Celebrity hospitals under the scanner

The facility of cash settlement wherein the policyholder could pay the hospital bills and then claim a reimbursement from their respective insurer have been banned for individual claims. However the members covered by corporate health plans will remain out of this net. There has been a ban on cashless settlement by Breach Candy, Harkisondas and Lilavati hospitals. Following several complaints received from individual customers, the state owned general insurance companies, New India Assurance, United India, National Insurance and Oriental Insurance have announced a ban on cashless settlements. This ban will continue till the problems are tracked down. The general insurance companies have been trying to analyse data collected by Third Party Administrators (TPAs) from hospitals located in Mumbai. It was found that the cashless settlement was far more than the treatment cost meted out for the same disease. This has resulted in increased number of inflated claims of medical insurance policies leading to a tremendous loss for the insurance companies. Hence these hospitals have banned the cash settlements for individuals’ atleast till the issues get resolved