In today's time, consumers mostly turn to the medium of the internet when they need a review of a product or a service. Whether you are planning to buy a new smartphone or going on a vacation to an exotic location, you check for online reviews to ensure that you get the best bang for the buck.
Sometimes, those plans never see the light of the day due to some untoward incident. Life is very fragile hence along with spending your hard earned money to buy new gadgets or going on a vacation; you should also plan to have mediclaim insurance. It protects the insured person from financial losses that can occur due to hospitalization.
There are a number of health insurance plans and you should choose the best plan that suits your requirements. Before you choose a plan, you should ensure that you are selecting the best insurance provider, an insurance provider that has a more customer-centric approach. Below are some of the useful tips to select the right insurance provider.
Company History
Though there are a number of insurance companies in the market, you need to look at the number of active years the company has spent in the insurance domain. You do not want to deal with an insurance company that is newly launched, or that has an inexperienced leadership team since the company's future might be uncertain.
Normally any insurance provider would offer different types of insurance like health insurance, two-wheeler insurance, car insurance, etc. Though these companies offer a gamut of services, they would have specialization in specific fields, i.e. health insurance/vehicle insurance, etc. You should check online reviews about the insurance providers and gather information about their core specialization.
Financial Strength
Most of the leading insurance providers work with independent rating agencies. These agencies analyze the financial state of the agency by having a close look at their assets, liabilities, etc. The output of their analysis is a 'public score' which indicates whether the insurance company is doing well or not (whether it is in terms of issued policies, claim settlement of existing customers, etc.). Higher the score; better is the financial state of the company.
Premium v/s Coverage
Insurance is a very complex topic as some insurance policies may look good on paper, but there might be hidden Terms & Conditions (T&C). You select any kind of insurance policy to get secured, whether it is health insurance or vehicle insurance. Premium is the amount you pay to the insurance company to buy a certain kind of insurance policy.
Usually, lower the premium, lower is the coverage. You should choose a policy that meets your overall requirements. There may be insurance companies that take higher premiums from its customers but the coverage offered may be less as compared to its competitors. You should make sure that the insurance premium is cost-effective as compared to other insurance companies and there are no additional T&C involved in the plan.
Facilities offered & Claim settlement ratio
Depending on the premium & coverage of the health insurance policy, the insured might be eligible for cashless hospitalization, coverage for medical bills (apart from hospitalization), etc. You need to ensure that health insurance is offering you those benefits so that you do not have to bear the burden during the time of hospitalization.Many insurance companies also have the facility of online claim reporting where the insured person has to scan the necessary documents for claiming the amount. While selecting the insurance provider, have a close look at the claim settlement ratio of the insurance company since that would give you an idea about the number of claims settled (vis-à-vis number of claims submitted by the claimants). Higher claim settlement ratio means that the insurance company settles the claims at a faster rate.
Besides these things, the first & foremost thing that should be done is making sure that the government accredits the insurance company. Choosing the right insurance agency can be a big boon under challenging circumstances; hence it is advisable to select an ideal insurance plan from a customer-centric insurance company.
