Health Insurance Renewal: Guide to Online Process

Most of the leading health insurers provide online renewal facility. Renewing online not only saves your time but also gives you flexible payment options.

While renewing your policy, you can stay with your own insurance company or switch to another insurer. When you switch over to another insurer, you don’t have to wear the waiting periods all over again. This feature is termed as ‘insurance portability’ and is mandatory for all the insurance companies as per IRDA guideline.

How to Renew Health Insurance Policy Online?

Health insurance online renewal is a fast and simple process that takes just a matter of minutes to complete. All you need to do is follow these 4 simple steps -

• Provide the basic details of your previous policy such as policy number and expiry date. Fill in other required details.
• Make the payment via debit card/ credit card/ net banking.
• Once your payment is authorized, you have issued a digitally signed copy of the policy. The policy document can be printed anytime and retained in paper form.
• When you renew online, you are provided with a username and password so that you can check the details, relevant to your policy, online on the insurer’s website.

Essential Things to Remember While Renewing Health Insurance Policy

It is very important that you renew your policy before expiry. Your insurance company will probably send you a renewal notice but they are not obliged to do so. It is your responsibility to renew your policy on time. It should ideally be renewed within 15 days before the expiry date. However, renewals can be made up to 15 days of a grace period from the expiry date. If you let your policy lapse, you will end up losing the hard-earned waiting period benefits and no claim bonus, on the subsequent policy.

Below are Some Tips to be Kept in Mind while Renewing Health Insurance Plan:

Renew before the Due Date:

If you don’t pay the premium for your health insurance before the deadline, you will be provided a grace period of 30 days before your policy lapse. Nevertheless, Health Insurance Regulations particularly offer that there won’t be any insurance cover during the time.

Moreover, you can also lose out the lifelong renewability provision according to the IRDA health regulations.

Review your Health Insurance Requirement:

You must establish a process when it comes to insurance and personal finances. Since a significant checkpoint here is reviewing your health insurance requirement, you can take time to renew your policy.

Revise your Sum Assured under your Health Insurance:

After reviewing your requirements for insurance as mentioned above, if you’re sure that your sum insured has to be increased, similar can be done only while renewing. Moreover, you may impose conditions such as medical tests requirement and claim history if the needed enhancement is critical.

Check change in Terms & Conditions of your Policy:

The terms and conditions of your policy remain the same while renewing the policy and according to the regulations of IRDA; the insurance provider cannot change that based on an adverse claim explanation. According to IRDA regulation, any change in the premium or benefits can only be done with IRDA’s approval and has to be intimated to the insurance company at least three months before the renewal.

Conclusion!

Generally, people tend to think that by purchasing health insurance, they have done everything, but this is a wrong approach. Renewal of health insurance policy in a timely and proper way is as mandatory as purchasing the right health insurance for you.

And as there are a few things such as sum insured enhancement and changes in the proposed details, which you can do only while renewing your policy, a though out and planned approach to the renewal of insurance is beneficial than the last minute rush.

Renew your health insurance policy on time to make sure you and your family never go without a health cover.