Page 16 - Insurance Times October 2020

"In general, health insurance claims The policies can now be extended for "There is a lack of awareness on this
for planned treatment have seen some further terms of 3.5 months, 6.5 account as many patients are not
deferment and will flow once the pan- months or 9.5 months, up to 31 March aware that insurance companies are
demic situation improves," said Arora. 2021. According to the regulator, the taking care of home quarantine treat-
renewal can only be done before the ments too. While we are expecting a
Policyholders can renew expiry of the existing policy contract, rise in number of such claims later this
covid-centric policy plans and if the policy is renewed, the addi- month or next month because the
tional waiting period of 15 days will not
claims can be filed in a month's time,
till Mar 2021 be imposed. in many cases, since the home quaran-
IRDAIasked insurers to offer policyhold- Insurers have also been allowed to tine cost are low at around Rs 10,000-
ers the option to renew, migrate or change the sum insured by the policy- Rs 20,000, many individuals are not
port covid-19-specific health insurance holder. For any increase, the waiting even going for making claims,"
schemes, Corona Rakshak and Corona period will start afresh only for the Nerurkar said.
Kavach. enhanced portion of the sum insured. IRDAI Chairman Subhash Khuntia said
In June, IRDAI had allowed insurance For individual Corona Kavach policies, the insurance sector has for too long
companies to offer standard fixed ben- insurers can also offer migration to any concentrated on tertiary care or
efit-based and standard indemnity other indemnity-based health insur- hospitalisation, and now there is a
covid-19 health policies. The fixed-ben- ance product. need to focus more on primary and
efit policy, Corona Rakshak, entails a secondary care, outpatient care, and
lump sum benefit equal to 100% of the IRDAI advises insurers to move on to have preventive care.
sum insured if the policyholder tests focus on preventive care "We should look at home care facili-
positive for covid-19 and requires hos- Amidst no sign of reduction in Covid ties. We don't need hospitalisation if
pitalization for a minimum of 72 hours. cases andsubsequent cost of home treatment is possible. This cost
On payment of 100% of sum insured hospitalisation rising, IRDAI has ad- will come down. Insurance companies,
the policy is terminated. vised insurance players to change their customers… everybody will benefit. We
The indemnity policy, Corona Kavach, focus from hospitalisation to preven- have allowed video-based consultation.
comes with a base cover and a cap on tive care, especially home care and We have also allowed wellness in insur-
the sum insured at Rs.5 lakh. The mini- outpatient treatment, and bring down ance policies," Khuntia said at an indus-
mum sum insured is Rs.50,000 and the costs. try conference.
policyholders could opt for a cover in While insurance companies have Khuntia said IRDAI has allowed
multiples of Rs.50,000. Both policies started offering claims on Covid-re- wellness and outpatient wellness and
have tenures of 3.5, 6.5 or 9.5 months. lated home quarantine treatment preventive features under a health in-
Welcoming the IRDAI's move, Gurdeep since July, industry insiders say such surance policy. According to IRDAI,
Singh Batra, head-retail underwriting, claims coming to insurance companies empanelled hospitals and network pro-
Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, said: have not picked up so far despite a viders can offer health services such as
"The covid-19 vaccine is yet to come large number of people opting for outpatient consultations or treat-
out and the purpose of these policies home quarantine. Expecting a rise in ments, pharmaceuticals, health check-
is to mainly cover the treatment costs claims for home quarantine treatment ups/diagnostics including discounts un-
against immediate health risks that by end of October or November, der the health insurance policy. The
people face due to the pandemic. Since sources say that since home treatment regulator said they can issue redeem-
its launch, the covid-19 specific health is not cashless and reimbursements able vouchers to obtain health supple-
policies have gained really good trac- have to be filed by patients, it will hit ments and redeemable vouchers for
tion mainly because its short-term cov- with a lag. membership in yoga centres, gymna-
erage kicks in immediately." On the slow takeoff of home quaran- siums, sports clubs and fitness centres
While releasing the guidelines, IRDAI tine claims, Bhaskar Nerurkar, head of for participating in fitness activities.
had specified that lifelong renewabil- Health claims at Bajaj Allianz General Industry participants say that in the
ity, migration and portability were not Insurance said that it is on account of case of home treatment for Covid, they
applicable to the products. It has now several factors including low aware- would reimburse costs such as tele-
modified the rules. ness. consultation with the doctor, nursing
The Insurance Times, October 2020