Insurers can offer wellness coupons, reward points to policyholders: Irdai

Regulator Irdai on Friday came out with fresh guidelines for wellness and preventive features under which insurers can offer discount coupons and vouchers for health supplements and yoga centres, and also reward points to policyholders complying with the specified criteria.

"Any wellness and preventive feature shall be designed only with the objective of maintaining and improving good health,thereby enabling affordable health insurance," the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) said in a circular.

Under the wellness programmes, insurers can offer discount coupons and redeemable vouchers to policyholders for obtaining health supplements and memberships of yoga centres, gymnasiums, sports clubs and fitness centres.

Wellness and preventive features under a policy can be offered either as optional or add-on cover, it said, but clarified that nothing should "be offered without it being filed or incorporated as part of the product in terms of the Product Filing Guidelines."

The regulator asked the insurers to assess the pricing impact of wellness and preventive features and disclose them upfront in the 'file and use' application as per the Product Filing Guidelines.

Insurers have also been allowed to offer discounts on premiums and increase in sum insured at the time of renewals based on wellness regime followed by policyholders in the preceding policy period.

As per the guidelines, the insurers will be prohibited from publishing the trade names or trade logos of third party merchandise in any of the insurance advertisements, but may refer to the services in generic terms.

Insurers, however, will be allowed to disclose the specific items of services on their website with necessary details and may provide a link in their insurance advertisement and policy contracts.