Health insurance policyholders looking to change their existing insurance company will have to wait for a few months as Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has postponed the effective date.
The portability of health insurance policies which was set to be implemented on July 1, has now been pushed to October 1, 2011. The reasons cited by the regulator are that they are looking to provide a web-based facility for all non-life insurance companies including the 3 standalone health insurance companies viz Apollo Munich Health Insurance, Max Bupa Health Insurance, and Star Health Insurance. This service will enable these insurance companies to feed in all relevant details on health insurance policies issued by them to individuals, which can be accessed by the new company to which a policyholder wishes to port his policy.
To ensure the smooth functioning of health insurance portability, IRDA has concluded that it is necessary to compile the historical data of insurance claims and other health-related details which will then be made available to all these insurers.
Health insurance portability will allow policyholders to switch their existing policy from one company to another. The Authority is in the process of establishing the web-enabled facility and will implement the portability of health insurance policies across all the non-life insurers in the country no later than 1st October 2011.
