What is business travel insurance?

Many companies provide business travel insurance for employees who are engaged in company business and away from their regular place of work. Typically, business travel insurance protects against death or dismemberment for accidents occurring while employees are away on company business. Normally, business travel insurance does not cover employees while they are commuting to or from work.

Health care portability rules. Note that policies providing liability insurance are not subject to the rules on health care portability (see ¶42,410 ).

Travel restrictions. Travel insurance provided by employers is generally restricted to coverage for injury or death while the employee is engaged in travel for the purposes of the employer's business. However, a personal visit made during travel on business does not necessarily negate recovery under such a policy.

Example: Hansen scheduled a business trip from Toledo, via Cincinnati, to Louisville, and from Louisville to Chicago, and then back to Toledo. He began the trip a day earlier than planned in order to visit his father, who was ill, in Cincinnati. Due to his father's illness, he canceled the rest of the trip after he arrived in Cincinnati and remained there several days.

Then, Hansen left to return to Toledo to attend a business meeting, but was killed in a plane crash en route. He began the trip from Toledo to Cincinnati as the first leg of a business trip and, therefore, the completion of the trip by return to Toledo was necessary to the business of the employer, even though the remainder of the planned trip had been canceled. As a result, recovery under a policy covering death while riding on a commercial airline on employer's business, is allowed.

Business travel insurance covers losses only while an employee is "engaged in company business." A business travel insurance policy should clearly define this term, particularly when business travel starts and ends. This can be tricky, especially when an employee takes personal time before or after a company trip.