, travelers checks, tickets and other documents.  The program can also help coordinate the transfer of emergency cash for students away from home, and ensure emergency messages reach the necessary parties.

Students can use Student Protection Plus Travel Assistance for:

• Hospital admission assistance, critical care monitoring and emergency medical evacuation, if needed.
• Referrals to Western trained, English-speaking medical providers.
• Prescription replacement assistance.
• Emergency message service, including legal and interpreter referrals.
• Replacement assistance for lost passports, tickets, documents, or traveler’s checks.

In addition, Student Protection Plus member schools can meet federal insurance requirements for visiting students on J1 or J2 visas at a fraction of the typical cost.

Read some student stories to learn how Travel Assistance has been helping students deal with travel.

Student Protection Plus' Travel Assistance Partner

Worldwide emergency travel assistance services, provided by Assist America, Inc., are available with select Unum insurance offerings. Terms and availability of service are subject to change and prior notification requirements. Services are not valid after coverage terminates. Please contact your Unum representative for details. All emergency travel assistance must be arranged by Assist America, which pays for all services it provides. Medical expenses such as prescriptions or physician, lab or medical facility fees are paid by the employee or the employee's health insurance. May require a validation of your medical insurance or an advance of funds to the foreign medical facility. You must repay any expenses related to emergency hospital admissions to Assist America, Inc., within 45 days.

¹ Open Doors 2013: International Students in the United States and Study Abroad by American Students are at All-Time High. Open Doors 2013 Report. Institute of International Education, 11 Nov. 2013. Web. http://www.iie.org/Who-We-Are/News-and-Events/Press-Center/Press-releases/2013/2013-11-11-Open-Doors-Data

² D.Phil., Robert. "The Dark Side of Studying Abroad -- and How to Address It." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 11 Mar. 2013. Web. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-quigley-md-dphil/mental-health-study-abroad_b_2852843.htmlv

³ Bryant, Slaine. "Medical Evacuation and Repatriation: How Much Coverage Do I Need?" Square Mouth. 21 June 2013. Web. https://www.squaremouth.com/travel-advice/medical-evacuation-and-repatriation-how-much-coverage-do-i-need