Types of health insurance add-ons/boosters and their benefits

Did you know that your health insurance can cover several other benefits such as maternity, critical illness, and personal accident? Don’t believe us? Let our Turtle surprise you.

what is health insurance

Be a smart guy like Rahul. To know more about HEALTH INSURANCE call our Health Expert at 1800-266-0101
or visit our website at: www.turtlemint.com/health-insurance

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How do portability and renewal work?

Raj’s car and health insurance plan were expiring soon. When he researched, he found the car insurance plan of another company offering him a better IDV (insured Declared Value) and also a lower premium. He wanted to switch but was unsure of the process and the implications of such switching. On the other hand, his health plan was bought after extensive research and was the best for his needs. He wanted to continue with it and wanted to know about renewals. He approached his uncle who happened to be an insurance expert and understood the concepts of portability (for his car insurance) and renewals (for his health plan).

Read more about Understanding IDV – Amount you can claim for Vehicle damage

In a car insurance or health insurance plan, there are two concepts which are common – porting and renewal. Both these concepts are applicable when the policy completes its tenure. However, these concepts are different. Let us find out the complete details about porting and renewal to understand them better.

What is portability?

Portability, in simple terms, means the ability to switch or change an existing health or car insurance plan. You can change your health/ car insurance provider and port to a health/ car insurance plan of another insurer. You can, also, port to a different plan of the same insurer. On porting, the accumulated benefits (waiting period and No Claim Bonus) of your existing health or car insurance plan would be carried forward to your new plan.

How does portability work?

Porting is like buying a new policy from a different insurer. The only difference is that the credits which you have accumulated in your old plan are added to the new plan. When the tenure of your existing plan is nearing completion, you can port out of your existing plan and shift to another one. The waiting period in your new health plan would be reduced by the period for which your old plan was in force. In case of your car insurance plan, the No Claim Bonus accumulated in the old plan would be used to discount the new premium.

When and why should you port?

Porting can be done only when the tenure of the plan completes and the plan is up for renewal. The reasons for which most of us port our policies are as follows:

  • Lower premium – this is the most prominent reason of porting an existing plan. If another insurer is offering a lower premium, we can save money and, thus, portability makes sense. However, the new plan’s coverage should also be checked. If the coverage features of the new plan are lesser than the ones you are already enjoying, porting is not recommended, even if premiums are low. Lower premium should be the reason of porting only if the coverage is not compromised.
  • Better coverage – if another plan is offering you better coverage features at the same or lower rate of premium, porting is feasible. In a car insurance plan, the Insured Declared Value (IDV) should be considered in the context of coverage offered. In health plans though, the coverage features should be given weightage.
  • Better customer service – measure insurers on their after-sales service. If you are dissatisfied with your current insurer in terms of service, it is time to port.

Process to port a plan

Porting your health or car insurance policy is simple if you pay heed to some rules and follow some steps. Here is a guide on how to port a plan:

  • Intimate your existing insurer of your decision to port.
  • Such intimation should be given at least 45 days before the policy period completes. A lapsed policy cannot be ported.
  • Shortlist another plan to which you would like to port.
  • Inform the new insurer of the portability. For this too, the window of 45 days is required to be maintained.
  • The new insurer would require you to complete and submit some documents. These documents include the proposal form of the new policy, a portability request form, copy of your old policy document and a cheque for the premium.
  • Based on the underwriting principles of the new insurer, the policy would be ported and a new policy would be issued.

Disadvantages of Porting

Porting is a very good clause which helps in lowering premium outgo and/or increasing the scope of coverage. However, any No Claim Bonus (NCB) which would have accumulated in your health plan would be lost when you port. The enhanced Sum Assured (including the NCB) of the old plan would be treated as the base Sum Assured in the new plan.

What is renewal?

Your health or car insurance policy is issued for a specified term. While car insurance plans are for one year, a health plan can be taken for two or three years by paying the premium at once. When the stipulated term of the plan ends, it requires repayment of premium to continue the coverage. Renewal, therefore, means continuing the coverage by paying the premium for the next period.

Difference and similarity between porting and renewal

While both portability and renewal are applicable when the policy tenure ends, these two terms are very different. Here’s how:

renewal

 

Porting and renewal are different terms with different meanings. However, both are applicable in a health and a car insurance plan. Understand the implications of these terms and get the best benefit of your health/car insurance plans.

Read more about All you need to know about car insurance

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Feel free to leave your thoughts or comments below

Dejargonizing health insurance terms

In Continuation with An Anatomy of Health Insurance Plan (Chapter 3B)

Even though you know a health insurance plan in theory, the details of a plan may sound Greek to you. Let us break the details of a plan down and decode its benefits.

What is health insurance

 

Be a smart guy like Rahul. To know more about HEALTH INSURANCE call our Health Expert at 1800-266-0101
or visit our website at: www.turtlemint.com/health-insurance

Read more about What is health insurance?

Read more about How to choose a health insurance plan

Read more about An anatomy of a health insurance plan

Does your health insurance cover all your medical expenses?

Do you think only hospitalization burns a hole in your pockets? What about the exorbitant costs incurred on tests and consultations before you are hospitalized? Or, for that matter, the monitoring expenses after you are discharged? Anubhav was none the wiser. He had a persistent fever for which he spent tens of thousands on diagnosis. After a stint in hospital (he had cerebral malaria), expenses continued as the infection was regularly monitored from recurrence. He knew that his health plan would cover his hospitalization expenses. But what about the expenses incurred before and after hospitalization? Would they be covered?

A health insurance policy covers almost all types of medical expenses if they are not incurred for a treatment which is otherwise excluded from coverage. Hospitalization expenses, Day Care treatments, domiciliary treatments, organ donor expenses, ambulance expenses, etc. are all covered in every health insurance plan. Among these coverage features pre and post-hospitalization expenses are also included. Do you know what such expenses are?

Besides covering the expenses which are incurred while you are hospitalized, your health insurance policy also covers expenses incurred both before and after such hospitalization. These medical expenses which are incurred before and after hospitalization are called pre and post hospitalization medical expenses. Let us understand them in details:

Pre-hospitalization medical expenses                                                                                  

When you fall sick what do you do? You visit a physician and get consultation for your sickness. The physician might then ask you for diagnostic tests to diagnose your condition and also prescribe you medicines. If, after diagnosis, your physician advises on hospitalization then the expenses which you have incurred prior to such hospitalization are called pre-hospitalization expenses. These expenses include the consultation fees paid to the physician, the cost of medicines and cost of diagnostic tests done for investigative purposes. In short, all such costs leading up to actual hospitalization are termed as pre-hospitalization costs.

Post-hospitalization expenses

After you are discharged from a hospital do your medical expenses stop? No they don’t. Such medical expenses are called post-hospitalization expenses. These expenses relate to medical consultations, medicines and other tests which are done for monitoring your health after you are discharged from the hospital.

Some important points

Both pre and post-hospitalization expenses are covered by your health plan. However, there are some points which should be kept in mind. Here are the points:

  • Both pre and post hospitalization expenses are covered for a specified number of days both before and after hospitalization. Pre-hospitalization expenses are covered for either 30 days or 60 days before hospitalization. Post-hospitalization expenses are covered for 60 or 90 days after being discharged from the hospital. The actual number of days for which pre and post-hospitalization expenses are covered depends on the plan.
  • Pre-hospitalization expenses are covered only if they are incurred for the disease or ailment for which hospitalization subsequently occurs. Similarly, post-hospitalization expenses are also covered if they are incurred for the disease for which hospital treatment was taken.

Are pre and post-hospitalization similar to convalescence/recovery allowance?

Convalescence or recovery allowance is a lump sum benefit which is allowed if you stay in a hospital for more than a specified period. This period might be 7 days or 10 days depending on the policy. Pre and post-hospitalization are, therefore, completely different from recovery benefits. Let us see how:

health

 

Thus, both these terms are different and cannot be used interchangeably.

By now you must have had a very good idea of what pre and post-hospitalization means. Your health plan provides you an exhaustive coverage option and pre and post-hospitalization expenses are also a part of it.

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Feel free to leave your thoughts or comments below

An anatomy of health insurance plan (Chapter 3B)

In continuation with An Anatomy of Health Insurance (Chapter 3A)

Choosing a health insurance plan can be confusing. If you don’t understand all the terms, you may also end up choosing the wrong plan. Our Turtle helps you know what to look out for in your health insurance plan.

what is health insurance

Be a smart guy like Rahul. To know more about HEALTH INSURANCE call our Health Expert at 1800-266-0101
or visit our website at: www.turtlemint.com/health-insurance

Read more about An anatomy of health insurance plan (Chapter 3A)

Read more about What is health insurance

Read about Dejargonizing health insurance terms

An anatomy of health insurance plan (Chapter 3A)

In continuation with How to Choose a Health Insurance Plan?

You may know what health insurance is and how to choose one. But you cannot reap the benefits of your health insurance plan if you don’t know how it actually works. Let our Turtle help you with it.

Anatomy of health insurance_final

Be a smart guy like Rahul. To know more about HEALTH INSURANCE call our Health Expert at 1800-266-0101
or visit our website at: www.turtlemint.com/health-insurance

Read more about An anatomy of health insurance plan (Chapter 3B)

Read more about What is health insurance

Read about Dejargonizing health insurance terms

How to choose a health insurance plan? (Chapter 2B)

In continuation with Demystifying Health Insurance Plan – Chapter 2A

It is often a misconceived notion that choosing health insurance plan is a hassle. Not if you know the exact steps to follow up towards choosing the plan that best fits your needs.

How to chose HI_section B

 

Be a smart guy like Rahul. To know more about HEALTH INSURANCE call our Health Expert at 1800-266-0101
or visit our website at: www.turtlemint.com/health-insurance

Read also An anatomy of an health insurance plan

Read more about Dejargonizing health insurance terms

Day Care Treatment vs. Outpatient Expenses – Differences & Features

Our health insurance policy is fraught with a mix of complex jargons, jargons that are technical. A common man finds it hard to understand such jargons and does the inevitable – ignores it. How many times have we looked at the policy wordings of the health insurance plan we are intending to buy or have bought? Almost never, isn’t it? And this is the reason that at the time of claim we face a hard time understanding the policy conditions and getting the claim settled. Take the case of Mr. Singh for instance.

Mr. Singh, my neighbor, had a decent health insurance policy for himself and his family. However, he did not know the difference between a Day Care Treatment and an OPD expense and considered both the same. It was when he availed a Day Care Procedure without being hospitalized and got his claim rejected did he realize his folly. He understood that both the concepts were different. He learned his lesson by paying the bills from his own pockets. What about you? Do you know the difference between Day Care Treatments/procedures and Outpatient expenses? No? Let me illuminate you:

What are Day Care Treatments or Procedures?

Health insurance plans pay a hospitalization claim only if hospitalization is affected for a minimum period of 24 hours. But, there are treatments and procedures which, though require hospitalization, are for a short duration because of technologically developed procedures. If such procedures would not have been available, the patient would have required a longer hospital stay. These technologically advanced treatments which do not necessitate a hospital stay of 24 hours are called Day Care Treatments. A health insurance plan covers such treatments under the category of Day Care Treatments or Procedures.

What are OPD expenses?

OPD stands for Outpatient Department and relate to those expenses which are incurred on doctor consultations, pathological tests and investigations, etc. Basically, outpatient expenses encompass all medical expenses which are incurred without being hospitalized. Such expenses usually occur when you visit a doctor’s clinic and avail treatments.

Similarities between the two

The only similarity between a Day Care Treatment and an OPD expense is the short duration of medical treatment. Under both these categories, the patient receives a short treatment for his medical ailment.

Difference

Both these terms – Day Care Treatments and OPD expenses – are not only literally different, they are technically different too. Let us understand how:

  • Hospitalization

Under a Day Care Treatment, hospitalization is compulsory. It is only the time period of such hospitalization which differentiates a Day Care Treatment from an in-patient hospitalization. Day Care Treatments include such treatments and procedures which have become quicker only because of technological advancement. Otherwise such treatments would have required a longer hospital stay making them an in-patient hospitalization.

OPD expenses on the other hand never require hospitalization. These expenses are incurred on doctor consultations which are availed in a doctor’s clinic. Any subsequent investigations and medical tests are also included under the scope of OPD expenses.

  • Scope of coverage

Day Care Treatments are covered by all health insurance plans. However, the list of Day Care Treatments which a plan covers differs between different health plans.

OPD expenses are usually excluded from the scope of coverage of a health plan unless otherwise expressed. Some plans, though, provide inbuilt coverage for OPD expenses while some charge an additional premium for including the OPD coverage feature. Overall, OPD expense is not a universal coverage feature of a health plan.

  • Level of coverage

Barring a few treatments (like cataract, for example) there are no sub-limits on Day Care Treatments. These treatments are covered for up to the Sum Assured level chosen by the insured.

OPD expenses are always covered fractionally. Their coverage is either expressed as a percentage of the Sum Assured or a maximum absolute amount. This amount is much lower than the sub-limits on certain Day Care Treatments.

Now, I hope, that you are clear on the difference between two important and yet ignored health insurance concepts of Day Care Treatments and OPD expenses. Here is a small list of some common treatments which qualify as Day Care Treatments:

  • Cataract
  • Nasal sinus aspiration
  • Removal of a foreign body from the nose
  • Tympanoplasty
  • Tonsillectomy
  • Surgical treatments of anal fistulas
  • Cystoscopical removal of stones
  • Chemotherapy for cancer
  • Hemodialysis
  • Radiotherapy for cancer treatments

Mr. Singh learned his lesson and never made the mistake of considering both Day Care Treatments and OPD expenses to be similar. You have been forewarned and should learn the difference yourself too if you want to avail a successful claim settlement.

Read more about What is health insurance

Read more about Dejargonizing health insurance terms

Read also An anatomy of an health insurance plan

How to choose a health insurance plan? (Chapter 2A)

Before you put your finger on any insurance plan, you will need to be clear as to what is it that you are looking for in your insurance plan. Here are a few things to consider. 

How to chose HI_section A

Be a smart guy like Rahul. To know more about HEALTH INSURANCE call our Health Expert at 1800-266-0101

or visit our website at: www.turtlemint.com/health-insurance

Read also An anatomy of an health insurance plan

Read more about Dejargonizing health insurance terms

Read also What is insurance and how does it works?