As per the official records, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has claimed lives of more than 3 lakh Indians so far and thousands of people today are nevertheless dying each day due to the viral infection and complications connected to the hugely contagious illness.
With quite a few holders of overall health insurance coverage policies amongst the casualties, it is essential to know the impact of death of an insured individual on an active overall health insurance coverage policy.
Personal overall health insurance coverage policies might be of two kinds – person policy and family floater policy.
Individual Health Insurance Policy
The positive aspects and the quantity of sum insured stay fixed for an insured member in an person overall health insurance coverage policy. However, if more than one individual take an person policy jointly, overall health insurance coverage organizations provide some discount in premium.
So, hospitalisation, claims and so forth of an person do not impact the positive aspects of other members in a joint person overall health insurance coverage policy.
Family Floater Health Insurance Policy
In a family floater policy, the sum insured floats freely and any member might get the claim settled on hospitalisation. Once a claim is settled, the accessible sum insured gets lowered for the remaining period of the policy year.
For instance, a Rs 5 lakh family floater policy is renewed in April every single year. If one of the 4 insured family members gets hospitalised and a claim of Rs 3 lakh is settled in August, the sum insured accessible for the next seven months will be Rs 2 lakh.
So, there is an impact of hospitalisation, claims and so forth on the positive aspects accessible in a family floater overall health insurance coverage policy.
But what takes place when a hospitalised member dies?
Health Insurance: How to make claim request if an insured individual dies in hospital
On death of an insured family member for the duration of hospitalisation, other surviving members might request the insurance coverage firm to course of action the claim request and settle the claim.
What takes place to a policy right after the death of an insured member?
“In case of death of any insured member, the proposer has to communicate the same to the insurance company. The deceased insured member would be deleted from the cover and the premium would be refunded as per the policy terms and conditions,” says T A Ramalingam, Chief Technical Officer, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance.
What takes place when the proposer of a policy himself/herself dies?
“In case of the death of a proposer, the family needs to send a communication to the insurance company about the same since the proposer has to be changed in the policy. In this scenario a new form has to be filled with a new proposer. The insurer changes the proposer and continues with the policy for other members,” says Ramalingam.
What would occur to a policy, if more than one member (like the proposer) died in hospital?
“In such a scenario, if it is a reimbursement claim the claim proceeds would be paid to the nominee as registered in the policy. For every health proposal we collect nominee details and are printed on the policy. However if it is a cashless claim, the hospitalisation expenses would be paid to the hospital directly so that the dependent members are not burdened for medical expenses,” says Ramalingam.