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Non Life Insurance - Health insurance: Five new changes you need to know
16-Jul-2020

Amid the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, policyholders had to face a lot of trouble in getting their insurance claims settled. There were reports of hospitals denying cashless claims to the policyholders. IRDAI, the insurance regulator has issued numerous guidelines in favour of the consumers in the past few months to make the process of insurance and claim settlement smooth. It recently came out with a standard health insurance cover ‘ Corona Kavach’ to cover the hospitalisation expenses on treatment of Coronavirus. Here are the latest guidelines from IRDAI to deal with Covid19 better:

Provision of cashless facility to the policyholders: IRDAI noticed that certain hospitals are denying cashless facility to policyholders for treatment of covid-19. In its latest circular dated July 14, the insurance regulator advised insurance companies to ensure that the policyholder is allowed the cashless facility at the hospitals as per the terms of the policy. It also asked the insurance companies to put in place an exclusive grievance redressal mechanism to address the grievances of policyholders relating to the denial of cashless facility for covid-19.

Introduction of ‘Corona Kavach’ policy: IRDAI, on July 10 launched a standard Covid specific insurance policy called ‘Corona Kavach’ to address the basic health insurance needs of the public with common policy wordings across the industry. IRDAI has mandated 30 general and health insurers to offer the plan.

Norms on collection of Health Insurance Premium: In a bid to offer some respite to policyholders dealing with any liquidity crunch arising out of the lockdown, the IRDAI, on April 20, asked all general and standalone health insurers to give policyholders the option to pay health insurance premiums in instalments. It allowed to pay premiums on a monthly, quarterly or half-yearly basis.

Extra time to pay insurance premiums: IRDAI allowed extended time to pay life and health insurance renewal premiums during nationwide lockdown in March and April to ensure continuity of life and health insurance policies.

Source : Live Mint back