NEW DELHI: Locked in a battle with big healthcare firms over censoring cashless health insurance claims, state-run insurers on Thursday asserted that the facility would be extended only to those hospitals that agree to their rates for medical expenses.

"The purpose of working out such package rates and stabilising the hospitalisation costs, will benefit the insured in many ways," the four state-run general insurance companies -- National Insurance Co, New India Assurance Co, Oriental Insurance Co and United India Insurance Co -- said in a joint public notice.

The selected list of hospitals in Delhi and National Capital Region, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore, does not include big chains like Fortis and Max Healthcare and was prepared on the basis of those accepting rate packages prepared by the insurance firms for medical procedures and hospitalisation costs.

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Experts from Medimanage.com give their opinion:

Sudhir Sarnobat:

This was the resolve & will that was expected from all PSU insurers. Now that all the PSU insurers have come together & demanding the rates negotiations, the cost of treatment for Primary & Secondary treatment would reduce. However, I am not sure about how the Tertiary care is going to be managed without taking in consideration the requirements of top hospitals. They are the only ones which offer the super-speciality treatment for complex medical problems. The hospitals need to look at Cost Plus model where they must find out the cost of procedure & then decide the price. Without having rational thought process of cost & pricing, all debate would be an exercise of demands & rejection of demands.

Mahavir Chopra:

Though, we have always suggested Insurers lobbying against Hospitals for their inconsistent billing menace, this sudden delisting (without any prior meetings, correspondence or warnings to Customers as well as Hospitals) was clearly uncalled for.

Customers are provided the network hospital list at the start of the policy, which they rely on for the entire policy period.Customers have not been prior informed regarding the delisting of hospitals.

Moreover, Government Insurers have not foreseen how this can adversely impact the confidence of future Mediclaim customers. For instance, How would Insurance Companies ensure their future wary customers, that they won’t suddenly delist hospitals again? How do we brokers assure this?

Quality Customers of Health Insurance we have interacted with, do look at the hospital list, to check if it includes hospitals in their locality or the ones they would use in case of an unfortunate need of hospitalization.

I personally feel, Government Insurers should toy with the idea of including the PPN List as a part of the terms and conditions of the policy and promise no ad hoc delisting of hospitals, without prior notice. This will bring in much needed customer confidence.