Know about cashless facility for health insurance policy
CASHLESS FACILITY:
This is the most important criterion since it gives mental peace that insured does not need to have cash in bank for getting treatment done. Many of the insurance company have Third Party Arrangement (TPA) which on behalf of the Insurance Companies, empanel Hospital for cashless facility, gives authorisation for claim settlement in case any claim arises and settles the claim of customer. The recent turf between TPA & public sector insurance companies was matter of grave concern to consumers. This definitely benefited Insurance Companies as they have now limits for most of the surgical process based on grades of the hospital and hence reduced costs, big hospital chains like Apollo, Max, Medicity etc. Are still not covered under cashless facility and customer needs to pay and then claim. Private insurance companies continue to provide Cashless facility. Many insurance company are now shifting to inhouse settlement of claims since this saves cost (TPA charges) and improves service standards.
Number of hospital where cashless facility is being offered is an important parameter while selecting a company for buying Health Insurance. More than the absolute number of hospitals covered by insurance company, it is important to see that the particular hospital from where you take treatment and/or are comfortable in getting treatment is covered under the empaneled list. You must keep the list of hospitals which are located in 5 Km radii from your residence, empanelled with your Insurance company always handy. The list of hospitals is never a constant and keeps changes. So visit the list of the hospitals on website of the insurance company once in three months and keep yourself posted on any change. ICICI Lombard boasts of one of the largest network of hospitals (over 4500) and Apollo Munich has over 3500 network hospitals.
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