Portable Health Insurance
Important Points to check in a New Insurance policy which has been ported from an existing Health Insurance policy.
Health Insurance Portability
Portabilty - Most of us might not have heard about this term in Health Insurance.
Got fed up with your present Health Insurance company? After completing few years with this Insurance company, they started to ask almost double the premium than the previous year. Apart from that, the benefits & goodies attached while joining might be removed in your next renewal.
This is the time when you start thinking of move out of your present health insurance company.
Portability Introduced in 2011
IRDA introduced Health insurance portability regulations in October 2011. This has helped many to move out of the present insurance provided to a new one, which can offer cheaper premium and better goodies, without loosing your credit gained by the insured for pre-existing conditions and time bound exclusions. The most important this is, you must maintain the insurance without any break.
Important Points - Before applying Potability
You should approach the new Insurance company 45 days before expiry of the existing policy
If you want to transfer, please start this process at least 2-3 months before the expiry of your policy
There is a prescribed portability form to be submitted to the new company along with the supporting documents.
Once approved, you will get a new policy from your new insurance company.
First Inception Date
Important : Check your new policy to see whether they have included the “First Inception Date” same as your previous insurance company.
Example : If your first Health Insurance was taken in 15-Aug-2009 and you continued with the same insurance company for 2 years. The time is nearing to renew your insurance on 15-Aug-2011. The “First Inception Date” of your insurance is : 15-Aug-2009. If you haven’t been hospitalized in these 2 years will accumulate credits which will be included in your next renewal. Everyone is afraid of losing these credits like “No claim Bonus”. With the new portability your credits will be transferred to the new policy after moving to new Insurance company. Also your “First Inception date” will be 15-Aug-2009 in your new policy.
Policy Number
The new insurance company may Assign a policy number to you which is automatically generated in their system. This is bit tricky. Since the policy numbering has some meaning which tells the “TPA” about your status with the company. TPA has to approve your cashless hospitalization. But in this case they will not approve, since your policy number refers to a new policy holder. It will never interpret it as a ported insurance policy. This will give you lot of headaches even if you go for re-imbursement.
So always check this number with your insurance agent and verify with their TPA to confirm that cashless hospitalization is covered during he initial period. Also some diseases will be covered in your Health Insurance policy after your complete few years.
Your claims may get rejected even after numerous resubmissions.
Never Give up - Your claims will be Paid Finally
Even if your claim submission gets rejected, do not give up. Maintain the correspondences and Escalate the issues as per their Grievance system and if still not resolved, you can approach IRDA.
Recommended Read :
- How to Get Health Insurance for The Aged?
- How to Select a Health Insurance Plan?
- Individual vs Family Floater Health Insurance
- Selecting Your Health Insurance Provider
- What Exactly is Lifetime Renewal of Health Insurance?
- Cashless Hospitalisation - Not Always Cashless
- How to Change Health Insurance Provider?
- How to Escalate If Your Health Claims Gets Rejected?
- Portable Health Insurance - Avoid Claim Rejections
- Reimbursement vs Cashless
- What is Cashless Hospitalization?
- Types of Health Insurance
- Health Insurance for Women Maternity Coverage
- What is Day Care Hospitalization Health Insurance?
- Common Pre Existing Diseases Health Insurance
- Role of TPA in Health Insurance
- Pre and Post Hospitalization Health Insurance
- Possible Reasons for Health Insurance Claim Rejection
- Quick Health Insurance Policy - Beware
- What is Network Hospital for Health Insurance?
- What is Planned Hospitalisation?
- Emergency Hospitalisation
- Critical Illness Policy
- Preventive Health Care Plan
- Group Health Insurance Plan
- Indemnity Based Health Plans
- What is An OPD Cover Health Insurance?
- Myths On Health Insurance
- What is Insurance Portability?
- Portable Health Insurance How to Avoid Claim Rejections
Most often it is seen that you do not get full policy benefits from a health insurance that you have bought. This happens more after completing a few years with your insurance company. In that case shifting the policy to a different TPA seems feasible. However, be careful to read between the lines of the policies presented by your new TPA.
Always important that you change or renew your health insurance policy BEFORE it expires, otherwise you can be without coverage. This would be the primary reason your claim is being rejected. If this is not the case, persevere. As long as you stay on top of things and contact the right people, your claim can and will be covered.
Easily said than done. If a claim gets rejected when most needed is a situation which we all dread about. It is to avoid such dreaded situation we choose health policies that best suits our requirement. But after a period of time we find out that these companies are not giving us what it was supposed to or we are not satified with their service so we switch over to another insurance company. This switching over is portability which should be done with double care.