Page 15 - The Insurance Times May 2021

of its policies bought by customers in Patients in cities like Vijayapura, lockdown. Hence the largest pie has
smaller towns outside the tier-1 cities. Yadgir, Belagavi, Chitradurga, Hassan, been shared by non-life insurance
The top states contributing to sales Tumakuru, Kalaburagi, Bagalkot, sector. Government insurance
include Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Shivamogga and Gadag claimed higher company New India Assurance remains
Karnataka, Gujarat, and Telangana. average COVID-19 insurance amounts to be the largest company with a
than those in Bengaluru, which saw market share of over 14% and the
PhonePe offers affordable COVID-19 average medical insurance claim for company saw a 6% growth in premium
insurance policies in association with COVID-19 at Rs. 1,42,000. over the entire financial year.
Bajaj Allianz General. The claims of
Mysore Sanjeev, Convener, Project
more than Rs. 3.5 crore have already Remdesivir rate volatility
been paid. Jeeva Raksha, stated that this clearly
indicates that some of the hospitals in leads to many insurance
Gunjan Ghai, Vice President and Head Karnataka are leveraging the
of Insurance, PhonePe, stated, "The helplessness of the general public and claim rejections
last few weeks have seen resurgence indulging in profiteering. "There is a Huge variations in the prices of
in COVID-19 cases across the country. need for uniform rates for COVID Remdesivir, a very important drug in
Many Indians still do not have health treatment across all districts in the treatment of severe cases of
insurance covers as a result of which Karnataka. The government should COVID-19, have resulted in a large
they may have to bear an additional relax the eligibility criteria for enrolling increase in insurance claim rejections
financial burden in case someone in under the Suvarna Arogya Suraksha and also black-listing of hospitals by
their family needs to be hospitalised for Trust (government health insurance insurance companies. With COVID-19
COVID-19." cover). There are several instances infections hitting a new high every day,
wherein a large number of COVID there is a shortage of the antiviral
"Keeping this in mind, we are one of patients have had to pay over Rs. 10 Remdesivir. This is leading to
the very few players in the market emergency purchases of higher priced
lakh towards hospitalisation. The family
today who continue to offer Corona members had to borrow and also break drugs. As a result, insurers are now
Virus insurance product for our vast their life's savings to meet the rejecting many claims for cashless
base of users," she further added. hospitalisation charges," he added. treatment than they used to earlier.
Karnataka becomes third Health insurance General insurance companies like Star
Health, Bajaj Allianz and Max Bupa say
highest in COVID-19 companies log strong that the rejection rate of COVID-19
insurance claims growth, overall sector claims have gone up from 2-3% last year
to as high as 9%. Insurers have called for
Karnataka stands third among states, grows by 5.2% price controls for commonly used
after Maharashtra and Gujarat, in pharmaceutical products like antivirals
In the wake of the advent of COVID-
terms of COVID-19 insurance claims and antibiotics on a war footing.
19, the non-life insurance sector has
from the start of the pandemic until seen more than 5% growth throughout Star Health and Allied Insurance is
April 1, 2021. Patients of Karnataka FY21, with the companies' premiums blacklisting a growing number of
have claimed Rs. 11,36,36,58,040 have reaching close to Rs. 2 lakh crores hospitals for price gouging. Dr. S.
crore through public and private for the entire yea. Prakash, MD of the company said,
insurance so far. The figures for Compared to March figures of 2020, "The MRP of important COVID drugs
Maharashtra and Gujarat are Rs. Premiums of companies grew by 23% in like Remdesivir is quoted differently by
4,345 crore and Rs. 1,922 crore, March, 2021. 7 standalone health different hospitals, resulting in retail
respectively.
insurance companies in the non-life prices that are five-six times higher."
As per the analysis by Jeevan Raksha insurance sector grew by 41% in March, Prakash also added, "We know the true
initiative, average COVID-19 claims exceeding 11% in the whole year. cost and the MRP of Remdesivir by the
from some districts are higher than Although, segment wise figures have same company is fixed differently for
Bengaluru, although the cost of not yet been provided by IRDAI, due different hospitals, although the cost
running a hospital in the metropolitan to the pandemic there was no change price is the same. The hospital with
city is significantly higher. This is as per in the premiums of third-party motor higher infrastructure fixes a higher MRP
data from the General Insurance insurance throughout the year since on these drugs and could go as high as
Council of India. auto sales were affected in the 5x-6x from its original retail price." T

The Insurance Times, May 2021 15