Indian insurance regulator closely monitoring policy holder services during pandemic, say key officials

He was speaking at a webinar titled ‘Health & Term Insurance for MSMEs: Open Issues, Way Forward & Role of IRDAI’, organized by the PHD Chamber.

Mathur said that the IRDA has allowed new policy products like ‘Corona Kawach’, ‘Corona Rakshak’ and ‘Arogya Sanjeevani’ to tide over these difficult times of pandemic.

He said that the situation is being constantly monitored on a daily basis, for all stakeholders.

IRDA, according to Mathur, is also taking initiatives to facilitate the settlement of claims and benefit the policy holders such as quicker approvals; covering tele-medicine services under health insurance, doing away with submission of hard copies for settlement of claims, directing hospitals to provide cashless treatment as per contract, among others.

Pradeep Multani, Senior Vice president, PHD Chamber said that health insurance provides people with a much needed financial backup at times of medical emergencies.

In India, countless families have been hit financially due to high treatment cost at most private hospitals.

It has, thus, become extremely important at this juncture that people should introspect their insurance needs as per requirements, said Multani.

In India, the MSMEs are considered as the growth engines of the economy.

However, it is disappointing to note that healthcare coverage in terms of group health penetration is alarmingly low, he said.

It is therefore very important that the healthcare insurance industry develops infrastructure and delivers affordable healthcare to the sector.

Jyoti Prakash Gadia, Chairman, Banking, Financial Services & Insurance Committee, PHD Chamber, said that MSME units lack the requisite expertise to understand the importance of Health Insurance; thus it is important to sensitise them about the benefits of health insurance, which will outweigh the costs associated with it.

SK Sethi, Senior Member, PHD Chamber siad that financial liability is best managed through insurance and must be taken by all on priority.

Insurance experts who dwelled on the different aspects of health and term insurance included Pushan Mahapatra, President-Strategic Investments & Head-Open Market, SBI General Insurance: Dr. Syed Asif Hussain, Chief Underwriter/ Head of Claims,Tata AIA Life Insurance Company Limited, and  Shailesh Kumar, Co-Founder & Insurance Head, Insurance Samadhan.