By We have seen a massive shift in the features and functions of healthcare facilities and health insurance policies in India over time. The entire landscape has changed, and we have witnessed the transformation of advanced medical facilities and provisions and their adoption by health insurance companies.
Health insurance or medical policy is a plan that offers financial relief in times of medical emergencies in the policyholder’s life. It covers whole or part expenses of the hospital fees, whatever is mentioned in the health insurance policy.
One of the facilities that have been of great help is “Cashless Hospitalisation” health insurance! This feature can be found in automobile insurance policies and different types of health insurance policies, like cashless health insurance, cashless senior citizen insurance, cashless maternity insurance, etc.
This is a beneficial addition to health insurance features. Why? How? We will look at it in this blog in detail. This will help you in getting clarity and understand the importance of this feature. Also, it explains why you must add this feature to your policy!
Cashless Medical Insurance: Meaning
When the policyholder has to get hospitalised due to a health situation, the hospital will demand insurance documents instead of money. The insurance company will compensate the hospital for all the related and covered expenses.
This system or service provided by the insurance providers is the cashless hospitalisation feature of health insurance. Various benefits follow this cashless feature in your policy. Let us discuss these benefits.
Cashless Hospitalisation: Benefits
Financial Security
The biggest advantage of purchasing a cashless medical insurance policy is the financial security it provides. It is true that traditional insurance policies also provide financial security. But we are talking about health and medical financial requirements.
These can be emergencies, and finding or collecting cash at such a crucial time can be very taxing. With cashless hospitalisation, you don’t have to worry about cash and just get the patient hospitalised. The insurance company and the hospital will look after the financial settlements.
Comprehensive Care
Cashless hospitalisation covers almost everything that comes under medical necessities for the hospitalised patient.
This leads us to the fact that you receive the medicines expenses, nursing fees, physician fees, and in-patient care compensation at the end of the treatment from the insurance company. It is a comprehensive package that covers everything!
Tax Benefits
You receive tax benefits along with other monetary benefits mentioned above. The premium you pay for the insurance policy is deductible from your total income.
This leads to a reduction in the total taxable income, resulting in a lower tax amount. This provision is mentioned under the section 80D of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
Convenience
With the abovementioned benefits, you might have gotten an idea about how convenient this facility can be. To add to the fact, insurance companies have an extensive network of hospitals in their connection.
These network hospitals are the ones you will have to visit if you have a medical emergency to receive the most benefits. These hospitals provide the best kind of treatments and are very high quality. Hence, you also get convenient and complete access to quality healthcare.
Cashless Hospitalisation: Procedure
- In case of a medical emergency or situation, first, inform the insurance company as soon as possible.
- Then, you will have to search for the nearest network hospital registered with your insurance company.
- Carry your insurance policy documents or card to the hospital once you find the hospital of your choice.
- Fill out a form of consent and document details once you reach the hospital. The physician or the doctor will also contribute their part in this form.
- After the treatment, the insurance representative and the hospital will get in contact.
- The insurance company will pay the covered expenses, and the policyholder must pay the remainder. (If any)
Conclusion
Cashless hospitalisation is one of the best facilities added to the insurance policy features. It is absolutely one of the most revolutionary changes in the insurance industry. This change has been added to the healthcare ecosystem in order to provide the maximum convenience to the policyholders.
The quality of healthcare, hassle-free service, straightforward procedure, and financial security, everything that one needs from a health insurance policy is present in the cashless health insurance.
Even with all the changes happening in the insurance and healthcare sector, cashless hospitalisation is likely to remain a cornerstone of affordable and accessible medical care for Indian policyholders.
