Does your insurance cover gym and sports injuries?

You do not want to miss the intense, regular workouts at the gym. Some others don’t want to skip their match on tennis courts. Yet some others would love to burn calories playing one hour of badminton. Most of us love engaging in one or other sporting activities to keep us fit and healthy. A healthy trait, of course. But we also need to be aware of sports injuries and the cost of treatment. Equally important is to know the insurance cover for sports injuries.

Kapil Mehta, Co-Founder of www.securenow.in, drawing from his personal experience throws light on the topic.

One should be clear about the types of sports injuries that are included in medical insurance. “Today, the only sports-related exclusion allowed in a regular mediclaim insurance is for professional sportspersons and that too in hazardous activities like racing, scuba diving or mountaineering,” Mehta writes in The Economic Times.

Most health insurance policies, however, exclude OPD cost from coverage, he writes while pointing out that the patient has to pay from her pocket for treatment of minor strains, ligament tears, physiotherapy, and even fractures—the injuries associated with sporting activities.

The cost of OPD or physiotherapy will be covered by the health insurers if physiotherapy or OPD are needed before or after the hospitalisation, he noted

He further writes that critical illness, personal accident or overseas travel insurance do not offer the same level of protection as mediclaim insurance.

Mehta cited the example of one insurer’s exclusion of cover in critical illness insurance if a person was injured while participating in adventure sports. “Another insurer for overseas travel insurance excluded any bodily contact sport or potentially dangerous sport for which you are untrained.”

In critical illness or personal accident insurance, Mehta advises, do read the policy wordings carefully, particularly the provisions on sports-related injuries