Insurance body urges standardising city hospital costs

At a health insurance meet here organised by Ficci, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) Chairman TS Vijayan said that the aim of “responsibility and responsiveness” in delivering health insurance services should be added to the goal of achieving affordable health insurance in the country by 2025.

“The time is perhaps ripe to look at introducing community group insurance products to bring down distribution costs and determining the genuineness of health insurance claims,” Vijayan said, while noting that the authenticity of claims by the insured could be verified through members of a community or group so that insurance companies were not “unnecessarily burdened with fictitious claims.”

The IRDAI chief also underlined the need for standardisation of costs of healthcare from one hospital to another in a city. “This analysis could be done procedure-wise in a particular city to allow the insured to opt for a hospital of his choice,” he said. Moreover, Vijayan emphasised the need to bring down out-of-pocket expenses of patients, currently estimated to be at 62 per cent of all healthcare costs.”