Network hospitals are the enlisted hospitals of your insurance provider where you can avail cashless service. The most common mistake we as insurance customers make while buying mediclaim policies is not checking the list of network hospitals or not knowing the name or location of the network hospital closest to their home or office location. If at any given point of time, an emergency strikes finding the closest network hospital would not only end up wasting very precious time but can also prove to be extremely dangerous.

The Indian market has a number of players in the healthcare insurance sector and almost all of them possess a robust network of hospitals. If you will go through the below the given table, you will find that almost all the insurance firm has 2000+ hospitals under their network.

Name of the hospital	Number of hospitals
Apollo Munich	4200
Bajaj Allianz	2300
Bharti AXA	4000
Cholamandalam General	2600
Future Generali	Total number not mentioned on the website
HDFC ERGO General	3800
IFFCO Tokio General	2844
Raheja QBE	Total number not mentioned on the website
Reliance General	4000
Royal Sundaram General	1021
Star Health	4937
TATA AIG	3000
Universal Sompo General	5000
Max Bupa	375 (approx)

But do these numbers really matter? Well, actually no. Unlike car/motor insurance, where there needs to a cashless car garage anywhere you go, Healthcare insurance works on slightly different parameters. Even the presence of network hospitals all around the country is important, especially if you travel a lot, what matters most is:

• The coverage of hospitals around your office and home area
• Quality/rating of the hospitals
• Whether you want your family doctor to be included in the list of network hospitals

In case of an emergency, the network hospital in your area should be having ready availability of rooms, doctors and 24/7 emergency ward. Just in case this hospital is full, than which the next closest hospital, where you can go, should also be a ready answer in your mind. Ideally, it should not take more than 20-30 minutes to reach the hospital which is second in your priority list. This means that even if an insurance provider has 7000 or more hospitals in his list, but none or very far away ones in your area, you can think of giving it a skip. After all, you won’t be checking out all the 7000 hospitals. What matters more to you is having a hospital to check in when you most need it. Thus, it becomes important for you to go through all the individual health insurance plans and then round upon the best one.

Finding out the network hospital in your area is an easy task. If you have an internet connection, all you have to do is to visit the website of various insurance providers and go to the tab which says find a network hospital. Most insurance companies have enlisted network hospitals according to the state and location. If you can’t find the list, call up the company representative and demand a list of the same before signing on the dotted line.

Some important do’s and don’ts to remember about network hospitals are:

• Remembering the name of the nearest network hospital
• Finding if your family doctor comes under the network hospitals list
• Finding of the quality, service and prices (in case of co-payment) of the network hospitals near your home and office
• After purchasing the health insurance, do make sure to keep the cashless card readily available always. If possible, carry the card in your purse all the time.

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