Tickets.com Partner Spotlight: Mondial Assistance

Henrico-based insurer arranges medical evacuations out of Haiti
By Peter Bacque

Two Americans injured in the Haitian earthquake received medical care in the U.S. thanks to Henrico County-based Mondial Assistance, a worldwide travel insurance company.

Mondial is trying to locate at least 285 of its customers in Haiti, including four from Richmond and 10 from other places in the state.

"The overriding issue right now is how to deal with health and safety issues of our customers," Jon Ansell, president and CEO of the company's U.S. operation, said Friday.

"Disasters like the earthquake in Haiti present special challenges," Ansell said. "Electricity is out. Phones are out. Hospitals have been damaged. We have to send in personnel to look for our customers."

The company has already arranged the medical evacuation of two severely injured young women back to Miami for medical care, said Kimberly Seay, Mondial's nursing manager at the company's Innsbrook operations center.

The quake victims -- one from Idaho and one from Arizona -- were doing charity work in Haiti.

The Coast Guard transported the two to the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba for initial care, and "the naval base called us," said Noreen Deyo, director of Mondial's international assistance department, who last night had already been working for 36 hours straight.

Deyo's department also made arrangements to bring the injured women's families to Miami and keep them informed about their loved ones' care.

For privacy reasons, Mondial, which has about 800 employees in Henrico, would not identify the two women or its other customers in Haiti.

Mondial has activated its global-catastrophe plan, led by its French unit, and sent employees, including 15 French doctors, to Haiti yesterday, Ansell said.

So far, the company has determined that hundreds of its customers -- from the 28 countries where it has operation centers, including the United States, France, Canada and the Netherlands -- are in Haiti, he said.

Insurance for a trip typically costs a customer $50-$70, Ansell said.

"These kinds of [catastrophic] events tend to be the most expensive for us," Ansell said, though "the primary concern is not the cost, but how we can help these people get out of trouble."

About 250 million people are served by Mondial Assistance businesses, part of the Europe-based Allianz group of companies.

Dr. Bill Brady, a University of Virginia professor of emergency medicine and Mondial's medical director, consulted on the evacuation of the two women from Haiti.

"I would imagine there are going to be a lot more patients, unfortunately, [from Haiti] in the next several days," Brady said, "and we stand ready to help them out."