The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) has undertaken a study on the premium collected by insurers on providing group insurance policies.
"We would like to study the pattern of charges collected as premiums for individual and group insurance policies if there is any distortion in that. We will see whether it goes overboard or it is equitable with individual insurance policies...," said T S Vijayan, chairman, Irda, told reporters here.
Noting that the collected data lie with the insurance company and "not" with the Irda, he said, "there is a council called General Insurance Council. It is collecting all the details".
Asked whether Irda was against issuing group insurance policies, he clarified: "No no. Not at all. Don't take it that way. We are not trying to stop group insurances."
Responding to query about proposal for setting up hospital registry, he said: "We have published a draft which has got nearly 25,000 hospitals. We have got technical feedback from public about anything is there like duplication or omission."
Irda has set up the Insurance Information Bureau -- a registry about healthcare providers and assign them unique identification codes. This is a move to help identify hospitals and collect information regarding various charges imposed by them on different medical procedure.
Asked on the advantage of the registry, he said, "it is not giving any gradation to hospitals like ABCD. We want to know what are the hospitals and how insurance claims are settled".
On third party motor insurance policies, Vijayan said, "Every year Irda does the study on the experience of motor third party claim and determine whether the premium has to go up or not.
"We have published the draft of that data for 2014-15. We have called for feedback from stake holders -- policy holders, motor people".
"First April onwards the premium has to be adjusted. Before, that we will take a decision", he said. Asked about SBI Life Insurance which is said to be planning to make an appeal against the IRDA order directing to refund Rs 275 crore to policy holders, which has been collected allegedly in violation of norms, Vijayan said, "I am not CEO of SBI Life Insurance. They may appeal. "We have given a direction to them. They have not come back to us." On fradulent calls and emails sent to customers representing the IRDA and asking people to buy policies, he said "we have been getting complaints from customers who do get phone calls supposedly from IRDA saying this policy is better, that policy is better". "We have been working with the Life Council, since most of the issues were related to Life Insurance sector. Life Council has agreed to put up a line in all the advertisements that IRDA is not an organisation that sells policies. This is one step we have taken", he said.
Meanwhile, taking a cue from Tamil Nadu Health Insurance scheme which has put a cap on various treatments across hospitals for people below the poverty line, Vijayan said: "We should encouarge average hospitals to give equal treatment of high end hospitals. "Even in Tamil Nadu there is this health insurance scheme. They have put a maximum cap on various treatments. That encourages people to get treatment from a hospital. "High-end hospitals may not be able to give treatment at that level. But there should be appropriate treatment for all type of customers. Not only from high end hospitals but also from average hospitals, that is the ecosystem I am talking about", he added. Vijayan earlier released the "Diabetes Safe Insurance" offered by Star Health Insurance company. The Insurance is a first of its kind diabetes insurance that covers regular hospitalisation expenses.
