What is Health Insurance Portability?

The concept of portability is quite broad and is simply not limited to your mobile subscriber alteration. You must carefully note that health insurance providers also offer this portability provision. This enables you to switch from one insurer to another depending on the circumstances.

Health insurance portability is not a very difficult or time-consuming procedure. You need to follow these few simple steps to complete the process:

• First, you must enter all the relevant details on the IRDA portability form for initiating the process. It is essential to initiate this process when the concerned plan is due for renewal. You need to approach the concerned insurance provider to whom you desire to port your existing plan. This new company will send you a portability form as well as a new proposal form.

• Once all the paperwork is completed, you must submit these documents to the insurance provider. They, in turn, will get in touch with your previous insurance provider to obtain your history and other health-related information. Such sensitive information must be shared via the principal insurance regulator i.e., IRDA only.

• After receiving all the necessary details, it depends on the discretion of the insurance company whether they would like to add you as their customer or not. This is termed as policy underwriting and this has to be completed within 15 days if they wish to provide you with the coverage.

Depending on the terms and conditions of the concerned insurance provider, the list of documents required for health insurance portability differs from one company to another to some extent. However, certain fixed, mandatory requirements include the following:

• A valid, authentic identity proof
• A valid address proof
• Proposal form
• IRDA portability form
• Claim history (as per applicability)
• Insurance policy form
• No claims declaration (if applicable)
• All relevant documents related to you medical history

Although there is no specific act for health insurance portability, there are certain rules that need to be followed by both the insurer and the insured.

• Type of plan: Health insurance portability only happens within similar types of plans. You cannot make any sea change in the coverage or the policy type with a switch.

• Insurance company: Any insurance company can be categorised as either health insurance or a general insurance company. While switching, the nature of the insurance company must remain unaltered.

• Gaps: The health plan that you are willing to switch must not have any gaps between two consecutive renewals. You cannot port a lapsed plan nor any insurer will accept your portability request if you maintain such a portfolio.

• Informing the concerned insurance company: The switching request must be placed in writing at least 45 days before the due renewal date of the current plan.

• Response from the present insurance company: The current insurance company has a time limit of three days for acknowledging your portability request.

• Porting charges: As per the existing norms laid down by the IRDA, there are no porting charges on any side to make the switch.

• Premium changes: The premium value is decided by the concerned insurance company based on several factors. There may be an alteration in the premium value while porting the existing plan.

• Grace period: The insurance holder receives an additional grace period of 30 days during policy portability. Moreover, for paying the premium on a pro-rata basis, he/she is allowed yet another 30 days.

• Sum insured amount and the coverage scope: The buyer may choose to enhance the sum insured amount and the scope of the plan. However, this depends on the discretion of the insurance company chosen.

• Waiting period: The extent of the coverage decides the time for the additional waiting period. On the approval of the insurer, you may expand the coverage of the plan and serve the additional waiting period as per the norms of the new insurer.

Some of the major advantages of health insurance portability include:

• You can customise the existing plan to a certain extent

• Your accumulated No Claim Bonus will not be lost and your new insurer will make the necessary adjustments to incorporate it into your new plan

• No other benefits received from your previous insurer will get lost because of the switch. Porting is a great way to enjoy the all new benefits along with the old ones.

• Porting an existing health plan might even lower your premium

Although health insurance portability is beneficial, everything is not a bed of roses here. It comes with certain disadvantages too:

• Porting is only allowed before renewal and not during any other time
• No drastic change or customisation of the existing plan is permitted while porting
• For buying higher coverage the insurance holder needs to pay an excess premium

The above article highlights all the basic and important features associated with health insurance portability. However, before porting you must consider the limits and sub-limits, all the benefits, the premium value, and other important details to enjoy smooth coverage.