Insurers facing steep jump in health insurance claims amid second wave of Covid-19

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As the country is going through tough times amid the second wave of Covid-19, general and health insurers are witnessing a sharp jump in Covid-related claims. Many insurers have seen as high as 60% jump in Covid related health insurance claims as compared to September when the virus was at its peak. Experts say the numbers are expected to rise further.

“We are seeing an increasing trend in Covid-19 claims compared to January 2021. As compared to September 2020, we have received more than 60% of claims in March 2021. Generally, reimbursement claims take approximately 20-30 days to register, so we may see a further rise in March 2021 claims,” said Bhaskar Nerurkar, Head – Health Claims, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance.

The number of new coronavirus cases in India has hit a record daily high with over 2 lakh infections being reported in a day, while the active cases surpassed the 14- lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday. With the new cases, the total tally of COVID-19 cases in the country has risen to 1,40,74,564.

“The claim numbers are going to be bigger as with 2 lakh infections being reported it has already crossed the highest peak of September. There is infrastructure-related issues. We need to have more hospital beds,” said Sanjay Datta, Chief – Underwriting & Claims at ICICI Lombard.

According to General Insurance Council, an umbrella body of general and health insurers, 10.26-lakh Covid-related claims worth Rs 14,849.53 crore were reported as of April 12, 2021. Out of this 8.81-lakh claims totalling Rs 8,029.33 crore have already been settled by insurance companies.

On the news of hospitals being charging inflated prices for Remdesivir medicine, Nerurkar said, “Insurance companies typically pay for medicines on MRP basis and hence fluctuations in prices don’t affect insurers.”

Insurers are also facing a challenge on the communication front with limited availability of hospital beds and regular staff getting infected, Nerurkar said: “Currently with the increase in cases, the information we have received from the hospitals is that they are facing limitation of bed availability. An additional challenge faced by hospitals is that some of their regular staff are also infected. Hence the communication on the claims front is facing some challenges.”