What insurance do you need for an assignment abroad?

Four points to read before departure

Cover for a business assignment is judged on four points, and all four are read before departure: the limit on emergency medical expenses abroad; whether medical evacuation and repatriation are covered; whether a direct payment guarantee exists, which decides if the employee has to pay up front; and the certificate they can produce, at a consulate counter as at a hospital reception.

At Maximum Insurance those four points have figures: CHF/EUR/USD 1,500,000 of emergency medical expenses, unlimited medical evacuation and repatriation worldwide, a TSM/AXA direct payment guarantee for hospital treatment, and a certificate issued on payment. The Corporate Mobility programme is underwritten by TSM Compagnie d'Assurances, a Swiss insurer since 1921, on the AXA Assistance network — 40,000 accredited hospitals and providers — under collective policy no 20 00 479.

What exactly does assignment cover include?

The detail sits in the policy's Table of Benefits. Here are the Pack VIP lines, as written there.

These lines are read together, not one after the other. The medical limit sets what the insurer can commit in front of a facility. Because evacuation and repatriation are unlimited, no ceiling gets in the way at the moment transport becomes necessary — and it is the line where a ceiling would bite first, the cost ranges for a repatriation being recorded country by country on the alerts map. The direct payment guarantee changes no amount at all: it changes the moment the money moves, and who the hospital deals with. A high limit without direct settlement still leaves the employee at the facility's finance desk, card in hand.

Cover applies outside the country of residence and is subsidiary to compulsory schemes. The Corporate Mobility General Conditions 2026 and the Table of Benefits are freely available on the Documents page.

Who settles the hospital during the assignment?

The insurer, directly with the facility, where there is hospital treatment: that is the direct payment guarantee, a line of the Table just like the limits above. For an assignment it settles a very concrete question — the employee does not have to provide the guarantee demanded on admission, nor squeeze a hospital bill onto a personal card limit. The mechanism itself, and what separates it from an advance of costs reimbursed later, are covered in the file on the payment guarantee; the sequence as the company sees it is in the file on an employee hospitalised abroad.

How long is an assignment covered for?

Twelve months, with unlimited trips within the year: the policy is taken out per employee per year, not per trip. A four-month assignment, two return trips in a quarter, a secondment that runs a week over — none of that is counted again at each departure, and none of it has to be announced in advance.

That is the most mechanical difference with insurance attached to bank cards. The card notices we have read — American Express Platinum, Visa Infinite, Mastercard World Elite — all three cap a single trip at 90 days, and each adds its own excess and territorial clause. An assignment that runs past that threshold falls outside the card's cover while remaining inside the twelve months of the annual policy: that is the only point that concerns us here. The limits, the excesses and the excluded zones, product by product and with the exact reference of each document, are set out in the file on bank card insurance; what those documents provide, or do not, at the moment of settling the hospital is in the file on the payment guarantee. Since each bank issues its own notice, these durations hold for the documents we have read, and for those alone.

Which certificate does the employee receive?

Two certificates exist, and they do not serve the same purpose. The nominative TSM insurance certificate is issued on payment and accepted for visa applications, including Schengen. In the non-nominative company pack, the certificate is general and carries the company's name: it states that the company is covered for the declared headcount, without naming employees — whereas a consulate asks for a nominative document. That is the one practical limit of the non-nominative route, and it is worked around by activating the trip in the employee's name: the insured card and the certificate are then emailed within 30 seconds.

What is optional, and what should be checked?

The Pack VIP Extreme includes everything in the Pack VIP and adds trip cancellation or modification up to CHF/EUR/USD 20,000 per person, plus special-risk cancellation up to CHF 5,000 per person (Module A: political event, attack, epidemic, natural disaster). Two guarantees, and only two, remain subject to eligibility and are therefore never acquired by default: crisis management and security (GardaWorld / AXA) — travel registration, proactive security monitoring, extraction and evacuation in case of riot, war, terrorism or natural disaster — and Kidnap & Ransom, with its dedicated crisis managers (GC art. 18.4).

Pricing: Pack VIP at $990 for twelve months or $99 per month depending on the plan, Pack VIP Extreme at $2,290 or $229 per month. The company pack runs a firm 12 months paid once, per covered employee. On the obligation borne by the employer, see is an employer required to insure an employee abroad; on what documenting those trips means, what is duty of care.