Gone are the days when you needed to have a pocket full of money to buy something or get any kind of service. These days, everything is digital, which can also be called cashless. This has made life easier for many people. Even if you forgot to withdraw cash, you can use your card or UPI to make payment for the product you have bought or the service you have taken. As a matter of fact, this can be done even when you are paying hospital bills. To make it even more beneficial, you can rather buy a cashless health insurance policy. You just have to keep paying the premiums consistently and the health insurance policy will take care of the service. When you need medical treatment, you can use the cashless health insurance policy and claim the sum insured. The bill will be settled by the insurer with the hospital. Before discussing the option of cashless health insurance plans, let us understand a bit more about the concept of it and tips to buy it.
What is Cashless hospitalization?
We all know how expensive in-patient hospitalization is. And if you do not have enough funds during a medical emergency, you can use cashless hospitalization. In the cashless facility, the insurance company settles the bill directly with the network hospital. You do not need to pay the bills from your pocket or even get them reimbursed.
A cashless health insurance policy is designed in a way that it provides financial support to the insured at the critical time of hospitalization. The insurance providers make this arrangement with their network hospitals, in which the bills are settled by the former with the latter without involving the policyholders. To make the arrangement easier, the Third Party Administrator (TPA) works as a bridge between the insurance company and the hospital while settling the claims. In the majority of the cases, TPAs set up their desk at the network hospital so that processing of such claim requests gets smoother.
Tips to choose the best cashless health insurance policy
Here are some of the things that you should check before buying a cashless health insurance policy. These tips will be helpful for you to buy one such policy.
Sum insured
The suitable sum insured depends on the city that you live in or come from. If you are living in a small city, the sum insured between INR 3 lakh and INR 5 lakh is considerably good, while for metro cities, the sum insured is a minimum of INR 5 lakh.
Claim settlement ratio
It is one of the most important factors that should be checked before you make a final decision. If the claim settlement ratio of the insurance company is higher, the chances of a hassle-free claim settlement process are higher.
Network hospitals
You must be aware of the fact that cashless facilities can only be availed at the network hospitals of the health insurance provider that you have bought your policy. You can check the list of network hospitals and see if the hospital that you often visit is included in it or not. You also need to ensure of you can avail of the cashless claims in all locations of the country.
Pre and Post Hospitalization
Some of the medical expenditures are incurred before and after hospitalization. These are diagnostic tests, medical check-ups and follow-ups, recovery treatments, and many more. You must check what is included in it.
Maternity Benefits
You must check the waiting period to claim the maternity expenses. You can take your call accordingly.
Free medical check-up
You should try to choose a cashless health insurance policy that comes with free medical check-ups as well as diagnostic tests.
Now if you want to take a look at some of the best cashless health insurance policies in India, you can visit the IIFL website.
