Cashless health insurance plans
With the advancement in medical science, many illnesses can be treated now. Gone are the days when patients would die because they could not get the right treatment. These days, even if you live in Tier-2 cities, you can get the best medical treatment for your ailment. However, the only thing that has changed is the money charged for the treatments. Getting hospitalized these days means shelling out a lot of money. And this can be a little tough for people who are either suffering from critical illnesses or are the single bread-owner of their family.
To handle a situation in which you can get cured of your disease without spending a lot of money on treatment at the hospital, you can buy a health insurance policy. Let us understand the concept of health insurance.
What is health insurance?
Health insurance is a type of insurance policy that provides coverage for hospital expenses, medicines costs, nursing fees, critical illnesses, etc. This helps the patients to carry on with their healthcare treatment without worrying about the expenses. The hospital expenses are settled in two ways; either the insured pays the bills out of his pocket and later it is reimbursed by the insurance company or the insurance company gets in direct touch with the hospital and clears the bills.
Over the years, health insurance policies have undergone a lot of changes. One of the biggest changes that have been brought in this industry is cashless. This has made the bill payment process at hospitals much easier than before.
What is cashless health insurance?
Not always do people have the kind of money in their bank accounts that they can pay to clear hospital bills. As a matter of fact, we all know how high hospital bills can get. At the same time, we cannot avoid getting hospitalized because we cannot afford the treatment at that point. This is when the idea of cashless health insurance helps. It is no less than a boon as it helps the patients to avail of treatment without paying cash to clear the hospital bills. The hospital claim is settled by the insurance company. However, to claim coverage, you need to visit a network hospital.
How to enjoy cashless health insurance benefits?
To enjoy the benefits of cashless health insurance, you have to fill out a pre-authorization form at the insurance desk of the hospital or you can get in touch with the TPA’s agent and take his help. On the basis of the agreed contractual terms of the policy, the insurance claim is then approved by TPA. There are basically two conditions for a cashless health insurance claim, which include Planned Hospitalization and Emergency Hospitalization.
Planned Hospitalization: In this condition, you are not feeling well and planning to get admission to the hospital. In this case, you have to inform the insurance company in advance. You would be required to fill out the pre-authorization form at the hospital’s insurance desk. The form first will be verified and then sent to the TPA for either acceptance or rejection.
Emergency Hospitalization: In this condition, you are hospitalized all of a sudden, and might not even get the time to carry out the formalities for the cashless claim. However, you will get 24 hours to do all the formalities. Your family or relatives can fill out the pre-authorization form on your behalf. Once this is done, the request will be processed by TPA within 6 hours. if you do not get time to do any of these, you can pay in cash, which will then be reimbursed by the insurer.
Tips on choosing the best cashless health insurance plan
- Check for the network hospitals
- Remember the re-approval time of the cashless plan
- The insurance company will only pay the amount that is covered under the policy
- You need to make sure you have all the documents ready, including the claim form.
There are various types of cashless health insurance plans available in the market. To know and compare the plans, you can visit the website of IIFL and then make a decision.
