40 expert Doctors to examine each Hospital claim of Public Sector health Insurance

Ahmedabad: A pan India mechanism to minutely check the fake health insurance claims and inflated bills by the hospitals and other medical institutions would be in place across the country in next nine months, Chairman cum Managing Director (CMD) of the largest General Insurance company in the country, The New India Assurance Company Ltd, G Srinivasan said.

Addressing a press conference here on the occasion of the announcement regarding the upcoming IPO of the company which will make it the first listed public sector general insurance company in India (the other being private sector ICICI Lombard), Srinivasan said, ' the fake and inflated bills and claims have become a major reason behind poor performance of health insurance companies.

'To check it a team of 40 expert doctors to examine each of the claims and the expenses shown for it and any unnecessary medical procedure is being made by the Health Insurance TPA of India Ltd is a joint venture of public sector Non-life insurance companies National Insurance Co. Ltd, The Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd, The New India Assurance Co. Ltd, United India Insurance Co. Ltd and GIC of India. Of these 20 doctors have already been appointed and the remaining 20 will be recruited soon. The process to check the claims minutely has begun in two metro cities of Delhi and Mumbai and will soon start in Chennai and Kolkata. In the next nine months it will be implemented across the country,' he said.

He also said that the burden of third-party motor sector insurance claims are also likely to come down with various steps being taken by the government of the day including decreasing the number of road mishaps and also bringing an amended bill which puts a time frame for accident claims and other better provisions.

Srinivasan said that owing to increasing awareness about insurance and per capita income, the general insurance sector has seen an annual rise of 17% in last five years and in the next one decade it was likely to remain 20%. The size of the sector is also likely to increase by 2.5 folds from 1.27 lakh crores to 3 lakh crores in next five years.

He also praised the Modi government and the steps taken by it for the economic reforms in the country. The CMD said that the GST tax regime was beneficial for the economy. It created some problem in the initial phase only owing to technical glitches and procedural things. Now its all over and that was why our profit and business both has grown.

Srinivasan said that the penetration of general insurance in India was still very low and the main reason behind it was that the insurance companies lack in resources to reach out to the people.

He said that with the IPO (of price band Rs 770 to 800 for each equity share of face value of Rs 5 opening on November 1 and closing on November 3) and listing of the company the government share in the company will reduce to 85.5% from current 100%.

To a query he said that the company which was the first Insurance company to open office in GIFT city in Gujarat was doing well there and in the last 12 months it has done a business of Rs 65 crore ($9.6 million).