Virus cover claims double in a week; most from Maharashtra, Delhi

As per officials in the non-life industry, average claims for coronavirus is `2-2.5 lakh in urban areas and `50,000-75,000 in semi urban or rural areas.

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The general and health insurers had received over 18,100 claims amounting to Rs 281 crore till June 19. The highest number of cases (8,950) has come from Maharashtra followed by Delhi (3,470). (File Photo)

With India’s Coronavirus (Covid-19) infections’ tally climbing to 5.66 lakh on Tuesday, general insurers have received 28,000 claims for Rs 445 crore till Monday. In fact, claims have doubled in a week with most claims coming from Maharashtra and Delhi, insurance officials said.
According to officials in the non-life industry, average claims for Coronavirus is around Rs 2-2.5 lakh in urban areas and around Rs 50,000-75,000 in semi urban or rural areas. In many cases, where the condition of patient is severe and have been admitted in an intensive care
unit (ICU) the claims are in the range of Rs 6-8 lakh.

Along with the rapid rise of Covid-19 cases in the last fortnight, the claims on account of Covid-19 have also gone up in equal proportion in the country, they said. “Insurance claims have practically doubled during the week,” said industry sources.

The general and health insurers had received over 18,100 claims amounting to Rs 281 crore till June 19. The highest number of cases (8,950) has come from Maharashtra followed by Delhi (3,470).

With 18,522 people testing positive for coronavirus in a single day, India’s Covid-19 tally climbed to 566,840 on Tuesday while the death toll rose to 16,893 with 418 new fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

Market participants say that going forward claims are likely to go up in Maharashtra, Delhi and Tamil Nadu as these places have seen higher active cases in the past few days. Claims are also coming from red zones like Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad, among others. The awareness of health insurance has gone up and policyholders have an option to buy either Covid-19 standalone cover or comprehensive cover.

If many states were not treating Covid patients free of cost, claims would have gone up further. When compared to the reported cases of Coronavirus in India, the claims amount looks much lower. This is because many states like Kerala and Telengana are treating large number of patients in government hospitals free of cost,” said a senior official from the industry.

In order to cover the costs of treatments for the Covid-19 disease, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) issued guidelines on introduction of short-term health insurance policies. Irdai has said that all life general and health insurers can offer Covid-19 specific short-term health insurance policies.

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Irdai announced guidelines on Covid-19 standard benefit-based health policy and individual Covid-19 standard health policy. Guidelines were issued for Corona Rakshak policy which is a standard benefit-based policy and Corona Kavach Policy, a standard health policy which will be offered on indemnity basis and insurers have been asked to launch the product from July 10, 2020.

According to the guidelines issued by Irdai, minimum sum insured for Corona Kavach Policy will be Rs 50,000 and maximum sum insured would be Rs 5 lakh. However, for Corona Rakshak Policy, the minimum sum insured would be Rs 50,000 and maximum limit is set at Rs 2.5 lakh.

Corona Kavach policy will be an indemnity-based policy but optional cover should be made available on benefit basis. The base cover will offer hospitalization expenses like room and boarding charges along with PPE kits, gloves, masks and such other similar expenses and even AYUSH treatment. While in Corona Rakshak policy, insurers shall pay lump-sum benefits equal to 100 per cent of sum insured on positive diagnosis of Covid-19, requiring the hospitalization for minimum continuous period of 72 hours.