Have you taken advantage of all benefits in your health insurance plan?

All of us want more bang for our buck; especially when it’s a long-term investment like health insurance. The basic premise of purchasing health insurance is of course financial security against excessive expenses, while having adequate cover for major medical conditions and treatment. But it does come with a host of other benefits that can be maximized for more value.
We’re here to let you know how to take full advantage of all the benefits offered by your health insurance plan!
Asides from the typical set of benefits like pre-, in-patient and post-hospitalization expenses cover, cashless treatment, day-care procedures and the like, there could be many other add-on perks that your health insurance plan offers, such as:
Wellness Benefits: Insurance companies, and even the regulator, are encouraging wellness, and rewarding consumers for maintaining good health. From reward points to discounts on specialist consultations, insurers offer a host of complimentary benefits that you can redeem at no extra cost.
Domiciliary Hospitalization: In situations where an insured person has been advised to undergo medical treatment but cannot be admitted in a hospital due to immobility or lack of hospital beds, the doctor might advise at-home care. Most health insurance plans cover domiciliary treatment with certain specifications, which are mentioned under governing terms and conditions.
Portability: There might be instances wherein you are dissatisfied with your current insurer or your prevailing health insurance plan, for reasons ranging from inferior customer service to below-par policy features. Policyholders have the flexibility of switching to a different insurance company by porting their plan from the existing insurer, without losing out on continuity benefits. This means that whatever waiting periods have been served thus far will be considered as completed when you transfer your policy to the new insurance company. Also, any benefits you have accrued over time and portable with the present plan, will be carried forward to the new plan with the new insurance company.
Alternate Treatment: Many of us shy away from allopathic cure and actively seek alternate means of treatment for certain health conditions or illnesses. Many insurance companies cover costs for alternate treatment i.e. AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha or Homeopathy).
Reinstatement of Sum Insured: Submission of claim for medical treatment undergone (that is covered by your health insurance plan) reduces the overall cover or sum assured by that amount. However, some insurers allow your sum to be restored or reinstated to a specified amount or percentage in case of multiple claims in a given year.
Organ Donor Expenses: Some insurers cover organ donor harvesting or hospitalization expenses as part of the basic health insurance plan, while others might offer it as optional cover.
Daily Hospital Cash Allowance: In case of hospitalization over a long period of time, insurers extend help in the form of daily cash(for out-of-pocket expenses), usually up to a specified amount for a defined period. This does not need to be supported by any bill.
Air Ambulance: Asides from road ambulance charges, some insurance companies also cover for air ambulance costs, if the insured patient needs to be air-lifted and transported for urgent medical attention that might not be available in that location.
Family Discounts: Some plans encourage addition of more family members to the same plan by offering family discounts on the premium payable.
Tax Benefits: Health insurance policyholders can avail tax benefits up to Rs. 25,000 under Section 80D of the Income Tax Act. In case you are paying the premium for your parents’ medical insurance, you are eligible for an additional 25,000 tax benefit and if your parents are 60 years or older then you can enjoy enhanced tax benefits up to Rs. 50,000.
Insurance companies offer these health insurance benefits in different combinations. In order to take maximum advantage of all these value-adds, you must first be fully aware of what your health policy offers, which is detailed in the policy wordings or terms & conditions document. More often than not, we skim through those lengthy and complex pages without really registering the finer nuances! As a result, you could be missing out on a lot of benefits just because you did not know about them!
This need not be a cause for concern anymore. You can learn much more about your health insurance policy by getting it checked on SANACheck, an exclusive system launched by SANA.Insure. SANACheck helps you understand how effective your health insurance policy really is, by analyzing it for over 40 health insurance features and benefits. Moreover, these features are explained in simple language for your ease of understanding, and graded as red, amber or green depending upon how poor, average or good they are compared to other health insurance plans in the market.
Log on to SANACheck and key in some basic details to know more about your health insurance policy today!
We invite you to visit our health insurance portal, sana.insure for quick, unbiased, simple and easy access to comparative information on over a hundred health policies available in India, suited to your needs.
Wish you a healthy and happy life!