Have you bought two health policies? Here's what you need to know

Over the past few years, life-threatening diseases are on the rise in India and the cost of treating such diseases have gone up.

According to ‘NCAER 2019-20 Mid-Year Review of the India Economy’ the contribution of health inflation to miscellaneous inflation in rural and urban areas was a whopping 40.2% and 26.9%. The projections for medical inflation post-pandemic are even higher.

So, if you have bought multiple health policies and are now worried about how to go about claiming from different policies, there is no need to panic.

Claim process

In the most common scenario, one usually opts for claiming from two policies when the hospital bill is more than the sum insured by one policy. That is when you need to claim the remaining amount from the second insurance policy.

Say for example if the hospital bill for Mr X comes to Rs 5 lakh, and he owns two health insurance policies bought from two different companies of Rs 3 lakh each. Now to cover the cost of hospitalisation Mr X will have to claim with both the companies. For this, he will have to submit all the original bills and documents to the first/preferred insurer. While applying the claim Mr X will need to mention the amount of claim he wants the company to pay.

Documents

Following the settlement from insurer one, Mr X will need to get the bills and reports attested by the hospital. After that he will have to submit the documents along with the claim settlement summary to the second insurer for payment of the remaining amount.

In the case of a cashless claim, Mr X will be able to do it with the first insurer. For the second insurer, he will have to opt for a reimbursement claim.