Know more about hospital daily allowance
Are you aware of insurance policies that offer you a cash allowance every day for your hospitalisation period? Certain health insurance policies offer daily cash benefits to meet your medical and non-medical expenses during your stay in a hospital.
Understand Your Health Insurance Policy
Policy providers offer daily hospital allowances either as a part of the insurance policy or as an additional rider. Before buying any health insurance policy or a daily hospital allowance rider you must ensure:
- The daily cash limit offered to you
- Your eligibility for the policy
- Coverage span of the policy
Most insurance providers ask for a minimum 24 hour hospitalisation to be eligible to make a claim. Daily hospital allowance does not apply to day care procedures and minor surgeries which don’t require a 24 hour hospitalisation. Daily cash limit and coverage span of the policy also vary according to the policy provider. Usually policy providers offer a cash limit between ₹ 1000 - ₹ 1,500 with a coverage span that varies from 2 weeks to 3 months depending on the policy provider. Those admitted in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) may avail cash benefits in excess of the upper cash limit but the number of covered days will be reduced proportionately.
Persons with pre-existing medical conditions need to go through a waiting period during which they cannot make a claim. Therefore, you need to carefully assess the eligibility conditions and your medical history before buying a policy to avoid any conflict arising at the time of claim.
Things to Remember Before Buying a Policy
Hospital daily allowance policies can be tricky sometimes. Although the procedure to claim your daily allowance is simple and closely resembles to the usual medical bills claiming procedure, yet, the cash benefits may not be availed at the end of each day. Some policy providers may provide you the flexibility of daily allowance, but usually most of them will provide cash benefits only after you get discharged.
It is always better to check whether your policy offers pre-fixed or per day hand cash outs beforehand. The procedure of making a claim is easy yet some people feel it’s complicated and avoid making a claim, once their medical bills are settled. This should be avoided and any claim no matter how small or large it is, must be made in accordance with the policy’s terms and conditions.
ICICI Lombard offers a Health Insurance Plan which enables you to afford high quality healthcare facilities with tax benefits. Purchase the health insurance plan and avail cashless hospitalization across a vast range of hospitals across the country.