By Siddharth Singhal
Many banks collaborate with insurance companies to provide health insurance policies to their customers. These bank-based policies, which are typically group policies, are designed to cover a large pool of customers.
Since these are group health plans with little room for personalisation, these often come at a discounted rate. However, these policies do not have any room for customisation because they are designed for a group. These policies come with standard room rent caps, sub-limits and certain specific exclusions. So they may not cater to your individual needs.
Then there is the risk of termination of the policy by the bank. This can happen if the bank decides to stop its collaboration with the insurance company or it is acquired by another bank. This could leave policyholders without any health insurance coverage. If they decide to buy a new plan with another insurer, they may lose all the accumulated benefits and may have to go through the waiting period again. To overcome these limitations, one can explore retail health insurance plans instead of bank-based ones.
Porting bank-based policy to retail insurance
The good news is that you can port your ongoing bank-based policy to a retail insurance plan. As per the new regulations, policyholders can port, or transfer, their bank-based group health insurance policies to individual retail health plans without losing accumulated benefits. So, if you have already served part of your waiting period, or the entire waiting period, under your current group policy, your new policy would also consider that waiting period to be already served.
To make the switch, you have to inform your insurer at least 45 days before your bank-based policy expires. You will need to furnish relevant documents including your current insurance plan and your medical history. The new insurer will use this information to assess your application and will make a decision about your porting request within 15 days. If your request is approved, you can avail of continuous coverage with all benefits being carried forward.
Porting an existing policy is beneficial for you, especially if you are someone with pre-existing conditions. You get broader coverage and more customisation, choose add-ons like outpatient coverage, consumable cover, reduced waiting periods, and even coverage for pre-existing conditions to further customise the policy. You can also choose plans with no room rent capping and no sub-limits,
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