Thursday, December 24, 2009

ICICI LOMBARD: FACILITY TO RENEW PRODUCT

ICICI Lombard has introduced the option to buy as well as to renew its product ‘Health Advantage Plus’ through its website. This product covers hospitalization expenses as well as outpatient treatment or OPD expenses caused by accidents arising out of terrorist activities. This is an added feature included in its product which is unique and very applicable during current times among other features.

ICICI Lombard General Insurance has introduced a special insurance called ‘Overseas Student Travel Insurance – Gold Plan’. As the name suggests this product plan will provide cover against medical expenses for students who plan to study abroad. It offers to reimburse expenses related to
: Accident
: Dental treatment
More over it will provide covers such as
: Personal liability
: Bail bond
: Sponsors protection
: Repatriation of remains
: Checked-in baggage loss

The plan offers up to $7,500 if studies are interrupted due to
: Medical reasons or,
: Compassionate reasons on the family front.

But before purchase of the policy, the student should compare his/her university’s requirements with that of ICICI Lombard’s offer to be completely sure of compliance.
For More Information About Insurance Policy.
Mediclaim, Health Insurance

Monday, December 14, 2009

Aegon Religare to enter health insurance, launch upto 3 products

Private life insurer, Aegon Religare, plans to enter the health insurance segment while continuing to focus on term insurance products, a senior company official said.
Aegon Religare Life Insurance's Chief Financial Officer, K S Gopalakrishnan, said in Mumbai. "We are looking to enter the health insurance segment and will be filing upto three health insurance products with the IRDA in the last quarter of this fiscal,"
He said. The Company expects to launch at least one product this fiscal.
He said. "There is a huge market for pure protection insurance products and we want to be in this segment,"
Aegon Religare Life Insurance is a three-way joint venture between the Hague-based international life insurance pension and investment company, Aegon, financial services group Religare and media-house Bennett, Coleman and Company.
The twentieth entrant in life insurance industry, Aegon Religare, is also targeting to increase contribution of term insurance products to the number of policies sold by it.
Gopalakrishnan said. "We want term products to play an important part in our business. Presently, term products contribute 20 per cent to the number of policies sold and we are aiming to increase it to 30 per cent in the near future,"

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Himachal weavers to purpose better health insurance coverage

In order to provide better health facilities to the community of traditional weavers the Himachal cabinet, presided by the Chief Minister Mr. Prem Kumar Dhumal, decided to improve the health insurance cover for the weavers under Handloom Weaver Comprehensive Welfare Scheme.

A cabinet spokesman said. Under this health insurance cover, as an outside patient, the handloom weavers would be able to spend up to Rs. 7,500 per year for their health issues in any of the hospitals or clinics or in any of the enlisted hospitals of the State Government and as an inside patient the highest spending limit would be Rs 15,000 per annum.

He added. To avail the benefit of this health insurance cover, the beneficiaries are required to contribute Rs 95.20 as annual premium while the rest of it would be borne by the state government.

Around 16,000 weaver families in the state of Himachal would be benefited, by the improved health insurance cover, in the current year.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Star Health Insurance to impart Rs 180 cr

Star Health and allied insurance company, the first stand alone health insurer of India promoted three years ago, will see an additional capital combination of Rs 180 crore this year in tune with its healthy growth in business.

Company Chairman and MD, V Jagannathan told media persons in Chennai on Wednesday, the company has increased its share capital to Rs 138 crore from the mandatory Rs 100 crore within two years of operation. Before December end, the promoters will infuse Rs 100 crore and Rs 80 crore before March end 2009.

This year, it notched up Rs 440 crore at the end of September 30 and is targeting to touch Rs 1000 crore by March end. He said the insurer clocked over 200% growth in gross premium written at Rs 510 crore in 2008-09 against Rs 168 crore in the previous year. It reported Rs 5.27 crore a net profit.

We are not thriving only on Government business but equally growing the market business, which is expected to more than double to Rs 225- 250 crore this year from Rs 90 to Rs 100 crore last year Mr Jagannathan said. He said. In the near future, it will enter group insurance segment as part of the extensive growth in premium and profit envisaged.

Within three years of its operation, it has garnered 8.5% of the market share of the Indian health insurance pie. Former Union Finance Secretary, D C Gupta will join the board shortly. The company, which has tied up with over 4000 hospitals, will also increase the network of offices to 200 next year from 150 now covering the entire country.

Mr Jagannathan said insurer has shown the way forward in health insurance by offering meaningful health insurance covers to infinite population. This included the Aarogyasri health insurance scheme in Andhra Pradesh covering 6.5 crore BPL families in 23 districts, Kalaignar’s ( TN CM) life saving treatment insurance scheme in Tamil Nadu to cover five crore poor and marginally poor and four lakh BPL families in Haryana under RSBY.

It has just got the IRDA’s approval to sell a new policy, Star criticare plus insurance, which aims to provide reimbursement of hospitalisation expenses for treating ailments and medical conditions as well as accidental injury and trauma. It will offer a pre- agreed compensation amount if the insured is diagnosed with a major illness noted in the policy, provided the disabling illness is manifesting for the first time in life.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Oriental insurance to launch new schemes

Public sector general insurer Oriental Insurance Company on Thursday said it is planning to launch four new schemes including two health insurance schemes.

Oriental Insurance Company Chairman M Rama doss said. "We have filed offer documents for four new schemes with the regulator, He said " These include two health insurance plans, including overseas mediclaim and two motor vehicle insurance schemes,. The company is awaiting IRDA approval, he said, adding, Oriental currently offers 160 schemes under different segments.

Meanwhile, the company launched a portal offering customers to buy policies online. He said, "From today onwards customers can get vehicle insurance, personal accident cover, householder's insurance online and even claims can be developed through the portal,"

He claimed, With the launch of the portal, Oriental Insurance became the first public sector general insurance company to offer this facility to the customers.

The portal is included with the company's core insurance system and it would enable the various stakeholders of the company to get real time information about their policies, claims and grievance, he said.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Reliance Life to strengthen its health insurance portfolio

Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Life Insurance said on 30th September, it is growth its portfolio of health insurance products in the coming months. Eyeing a place among the top-three health insurers in the country within three years,

Reliance Life Insurance currently has one mixture health product providing wealth accumulation along with health insurance.
Reliance Capital CEO Sam Ghosh said. "The company will be increase the portfolio in the coming months with a basket full of health insurance products total reimbursable health expenses, individual and family floater on group and individual product platforms, long term care among others,"

Elaborating further, he said the company would offer 3-5 year policies in the coming months and in the next three years it plans to have a market share of about 10 per cent.
Health insurance market was at around Rs 7,000 crore in 2008-09 and is expected to grow to Rs 41,586 crore by 2016-17.

Reliance Life Insurance has added a new straight up that would focus developing the health segment. While, health insurance policies are mostly provided by general insurance companies, life insurers contribute about five per cent to the overall health insurance business.


Ghosh added. "This vertical will look at the entire value chain of providing and service the health insurance market and offer an all-inclusive product/service package to the customer,"

He said, RLIC will be taking advantage of the 'long term' proposition of health insurance products offered by life insurers, it allows customers to lock in at a lower rate while they are younger and get assured renewability of the product; premium rates are usually fixed for a block of 5 years.
Health insurance penetration in India is very low, as over 90 per cent of the total Indian people has no health insurance cover.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Insurance cos push for uniform hospital rates

In a move to control health cover costs, insurance companies are bargaining hard with hospitals for a standard rate card. Market leader New India Assurance has told corporate customers that cashless repayment will be only to the point of the negotiated price and if any policyholder goes to a hospital, which charges more, the difference will have to be borne by the policyholder.

The TPA has asked corporates to ensure that their employees avail of cashless facility in these very hospitals. New India, which also has the largest health insurance portfolio, has set the ball rolling through its third-party administrator (TPA) Medi Assist. Medi Assist has spread to all group mediclaim policyholders a list of hospitals and the ‘reasonable charges’ levied by them for various procedures.

We shall restrict the settlement of the claim only to the limits indicated in the attachment and the employees shall be liable to meet the difference in the amount,” the TPA has said. “Should they avail the treatment for these procedures in any other hospital.

The rate card circulated provides a matrix of standard charges for secondary and tertiary providers in the premium and non-premium categories across various procedures. The tariff rates vary for metros where provision is made for higher costs.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Tax benefits and Mediclaim

Mediclaim insurance offers both tax savings and medical cover. Mediclaim cover provides security to meet unanticipated medical expenses. You can insure against medical expenses of yourself or dependents. These policies are offered by almost all insurance companies.

In some cases, preexisting also covered on payment of an additional premium. They provide insurance cover for the treatment of most ailments with hospitalisation. In addition to the basic cover, there are trappings available on payment of an extra premium. Some insurance companies provide cover for day-care and annual medical check-ups as well. You should go through the cover and keeping out clauses carefully. The cover may be enhanced to ailments not normally covered also.

The deduction is available only to individuals and Hindu Undivided Family members. The premium paid for mediclaim policies is tax deductible. Under the Income Tax Act, exemption is available for the amount contributed towards medical insurance premium. This is provided under Section 80D of the Income Tax Act. According to these provisions, premium paid towards a mediclaim insurance is deducted from the total income of an assessee.

The dependence of parents will have to be proved in order to claim the release. Dependence will be evident in case the own resources of the parents are not sufficient to support them. In case of an individual, the amount deductible includes any sum paid for insurance on his health, on the health of his spouse, dependent parents or dependent children.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Health insurance eye claim surge: Flu side-effects

Insurance majors be expecting a rise in sale of health insurance products over the next few months due to the growing fear of the spread of swine flu cases in India.

Reliance General Insurance president and CEO KA Somasekharan Said, While all existing health insurance policy cover hospitalisation expenses of patients affected by swine flu, the knowledge of a health insurance product will spread much faster due to the virus, feel insurers. “Enquiry calls on health insurance have increased much over the past few weeks,”

“The importance of health insurance becomes apparent in situations like this.” Iffco-Tokio executive director (marketing) NK Kedia echoed the same sentiment. But insurers are yet to see any jump in health insurance claims as treatment for virus is provided mostly in government hospitals that charge nominal fees. However, as the government is gearing up to include private hospitals to offer swine flu treatment, insurers are expecting a surge in claims. The private hospitals are not yet providing any treatment for the flu.

ICICI Lombard health vertical head Sanjay Datta said: “So far, we have received very few claims. But we are ready to attempt a surge in claims on account of swine flu in future.” As of August 25, the total number of people affected from the H1N1 virus stood at 17,015 across the country while the number of losses was 64, as per government data.

Both life and non-life insurers provide health insurance schemes. There are currently more than 30 health insurance products offered by as many insurance companies across India. Sale of health insurance products in India registered around 30% growth and garnered Rs 6,625 crore in terms of new premium collection for the year ended March 2009 due to upward knowledge and rising healthcare costs, as per IRDA findings.

However, the penetration of health insurance is still low at around 2% of India’s 1.1 billion population.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Met life forays into health insurance Policies

‘Met Health Care’ offering daily cash benefits in the case of hospitalisation and the option of undergoing no medical test before availing of the cover. MetLife India Insurance on Monday announced its foray into the health insurance sector with the launch of an innovative scheme.
Benefit
The company said in a statement here. The product offers its customers a daily cash benefit in the case of hospitalisation and a lump sum benefit in the case of critical illness or accidental total and everlasting disability.

At the same time, customers are not required to undertake any medical tests to avail themselves of this plan.

Health insurance in India was today recognised as one of the primary safety needs for a family. MetLife India Managing Director Rajesh Relan said.

“Launching Met Health Care, our first health insurance product, is a natural development in our journey to offer the consumer a complete range of protection plans to suit their various needs,” he added.
Training
He said. MetLife has been among the top three fastest-growing life insurance companies for the last 30 months. The launch of the scheme would considerably balance the company’s existing products and services,

The company grows at 40 per cent last year while the industry was facing a slowdown.

Mr. Relan said. The product is being launched with full training to financial advisors across the country to provide need-based solutions to customers.
MetLife has over 55,000 financial advisors, all of whom have gone through accurate training to understand customer needs. He said the company believed in a multi-distribution approach for reaching customers across the length and breadth of the country.