Basic mediclaim policy covers Covid-19

Mumbai: Your basic health insurance/ mediclaim policy will cover you against Covid 19 for tests and hospitalisations cost up to the sum insured.

Most individual health insurance policies cover up to 30 days of pre-hospitalisation expenses and 60 days of post hospitalisation expenses. Usually, a health cover is triggered when the insured is hospitalised for minimum 24 hours. However, if quarantine is advised, the cover may pay you partially or may not pay you at all. Read your health insurance policy contract to know the terms.

In case you are insured by your company’s group health insurance, you would have to check on what the policy covers as group policies are tailor made to corporate needs.

Incase you plan to buy a health policy now, remember that there will be a one-month waiting period for your cover to be active. Also, read the policy wordings on exclusions and coverage limitations. While policies cover hospitalisation expenses, they may cover OPD and quarantine expenses depending on the exact policy wording.

Meanwhile, non-life insurance and pure health insurance companies said that they are evaluating the insurance regulator’s suggestion to design products covering the cost for coronavirus while some insurers ruled out the need for a separate coronavirus cover as all standard policies anyway would cover the insured against such pandemic.

Mayank Bathwal, CEO at Aditya Birla Health Insurance said, “In the past few years, the world has faced outbreaks of dreaded viruses such as Ebola, Zika, Nipah, and now Corona. A health insurance policy covers all infections, and Corona is one such infection. Hence, all covers such as in-patient treatment, pre-hospitalisation, post-hospitalization, OPD and ambulance cover that your health policy offers will be available to you, to fight against this pandemic.”

Atul Sahai, MD & CEO of New India Assurance, the country’s largest non-life insurer, explained, “Indivi-dual mediclaim policies cover the hospitalisation cost as permissible under the policy for all diseases that are not excluded in the policy contract and that require 24 hours of hospitalisation.”

“Regarding specific product for coronavirus, we are evaluating the Irdai advisory and exploring related data.”

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India a day earlier issued guidelines on handling of claims reported under coronavirus suggesting that “insurers are advised to design products covering the costs of treatment for coronavirus.” The guidelines said where hospitalisation is covered, insurers should ensure that the cases related to corona virus disease (Covid-19) are expeditiously handled. “The costs of admissible medical expenses during the course of treatment including the treatment during quarantine period shall be settled in accordance to the terms,” Irdai said.