In April, a client reached out to me. She already had a Cigna policy — not the worst option on the market. She bought it directly. No broker. Because, in her own words, “Why would I need one? I’m not stupid. I can do everything by myself” (And she really isn’t — quite the opposite, in fact.)
Everything was working fine. Claims were paid. Then in December, she underwent a full medical check-up at one of South Korea’s top clinics. And I don’t often see these, but I mean full — from scans and lab work to dozens of procedures and even some cosmetic extras.
The bill? Tens of thousands of dollars. She paid upfront, assuming it would be simple and all she needed to do is to send in all of the invoices for reimbursed.
That’s when the nightmare began:
Everything was working fine. Claims were paid. Then in December, she underwent a full medical check-up at one of South Korea’s top clinics. And I don’t often see these, but I mean full — from scans and lab work to dozens of procedures and even some cosmetic extras.
The bill? Tens of thousands of dollars. She paid upfront, assuming it would be simple and all she needed to do is to send in all of the invoices for reimbursed.
That’s when the nightmare began:
- Endless back-and-forth emails
- Miscommunication on both sides
- Invoices in Korean, some in English (and big thank you to Google Translate that the hospital was using, but when a “preventative ultrasound” becomes a “holy scan for future sins” — it's a bit alarming)
- To make things worse, most of the payment was made in cash and only a small portion by card.
- The Korean concierge service she used to organise the whole thing stopped responding.
- The insurer kept missing key documents and invoices
- The clinic? Made things even harder
- Fast forward to April, her renewal is due. And that’s when she came to me — this time fully aware that she had neither the time nor the energy to fight this battle alone. She needed someone who actually knows how to untangle this kind of mess.
- We looked at the market, and (as odd as it might sounds) decided to stay with Cigna (trust me, there was a good reason for it). I know many brokers would’ve said - “Alright, here’s your new policy. And as for the old claims – it’s your problem.” And deep down I wouldn’t even blame them. After all, this kind of work isn’t paid for (neither by the insure nor the client). But I decided to jump headfirst into the problem anyway.
- And then the fun began:
- Sorting out invoices in Korean, English, Russian — and a fourth language I’ll generously call ‘nonsense’.
- Phone calls to Korea, to Cigna, to the clinic… and, at one point, it felt like I was calling the moon.
- Chasing a concierge service that clearly had no idea what they were doing.
- Emails. Appeals. More explanations.
- Every day felt like one step forward, two steps back. Some days I was convinced they were delaying things on purpose. Other days — I genuinely believed they had no clue what they were doing.
- In the end, it took a full bloody month, and culminated in a call with the Head of Claims, where we sat down (virtually) and went line by line through every single piece of paper we’d gathered.
- And today — we received confirmation that the first portion of the bill has been approved and will be paid later this week and the rest of the bill is still in progress.
- Now here’s the question:
- Do you have a broker on your policy?
- Because if you don’t — we’re here. No empty promises. Just someone willing to roll up their sleeves and work hard for you. Someone who knows where to push, who to call, and how to get it done, even when everyone else has given up.
- By the way - having a broker doesn’t change the price or terms of your policy. It’s literally a win-win situation for you as you get all the support free of charge.
- Drop me a message if this feels familiar and we’ll do what we can to help.