Chubb accident insurance covers out-of-pocket costs tied to a covered accident by paying fixed cash benefits directly to you for things like ambulance rides, emergency room and urgent care visits, X-rays, hospital stays, surgery, specific injuries such as fractures and burns, follow-up therapy, and accidental death. It is supplemental coverage, not a replacement for major medical insurance, and the money can be spent however you choose. Benefits are paid on top of any other insurance you carry.
How the Policy Pays
A covered accident is defined as an unintended, unforeseen injurious event that happens by chance, comes from a source outside your body, and is independent of illness or disease. That definition is the filter for everything else. Break an arm falling off a ladder and the policy pays. Develop a stress fracture from a degenerative bone condition and it does not.
When a covered accident leads to treatment, you receive a set dollar amount for each qualifying event. Checks go to you, not the hospital, and there are no restrictions on how you use them. Coverage runs 24 hours a day, worldwide, and applies to injuries both on and off the job. The policy is compatible with Health Savings Accounts and is designed to sit alongside minimum essential health coverage.
Benefit amounts depend on the plan tier your employer selected. Chubb offers configurations commonly labeled Bronze, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond, with higher tiers paying more for the same event.
Covered Medical Treatment After an Accident
Initial Care and Emergency Treatment
The policy pays for the first medical contact after an accident. Typical ranges across plan tiers:
- Ground ambulance: $120 to $400; air ambulance: $1,000 to $2,000.
- Emergency room visit: $75 to $250.
- Urgent care visit: $50 to $200.
- Initial doctor’s office visit: $25 to $100.
- Telemedicine: $75 to $100.
- X-ray: $20 to $250.
- Major diagnostic exam such as a CT scan or MRI: $100 to $200.
Hospitalization and Rehabilitation
Hospital-related benefits are among the largest in the policy and build quickly during a multi-day stay.
- Hospital admission: $500 to $1,500 as a one-time payment.
- ICU admission: $1,000 to $3,000.
- Hospital confinement: $150 to $350 per day, up to 365 days.
- ICU confinement: $300 to $600 per day, up to 30 days.
- Rehabilitation facility admission: $500 to $1,500, with daily confinement benefits of $90 to $200 for up to 30 days.
- Recovery benefit: $50 to $100 per day for up to seven days after discharge.
Surgery
Surgeries resulting from a covered accident trigger separate payments.
- Abdominal, cranial, or thoracic surgery: $750 to $2,000.
- Tendon, ligament, or rotator cuff surgery: $400 to $1,000.
- Hernia surgery: $200.
- Herniated disc surgery: up to $1,500.
- Joint replacement (elbow, hip, knee, or shoulder): $750 to $1,500.
Specific Injuries
Some of the largest payouts are tied to defined injuries, and these apply on top of the benefits for the treatment itself.
- Fractures: up to $5,000 to $12,000, depending on the bone and whether the repair is open or closed reduction.
- Dislocations: up to $3,600 to $10,000, depending on severity.
- Burns: $750 to $15,000, scaled by first, second, or third degree. Skin graft benefits may equal 25% of the burn benefit.
- Coma: $7,500 to $14,500.
- Paralysis: $13,500 for two limbs; up to $20,000 for four limbs on certain plans.
- Traumatic brain injury: $175 to $600.
- Torn knee cartilage: $400 to $1,500.
- Lacerations: $20 to $700, depending on severity and required repair.
- Loss of hands, feet, or sight: up to $10,000 to $40,000.
- Loss of fingers or toes: up to $1,200 to $2,000.
- Organ loss: $2,500.
Follow-Up Care, Therapy, and Supplies
- Physical, occupational, or speech therapy: $25 to $50 per visit, up to 6 or 10 visits depending on the plan.
- Chiropractic care: $25 to $50 per visit, typically limited to 3 visits per accident or 6 per year.
- Medical appliances such as crutches or braces: $75 to $1,000.
- Prosthetics: $500 to $1,500.
- Blood, plasma, or platelets: $200 to $600.
- Prescription medicine and medical supplies: $20 each on some plans.
Emergency Dental
Dental work is generally excluded unless sound natural teeth are injured in a covered accident and treatment occurs within 12 months. When covered, extractions pay $50 to $150, and crowns, dentures, or implants pay $200 to $400.
Travel and Lodging
If an accident requires treatment at a facility more than 100 miles from home, the policy pays lodging of $100 to $200 per night for up to 30 nights and transportation of $300 to $650 per trip for up to three trips.
Accidental Death and Catastrophic Injury
Most Chubb accident plans include an accidental death benefit, typically $20,000 to $50,000 for the employee or spouse and $4,000 to $25,000 for covered children. Several plans pay more for deaths that occur while riding as a passenger on a licensed common carrier such as a bus, train, or commercial airline. One plan document references a common carrier death benefit of four times the standard accidental death amount.
Catastrophic accident benefits, meant for life-altering injuries such as paralysis, range from $25,000 to $100,000 depending on the plan and family status. These benefits are reduced by 50% once the insured reaches age 70.
Chubb also sells standalone accidental death and dismemberment policies with benefits from $10,000 to $1,000,000, which pay lump sums for loss of life, limbs, sight, speech, hearing, or paralysis. The standalone AD&D policies include enhancements for seat belt use, air bag deployment, and criminal assault at work or during business travel.
Sports Package
If a covered person is injured while participating in an organized sport, total benefit payments for that accident increase by 25%, capped at $1,000 per person per year. Chubb’s own materials use the example of a child breaking a leg at soccer practice. Recreational athletics are covered. Motorized vehicle contests are not.
Wellness Benefit
Even without an accident, the policy pays $50 to $100 per family member per year when a covered person completes a qualifying annual health screening such as a blood test, mammogram, or colonoscopy. Some plans impose a 30-day or 90-day waiting period before this benefit becomes available. The wellness benefit uses a separate claim form.
What Is Not Covered
Because this is accident-only coverage, the broadest exclusion is illness, disease, or any bodily malfunction not caused solely by a covered accident. Beyond that, the policies exclude injuries resulting from:
- Legal intoxication or use of non-prescribed narcotics.
- Committing or attempting a felony.
- Suicide, attempted suicide, or intentional self-injury.
- Declared or undeclared war, or active military service beyond the first 60 consecutive days.
- Racing or any contest involving a motorized vehicle.
- Routine dental work, unless treating sound natural teeth damaged in a covered accident within 12 months.
- Repetitive motion or cumulative trauma such as carpal tunnel syndrome or stress fractures that develop over time rather than from a single accident.
- Any injury covered by a workers’ compensation or occupational injury plan.
- Treatment provided by a family member, business partner, or financial affiliate of the insured.
Some specialty Chubb accident programs, such as those written for volunteers, also exclude injuries to police, fire, construction, or medical response team volunteers unless separately arranged, and coverage may be unavailable in certain states.
Pre-Existing Conditions
For the standard voluntary accident insurance sold through employers, several plan documents state there are “no exclusions or pre-existing conditions,” meaning no look-back period or waiting period for prior health issues. The real limitation is structural: because the policy only pays for injuries from a sudden, unforeseen accident independent of illness or bodily malfunction, a prior condition only matters if it contributed to the injury in a way that breaks the causal chain from accident to loss. Chubb’s critical illness product is a different policy and does define pre-existing conditions, with a 12-month look-back and a 12-month waiting period before those conditions are covered.
Taxes on the Benefits You Receive
Whether your payouts are taxable depends on how the premiums were paid. If you pay the full cost with after-tax dollars, benefits are generally not taxable. If your employer pays the premiums, or you pay through a pre-tax cafeteria plan, the IRS treats the benefits as taxable income you must report. In mixed-funding situations, only the portion attributable to employer-paid premiums is taxable.