IRDAI Urges Health Insurance Companies And Healthcare Providers To Upgrade Standards

Subhash Chandra Khuntia, Chairman, IRDAI has urged health insurance companies and healthcare providers to upgrade their standards and adopt ethical practices to provide access, equity and quality services to the people on a sustainable basis. Speaking at the 11th FICCI Health Insurance Conference 2019, on the theme, 'Health Insurance 2.0: Enabling Change', Khuntia said access to quality health to majority of the people was essential as currently 62% of the average health expenditure in India is borne out-of-pocket against the world average of 18%. At the same time, health insurance companies and healthcare providers have to reach out to the uninsured in remote areas and provided facilities at affordable rates to the poor.
Khuntia also emphasised that standardisation of rates and procedures offered by healthcare providers was necessary and for this self-regulation for appropriate treatment was imperative till such time as a regulator for healthcare services was in place. He advised insurance companies to have a MoU with healthcare providers to keep treatment rates in check. He also suggested that insurance companies could devise technological means to monitor the health parameters of policy holders to check lifestyle diseases such as blood pressure and coronary heart disease. This would go a long way in keeping premiums affordable as also reduce claims from the people at large.

While acknowledging that the life expectancy at birth had risen to 69 years in 2017, he said that achievement of healthy life expectancy was an issue. For instance, the difference among female and male life expectancy and healthy life expectancy was 10.7years and 8.1 years, respectively. Health insurance companies, he added had a big role to play in bridging the gap. Khuntia also suggested that insurance companies could look at covering OPD and preventive care through various incentivisation schemes.

He said that IRDAI had launched a portal listing basic health insurance scheme and products which would be the same for all insurance companies. He urged all industry to make use of the scheme to take care of the misunderstandings of the provision of services offered to the buyer of an insurance policy.

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