Convalescence Benefit (Genesungsgeld)
The convalescence benefit (Genesungsgeld) is a supplementary benefit of private accident insurance paid as a fixed daily amount following an accident-related hospital stay for the same number of days as the hospital cash benefit, usually on a decreasing scale and for a limited period.
Concept
The convalescence benefit is linked to the hospital cash benefit: for every day for which hospital cash was paid, the insurer pays a further daily amount after discharge from inpatient treatment for the recovery phase at home. The benefit requires no proof of expenses and is paid regardless of whether the insured person is unfit for work. Unlike the hospital cash benefit, the convalescence benefit is not a standard module of the current GDV model conditions (AUB 2020) but is agreed through special conditions or tariff extensions.
Design
A decreasing scale is common, under which the convalescence benefit is paid, for example, at the full hospital cash rate from day 1 to 10, at half from day 11 to 20 and at a quarter from day 21 to 100; total duration is regularly capped at 100 days per accident. Other tariffs pay the benefit at a flat rate equal to the hospital cash benefit for a fixed number of days. An example from practice: current AUB 2024 wordings of individual insurers again list the convalescence benefit as a benefit type in its own right (clause 2.5) – it requires an entitlement to hospital daily benefit, is paid for the same number of calendar days and, in group contracts, for a maximum of 150 days, with several stays for the same accident counting as one. In Austria, hospital cash and follow-on convalescence benefits likewise belong to the optional modules of private accident insurance; in Switzerland the module is less widespread and is often replaced by higher hospital daily allowances or daily benefit covers.
Practical Relevance
The convalescence benefit offsets additional costs of the recovery phase that social and health insurers typically do not bear – domestic help, travel for follow-up treatment, loss of earnings of relatives. For the insurer it is a low-margin but commercially effective add-on; underwriting should ensure it remains tied to actual hospital days so that it does not operate as a disguised daily sickness benefit without proof of incapacity for work.