In the aftermath of the swine flu outbreak, insurers are gearing up to tackle the expected surge in claims related to the disease.
Balaji Cuddapah, vice-president, property and engineering, Bharti Axa General Insurance Company, said, “We are geared up for likely claims, now that the government has roped in private hospitals to treat people with swine flu, and have taken all steps to ensure pre-authorisation of the cashless facility with all our network hospitals.”
In the aftermath of the swine flu outbreak, health insurance companies have seen a surge in enquiries from policyholders. People are anxious to know whether the existing policies cover the disease that has claimed 24 lives so far and infected over a thousand people in India.
But insurance companies say all hospitalisation charges arising out of any pandemic or epidemic are covered under mediclaim policies.
Like in any other health insurance policy, illness contracted in the first 30 days of taking a fresh policy is not covered.
After 30 days, any hospitalisation expenses other than those due to pre-existing illness or those specifically excluded under the policy are covered. As swine flu is an infectious disease, it does not fall in the critical illness category of any insurance policy.
“Health insurance covers are broad policy covers and no mediclaim policy has any exclusion of an epidemic or an pandemic disease. Hence all would be covered for swine flu, which is a pandemic at present. There is also no problem of a travel insurance policy which would grant the cover,” said Rahul Agarwal, CEO, Optima Insurance Brokers.
However, insurers have not yet seen any significant rise in swine flu claims.
Shreeraj Deshpande, head, health insurance, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance said, “Patients hospitalised with swine flu would be covered under our hospitalisation reimbursement plans in the same way as any other illness. Though we have not received any claim intimations so far, we expect them to trickle in. Bajaj Allianz is fully geared to handle the claims and the exigencies if any.”
Krishnamoorthy Rao, COO Future Generali India Insurance Co said, “Since the percentage of people insured by health insurance policies is not high, the number of claims reported to insurers till now is not significant.
However, our company is receiving many calls from intermediaries or the insured about coverage of swine flu under the health insurance policy,” Rao said.
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