Homecare benefits yet to click with policyholders

Homecare benefits under health insurance that were introduced over three months ago, have not found many takers among policyholders. Insurers have barely received any claims reported under this category. Previously, an insured person had to be hospitalised for at least 24 hours to benefit from health insurance policies.

The Times of India has reported that many private insurers have confirmed that less than 1% of their total COVID-19 claims have come from the homecare segment.

Those who have reported slightly better rates attribute it to group health insurance policies. Insurers feel that, in addition to lack of awareness, the unavailability of cashless facility as well as low cost of home treatment is resulting in such meagre claims from policyholders.

Star Health and Allied Insurance MD Dr S Prakash said that despite its sales team hard-selling the concept of homecare, less than 1% of the COVID-19 claims have come in from this segment. The health insurer gets around 28,000 COVID-19 claims every month, of which only 150 to 160 are from the home segment. Dr Prakash said, “The average claim amount from homecare is $300 for us. I feel for homecare to take off, it will require effort from the public authorities and the healthcare sector to train their personnel and offer it as a trustworthy healthcare offering.”

Bajaj Allianz General Insurance head of health and travel administration team Bhaskar Nerurkar said that out of the total COVID-19 claims received in September 2020, only around 7% pertained to homecare treatment. Most of these claims were from group medical coverage customers rather than retail health policyholders.

Max Bupa Health Insurance director of products Bhabatosh Mishra said it had so far sold around 25,000 Corona Kavach policies and the majority of the claims are primarily for inpatient hospitalisation whereas the claims for homecare treatment are negligible as of now.

“In most COVID cases, customers who don’t need hospitalisation don’t really need any specific line of treatment and are asymptomatic in many cases. Hence it is unlikely to drive a significant volume of claims,” said Mr Mishra.

The homecare segment in COVID -19 is at a nascent stage in the country with limited organised players.

Source: Asia Insurance Review