LIC Receives IRDA Clearance For Health Product

New Delhi: Life Insurance Corporation of India has received the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority''s (IRDA) nod for its health insurance product LIC Health Plus. The corporation now mulls to unveil the product in the market during the first week of January as against the earlier target of last week of December. The product will be on the lines of floater plan, which would give the policyholder the option to take health insurance cover for his immediate family. They feel that a cashless model is not in favour of the customer as many hospitals are not accepting such a facility and also in many cases we found that they are charging more if a patient comes with an insurance cover that offers cashless treatment.

The product will offer a combination of hospital cash and surgical benefit where a lump sum will be paid towards list of surgeries covered under the policy and will also involve a part payment from the patient''s side. LIC is aiming to give health cover to close to one crore families in the first year of the launch of the product and expects over Rs 5,000 crore of revenues. The TPA would first advise the company on the permissibility of the claim who would in turn instruct the bankers to issue the claim cheque to its health insurance policyholders.