Time To Change Your Health Insurer

Mumbai, November 22: We often buy health insurance plans as a part of financial planning to meet rising medical costs without affecting our financial goals.  Buying a health insurance clearly means getting financial protection during an accident, medical emergency or diagnosis of a chronic illness, requiring ongoing treatment. If you are not satisfied with the services provided by your health insurer you have the option to change.

A policyholder can change a health insurance provider when the insurer rejects a genuine claim or pays less than the actual claim amount without any valid reason.  As per the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) guidelines, a policyholder can change a health insurance policy from one insurance company to another, without losing the accumulated benefits.  

We all know that there are many clauses in a health insurance policy document and the insurer clearly mentions about the covers and exclusions. Industry experts strongly advise to go through the details before buying any health insurance plan to avoid confusion at the time of claim.

Most of the health insurance plans provide cover for cashless facilities, OPD, surgery, injury and medical treatment including major surgery and critical illnesses. Various health insurance providers come up with wide coverage and features to bridge the gap. However, many policyholders end up missing out on the actual benefits from their health insurance. 

The regulator protects the interests of policyholders by giving the right to port a policy to any other insurer of one’s choice. It has laid down that the new insurer would allow for credit gained by the policyholders for pre-existing condition(s) in terms of waiting period. This applies not only when a policyholder moves from one insurer to another and also from one plan to another with the same insurer. 

For instance, a policyholder buys a health insurance plan that covers pre-existing illness after three years of waiting period. After two years, if the policyholder wants to port to another insurer then she will have to wait for only one more year to cover the pre-existing illness as two years have already completed with the previous insurer.