Health policy claims rise

Hyderabad: With the Covid cases continuing unabated, many are upping their health insurance cover. Also, the persistence ratio, a which reflects the continuing a policy beyond the first year, has been improving.

“There is a significant push towards renewal of policies. Many are clear that a health policy is must in these uncertain times. While the discretionary spend is coming down in general, people are taking care that they are not missing out on paying the health insurance premium,” said Amit Chhabra, Head , Health Insurance, Policybazaar.com, an insurance aggregator.

This apart, many people are now also keen to add new riders to the existing policies. Riders, which come at a relatively lower cost, enhance the cover significantly. “A few insurers are offering riders to cover the consumables, which are a significant part of the Covid medical bills. Consumables earlier accounted for about five per cent of the medical bill claims. But Covid has changed the situation and consumables now account for about 15 to 20 per cent of the bills. This percentage is significant,” said Chhabra.

Claims related to Covid have increased, he said.

TA Ramalingam, Chief Technical Officer, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, also feels that claims have increased since the second wave begun in the last week of March. “The number of claims has increased but the average claim size has gone down slightly now compared to same time last year mainly because the hospitalisation duration has come down,” he said.

According to him, the hospital stay now is about six days now, down from the the earlier average of nine days. “We see hospitals being flooded with patients. They are sending patients for home quarantine after they are less critical,” he said.

Bajaj Allianz General Insurance has observed a growth in the range of 80-100 per cent in new health insurance policies as compared to last year. “In fear of higher expenses, most people are opting for higher sum insured policies and Super Top-up plans,” Ramalingam said. Super Top-up plans, as the name indicates, offer top-up to the cover. The benefits kick-in once the sum assured levels of the existing policies are breached.

Metro cities apart, it is now witnessing good growth in non-metro cities like Raipur, Siliguri, Anand, Jalandhar, and Lucknow, he said.

Chhabra of Policybazaar.com said many people buying a health insurance on their platform are opting for large covers, some even opting to take policies with Rs one crore cover. They are also opting to renew at smaller intervals to reduce the burden of paying the premium at once annually.

On the issue of some hospitals declining cashless claims for Covid, Chhabra said that the issue has been resolved to a large extent after insurance regulator last month put onus on insurers to ensure that cashless claims are honoured by the respective empanelled hospitals as per the contract.

“We are hoping that once the vaccination drive ramps up in our country, the situation will stabilise,” added Ramalingam.

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