With an aim to provide better understanding on the rules and cost standards market regulator Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) plans to issue a unique identity numbers to hospitals to determine pricing patterns for a range of ailments. For this, IRDA is working with hospitals of the national accreditation agencies to identity the system feasibility and the beta version of the same is expected to be released by the current weekend. This unique identification numbers will be incorporated with the pin code of the area and name of hospitals.
Mr. T. S. Vijayan, Chairperson of IRDA, said that at present there is no such coding for hospitals through the ministry of health or municipal hospitals. Insurance Information Bureau is collaborating data of all insurers. Data is being collected from third party administrator, insurance companies and Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana programme.
Mr. R. Raghvan, Chief Executive Officer at Insurance Information Bureau said that in addition to the above, this new system, if successfully implemented, will help to control overcharging by hospitals. Also the pattern of pricing, customers mapping etc can be known.
In addition to the above, IRDA is also in the process of accumulating data on fraud, largely on account of health and motor insurance. It will cover hospital fraud, intermediary –provoked fraud, user fraud and insider fraud.
