Navigating Urgent Care In Paris With Travel Insurance Support

I guess it had to happen to me one day: getting urgent care in Paris. Hopefully, my experience of being sick and needing medical help during my last trip will help prepare you with pointers on what to do in case it happens to you in Paris or elsewhere in the world. I’m sure that the requirements by my travel insurance provider are very similar to what other providers would require.

1. Getting Medical Help And Urgent Care In Paris

During my last trip, when I arrived in Paris, I thought I just had a cold—sniffling and coughing; however, it wasn’t until the second day that I knew things were getting worse. I had laryngitis, a fever, and a very red, sore throat. Fortunately, I brought along a few rapid antigen tests and the result was positive. I had Covid. (I’m sure I got it before I left but didn’t realize I had Covid).

(a) Travel Medical Insurance

I have travel medical insurance so I called my provider, Global Excel, who advised me to visit a doctor. They gave me the names of a few clinics near my apartment/hotel. Payment would be required upfront but I would be reimbursed by providing receipts. There was also no guarantee the doctor would speak English.

(b) Visiting A Paris Urgent Care Clinic

I visited the first urgent care clinic (clinique de soins d’urgence). It was a 15-minute walk to this walk in clinic in Paris, but when I arrived, I was told there were no doctors there until Monday. The receptionist did recommend another clinic nearby. It was a “Maison de Santé” which is a “health centre” and it could have 1 medical professional or many medical professionals on site. I suppose they are like walk-in clinics. Thank goodness!

When I arrived at the next clinic, Maison de Santé Faidherbe (near the Bastille) I had to show some form of identification— my passport. There seemed to be several doctors working out of this health centre and I was able to see a doctor in 35 minutes. I was grateful that my French was good enough to tell the doctor my symptoms AND that I could understand him. And also, thank you Google Translate!

(c) Medical Expenses For Seeing A Doctor In Paris

After doing an examination, he gave me a prescription and I paid him by credit card on the spot: 53 €. He also gave me a receipt that I used to send in my claim. I went to a pharmacy and the four meds only cost about 16 €! Pretty cheap for the doctor’s visit and medicine.

Fortunately, I was better in about a week. I certainly was grateful that I had booked 9 nights in Paris as I didn’t feel upset about missing out on a few days when I stayed in. Having an apartment was a godsend as I could just make soup or have a small meal and not worry about having to get out to get food.

2. Insurance Claim

I contacted the insurance company after my treatment to update them and they opened a claim, gave me a claim number, and said claim forms would be emailed to me. They went over the next steps and stated what would require pre-approval:

• Any non-standard tests were to be done (standard tests: blood or urine tests)
• If I have to go to the hospital (be admitted), I was told to have a doctor or nurse speak to Global Excel (and French would be okay).

(a) Submitting My Medical Claim

I had 90 days to submit this information and sent all the documents when I returned home. One piece of advice: as you will see in the next section, it is very important to keep your airline boarding passes and receipts. I was surprised at all the items the insurance company wanted to prove that I WAS in France and that I was provided medical treatment.

Global Excel sent me a detailed email soon after I confirmed I had seen a doctor and had medical expenses. It was not until I got home—well over a month late—that I was able to submit all my documents. And there were a lot:

• Global Excel claim form asked how I wanted to be paid (ie. cheque, direct deposit, or Interact e-transfer)
• Doctor’s bill (that included his diagnosis and/or any medical records).
• Prescription
• Itemized bills, receipts and proof of payment. My expenses were in European currency (and my credit card statement indicated the exchange rate)
• Copy of my credit card statement—I had to wait until January to get it which delayed the submission of my claim.
• “Authorization and Release Specifications” –a document permitting Global Excel to communicate with my provincial government’s health care department. [The reason is that sometimes the government will pay some expenses, so Global Excel won’t be entirely on the hook.]
• Proof of travel “(ex: an airline boarding pass, a credit card transaction or purchase receipt showing you were in your province of residence the day of departure and again on the day of return to your province of residence)”.
  • I submitted my boarding passes and proof that I was in the airport lounge
  • What’s crazy is that one of my boarding passes was an electronic boarding pass in my Apple wallet, but somehow I was able to get a screenshot of it and print it out.

(b) Reimbursement For My Medical Expenses

I was pleased with how quickly I was paid…. despite the initial delay. Here is the timeline:

• December 7-Flew to Paris
• December 8-Arrived in Paris
• December 9-Called travel insurance company for assistance; saw a doctor and got meds
• December 22-I flew home
• January 11-Finally got my credit card statement and was able to mail the documents
• January 29-I hadn’t heard anything so I called Global Excel who confirmed they hadn’t received anything. I resubmitted all documents electronically through the patient portal.
• February 6- The claim is settled.
• February 7-Fully reimbursed for my medical expenses—-$106. Not a lot, but every cent counts.

Another post that may interest you concerns cancellation insurance before your trip. Here’s my experience visiting the emergency department days before my trip to France and the implications of cancelling: A Visit To Emergency: The Costs To Cancel My Trip To France.

Have you ever gotten sick in Paris and needed medical assistance? How was your experience?

For more insight into the other (more enjoyable) experiences I had during this trip, check out this Itinerary: Trip #38: Paris and Strasbourg In December.

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