Short-term COVID-specific health cover corona armor and corona protectors will allow insurance regulator IRDAI to renew and renew insurers for six more months by September.
“Considering the current prevailing COVID status, it has been decided to allow all insurers to offer and renew short-term COVID-specific health policies by September 30, including corona armor and corona protectors,” it said.
Introduced in July, following a mandate from IRDAI between the epidemic and high hospitalization costs, policies were allowed to be introduced and renewed by 31 March. “All other terms and conditions are valid,” said DVS Ramesh, general manager (health), extending the timeline for the sale and renewal by September.
Two products were offered with a tenure of three and a half months; Six and a half months and nine and a half months, including a 15-day waiting period. The product was designed keeping in mind people looking for an adequate solution for COVID-19 treatment, said Amit Chhabra, Head, Health Insurance, PolicyBazaar.com. While Corona Armor is a compensation-based health plan, Corona Guard is a fixed-benefit health insurance policy.
More than 3 million Corona policies have been sold industrywide so far. The fear of contracting the virus is prompting more individuals to opt for health insurance cover. With the expansion, more people can now buy health insurance, he said.
E-policies allowed
IRDAI, continuing with its facilitation measures, has allowed general and health insurers to issue dispenses with e-policies as well as wet signatures on the proposal form by 30 September. The decision follows a similar extension given to life insurers on Tuesday.
Separately, the regulator directed the insurance companies to complete the template registration with their respective telecom service providers as per the framework implemented by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and intimate it by 5 April.
To indicate how spam calls / messages have become a threat and concern to policyholders / consumers as per the July 2018 TRAI notification on the regulatory framework for unsolicited commercial calls and messages. “The notification requires major entities, including insurance companies, to register with their respective telecommunications service providers, allocating a header with their identities for proper identification of all messages and voice calls. Framework to enable policyholder protection Is and seeks to protect them from fraudsters by using fake identities as insurers.
IRDAI stated that all insurers are directed to register their templates of messages with their respective telecom service providers to control unwanted calls, including fraudulent calls and messages to policyholders.
Bhabatosh Mishra, director of underwriting, product and claims at Max Bupa Health Insurance, welcomed the move to expand the COVID-19 specific policy in terms of increasing the number of people contracting the virus.
“This move will help people with tight budgets to be protected from any additional financial burden caused by COVID-19,” he said. Noting that the average size of claims received on Max Bupa is ₹ 1-1.5 lakhs, he said that the insurer listed other products and that include COAID-19, ReAssure and Health Premia. He said that for COVID-19, the company has reduced the waiting period to 15 days.
Leave a Reply