A Common Mistake which people usually realise years after committing the same is the Mistake of opting for a wrong Health Insurance Provider. Many people opt for a Health Insurance Policy simply based on the Premium Payable without looking into the benefits it offers.
(Refer our Article on 8 Things to be kept in mind while buying Insurance Plan)
And years after, when you face problems while claiming expenses, you realise the mistake which you did years earlier. If this is your case, then this article could be of help to you as it explains What is Health insurance Portability and Benefits of opting for a Health Insurance Portability?
What is Health Insurance Portability?
Health Insurance Portability is a new option permitted by the Govt. and released by the Health Insurance Providers wherein you can shift your Policy from one Insurer to another without losing out on any of the benefits.
The Concept of Health Insurance Portability is based on the same lines as the concept of Mobile Number Portability. Just like in Mobile Number Portability, you can change your Service Provider without changing your Mobile No., similarly in Health Insurance Portability – you can change your Insurer without losing out on the benefits accrued from the previous Insurer.
Benefits of Health Insurance Portability
1. Transfer from one State to another
When Individuals shift from one state to another, there may be cases wherein their previous Insurance Company does not have its scale of operations in the new city. In such cases, the Individuals didn’t have any option but to forgo the benefits accrued from their previous Insurance Provider. However, now they can easily claim their benefits by making use of the option of Health Insurance Portability and transferring their benefits from one Insurance Provider to the new Insurance Provider who is present in the new state.
2. Change in Job
Moreover, nowadays the Insurance is also Employer Specific and schemes are introduced for employees of a particular organisation only which is also known as Group Insurance Policy. Now when the Employee who was earlier enrolled in this scheme makes a shift from one company to another – he may lose out on the accrued benefits as his new employer would be having a contract with some other Insurance Provider and the new employee would now have to enrol with the new Insurance Company.
3. Any Other Reason
If you are unsatisfied with your existing Insurance Provider and want to change to some other Insurance Provider, you can also make use of the option of Health Insurance Portability and transfer your Insurance from one company to another.
Things to look out for while opting for Health Insurance Portability
While opting for Health Insurance Portability, you surely done want to commit the same mistakes which you did earlier while choosing you Health Insurance Policy.
Although Insurance Premium is one of the most important factors while opting for a Policy, the following factors also are important decision making criterions.
- Are there any limits or sub-limits on the claims you can make based on the disease/hospital/age?
- Is there any age limit or a cut-off age after which the benefits of your policy won’t be available? If such is the case, opt for the policy with the maximum age limit.
- Does the new Company offer Cashless claim or Reimbursement Option? Cashless claims are always better than the Reimbursement option and you should be laying a high preference on the Cashless Claims.
- The network of hospitals covered by each Insurer is also important as at the time of Emergency, you’ll undoubtedly rush to your nearest hospital.
Many Insurance Companies have now also started offering Insurance Products Online which is cheaper than Insurance purchased through Physical Forms.
