Vance Here. John has borrowed Matt's Spot Satellite Tracker to take with him. It sends periodic updates of his location. That's what powers this report of his location. It also has a button that can be used to send a SOS signal to summon help. There were some questions on whether John was covered as a borrower, so Matt did some research. His informal notes are below. For definitive answers please contact Spot or GEOS.
Spot Gen3, in a nutshell, is a satellite messaging device that uses GPS and satellite communications to track your location and send messages. Spot offers several devices with various capabilities. I bought a basic device (cheaper, lighter, and less battery requirements) that allows you to send three custom messages (OK, whatever, and need help) along with a special SOS message that notifies the International Emergency Response Coordination Center (IERCC).
As the "owner", under my device and plan, GEOS rescue insurance is included as part of my yearly service fee. This insurance can be extended to family members for $18 but only the "owner" is covered on the base plan.
The "owner" can designate a "user" for the device along with emergency contact information for said user specific to a trip. Unfortunately the "user" does not benefit from the "owners" GEOS insurance.
As such I logged into the GEOS account associated with my Spot account on the GEOS website and purchased a GEOS plan for John and associated it with my account to link it to my Spot, which has a unique ID.
There are two levels of GEOS insurance. SAR50 and SAR100. 50 provides $50k of coverage. 100 provides $100k. $18 for the 50, $30 for the 100. It was a no-brainer to go for $100K of coverage.
It's a little fuzzy on how Spot directly bills the user for rescue service as all they ask for is their name and phone number. I assume when the SOS goes out and Spot forwards the SOS with contact info to the IERCC they can check the names and at least know the person is covered and who to bill. It would appear the billee submits a claim form to GEOS once services have been rendered and billed.
When GEOS gets an SOS they call the emergency contact info to verify the event is real and not a false alarm. Presumably there is an escalation path if they can't reach an emergency contacts. I suspect your insurance if void if it's a false alarm.
Links to the three pages of the GEOS Search and Rescue Confirmation / Schedule of Benefits paperwork are provided below. There is an interesting list of countries (e.g., Afghanistan, Somalia) where coverage is explicitly excluded on page 2.
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