Insurance watchdog – Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) has announced its decision to float a new consumer education portal to educate general public and insurance policyholders on various aspects of insurance.

The new website expected to go live on Monday will have complete information that includes, cost of treatment and treatment facility offered across 35,000 hospitals that are registered with insurers for providing cashless payment facility. 

“It’s a unique initiative of Irdai which going forward will help insurance companies and hospitals and all the insured under various health insurance schemes to get all relevant data at one place,” IRDAI member Nilesh Sathe told PTI.

As part of the initiative, every hospital associated with insurers has been given a ‘Unique Identification Number’ (UIN). The UIN will enable the IRDAI-promoted Insurance Information Bureau (IIB) to keep a tab on the patterns of health insurance claims from all those hospitals. 

The creation of the Web site is part of a series of initiatives under the ‘Bima Bemisaal’ for creating awareness about insurance.

MyInsuranceClub take on the development: 

In a country having an insurance penetration of less than 5% and a wary consumer base attributed to lack of knowledge on how insurance works, the step by IRDAI is one in the right direction and will go a long way in boosting customer confidence in the future.