20-08-2020
Non-life insurers concerned over Covid claims surge
Insurance AlertssNon-life insurers concerned over Covid claims surge
Non-life insurance companies are concerned over the steady surge in claims arising from Covid-19. As on August 14, the general insurance industry had received over 1.15 lakh claims amounting to around Rs 1,800 crore. The general insurance companies are also concerned about different rates being charged by hospitals from insured and non-insured person for the treatment of the novel coronavirus.
The General Insurance Council will approach the Supreme Court this week seeking uniform rates for all the patients being treated for Covid-19. “We have come across several instances where hospitals are charging more to the patients who have health insurance policy, compared to people who don’t have it. If claims continue to rise in health insurance, premiums can significantly go up next year,” said a senior official from the industry.
According to non-life insurers, hospitals are exhausting almost entire sum insured for the treatment of Covid-19. For example, if an individual has a health policy with a sum insured of Rs 5 lakh and gets admitted to hospital for treatment of novel coronavirus, hospitals charges them for Rs 4.6 lakh. But if any individual without the health insurance goes for the same treatment, he is charged much lesser.
There has been steady surge in claims arising from Covid-19. Till the end of July, non-life insurance industry has received over 80,000 claims amounting to `1,300 crore. According to the officials in the general insurance industry, states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi are witnessing higher number of claims.
According to the figures compiled by General Insurance Council, the highest claims have come from Maharashtra at 48,000 as on August 14. Tamil Nadu and Delhi have seen around 13,600 and 11,000 claims, respectively. According to the ministry of health and family welfare, there were 6.76 lakh active cases of novel coronavirus in India as on August 17, 2020, another 19.19 lakh were discharged and 50,921 have died.
“We want standard treatment rates for everyone, whether insured or not insured. If government can fix the rates for the treatments, we would be happy as hospitals will not able to charge more from insured individuals,” said a senior official from a leading private sector insurance company. In FY20, health insurance had seen premiums at Rs 51,636.34 crore compared to Rs 45,532.22 crore in previous financial year. Claims payable under health insurance could be around 70-80% of the premiums.
Source: Financial Express
