Will your health insurance cover Omicron treatment cost? IRDAI says THIS

The number of COVID-19 cases across the country have been rising at an alarming rate. The rise of Omicron has added to the concerns of a potential next wave in the coming months. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) recently issued a directive to all health insurers regarding the new COVID-19 variant of concern.

As per the insurance regulator, all insurance policies that cover COVID-19 treatment will also cover treatment costs for infection from the new variant. IRDAI has also issued a directive to insurance companies regarding this.

The IRDAI update clears the confusion for anyone who might need to avail health insurance for such unforeseen cost of treatment.

In a press release on Monday (January 3), IRDAI said, “In the wake of recent instances of spread of Covid-19 cases being reported under Omicron variant, it is clarified that all health insurance policies issued by all general and health insurance companies that cover treatment costs of Covid-19 also cover the costs of treatment towards Omicron variant of Covid-19 as per terms and conditions of policy contract.”

It further directed insurance companies to put in place “effective coordination mechanism with all their network providers (hospitals) for the purpose of making available seamless cashless facility to all policyholders in case of hospitalisation if any and render speedy services to all policyholders.”

“The hospitals are also requested to honour the service level agreements (SLA) that have been entered with insurance companies for the purpose of providing cashless treatment to health insurance policyholders,” it added.