You Cannot Claim Health Insurance After 8 Years: These 5 Rules Changed For Health Insurance

As per the regulator Irdai’s fresh set of guidelines, the health insurance companies will not be allowed to contest claims once the premium has been paid for a continuous period of eight years.

Guideline Modifications

According to Irdai, the objective of the guidelines is to standardize the general terms and clauses incorporated in indemnity based health insurance (excluding personal accident and domestic/overseas travel) products by simplifying the wordings of general terms and clauses of the policy contracts and ensure uniformity across the industry.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irdai) said, “All policy contracts of the existing health insurance products that are not in compliance with these guidelines shall be modified as and when they are due for renewal from April 1, 2021 onwards”.

Further IRDA added, “After completion of eight continuous years under the policy no look back to be applied…After expiry of the moratorium period (of eight years), no health insurance claim shall be contestable except for proven fraud and permanent exclusions specified in the policy contract,”.

However, the policies will be subject to all limits, sub-limits, co-payments, deductibles as per the policy contract.

New Guidelines

Basically, this period of eight years is called a moratorium period. 

Further, the moratorium would be applicable for the sums insured of the first policy and subsequent completion of 8 continuous years would be applicable from the date of enhancement of sums insured only on the enhanced limits, the regulator said in the guidelines on ‘Standardization of General Terms and Clauses in Health Insurance Policy Contracts’.

According to Irdai, on claim settlement, the insurance company should settle or reject a claim, as the case may be, within 30 days from the date of receipt of the last necessary document.

However, in the case of delay in the payment of a claim, the company will be liable to pay interest to the policyholder from the date of receipt of the last necessary document to the date of payment of claim at a rate 2 per cent above the bank rate.

Also, It said, the policy will become void and all premium paid will be forfeited to the company in the event of misrepresentation, misdescription or non-disclosure of any material fact by the policyholder.

In terms of portability, the guidelines said the insured person will have the option to port the policy to other insurers by applying to such insurer to port the entire policy along with all the members of the family, if any, at least 45 days before, but not earlier than 60 days from the policy renewal date.

In case, such a person is presently covered and has been continuously covered without any lapses under any health insurance policy with an Indian general/ health insurer, the proposed insured person will get the accrued continuity benefits in waiting periods.