Health Insurance Portability: Know Pros & Cons, Process, Documents Required to Port Insurance Policy

Advantages and Disadvantages of Health Insurance Portability

Health is the supremely important thing for every individual and off-late people across the globe have started giving equal emphasis to health. This can be seen from the tremendous growth in the insurance sector, especially health insurance. Unlike earlier, people these days insure their health with multiple health plans to secure them against medical emergencies as well as against age-related health conditions.

Of course, medical health insurance are serving as boon to all. And the facility of insurance portability has made things all the more convenient for people, especially those who are unhappy with their insurance policy or insurer due to any reason. Let’s discuss health insurance portability in detail in this post.

What is Health Insurance Portability?

It is the facility offered by IRDA or Insurance Regulatory Authority of India where an individual who is not satisfied with his/her current policy can port health insurance from one insurance provider to another. While doing so, the insured will not lose any of the benefits that the person is availing from his/her current health insurance policy provider. Moreover, health insurance portability also allows the insured to port his/her plan from individual policy to family floater policy.

Reasons for Porting your Health Plan

There can be varied reasons why an insured would like to port his/her health insurance plan from one insurer to another. Below are some such reasons:

• Inadequate coverage for particular health conditions that you are looking at.
• Insurer not transparent in its terms and conditions.
• Quality of service is not up to the mark.
• Very late in reimbursing/settling claims
• Premium amount hiked
• Claim Settlement not up to the mark
• You are getting a better deal with another insurer.

Things to Consider if you Want to Opt for Portability in Health Insurance Policy 

Here are the things that you should remember before opting for portability of health insurance:

• Make sure to read the clauses and limitations of the policy set on the basis of age, ailments, and hospital, etc.
• Just remember that while porting insurance, you can port things like waiting period, already-existing ailments, and bonus credits. However, you can’t port the features that are a part of your current insurance policy.
• Remember to apply for portability of health insurance 45 days ahead of the policy renewal date of your existing health plan.
• Don’t port just for the sake of paying a low premium. Make sure to check if the policy offers enough coverage along with a low premium. Otherwise, you might not be able to get the required cover that you need.
• Make sure to check the various hospitals in the network of your insurer before you port health insurance policy so that you are aware of how many hospitals are there in your vicinity.

Pros and Cons of Health Insurance Portability

Below are the pros and cons of health insurance portability:

Pros of Health Insurance Portability	Cons of Health Insurance Portability
You may gain competitive advantage to procure better insurance benefits at lower premiums	The policy can be ported only near the renewal date
The new sum insured is calculated by clubbing a no-claim bonus with the existing amount	The insured might have to pay higher premiums to avail additional benefits
Despite porting, all benefits of the existing plan remain active	The insured can opt for similar insurance products only
The plan can be customized	You may lose certain benefits by moving from a family floater plan to an individual plan

Advantages of Health Insurance Portability:

• Despite porting, the benefits you were receiving with your previous plan will stay active.
• You might enjoy lower premiums due to stiff competition.
• The option of modification that is available with portability allows the insured to modify policy on the basis of need and standard of living.
• The current policy sum insured is collaborated together with NCB to determine  the new policy sum insured.

Disadvantages of Health Insurance Portability:

• To avail portability option you must wait for the insurance renewal date.
• Porting for similar products is possible covering similar risk.
• If you opt for additional benefits, you might have to pay a higher premium.
• If you shift from family plans to plans for individual, you might lose some benefits of the current plan.

Rules of Health Insurance Portability in India

Below are the health insurance portability rules that you must know:

• Only similar kinds of policies are permitted to port.
• An insured can port his/her insurance policy from one type of insurer to another similar type of insurer. For example, from one general insurance provider to another.
• Portability can be done only during your policy renewal time.
• You shouldn’t have any lapse on policy renewal to avail of the portability option.
• The insured must inform his/her current insurance provider by giving an application at least 45 days prior to the date of renewal of the current policy, if they want to port their plan.
• The insurer reverts with an answer within 3 days of writing the letter.
• No charges are levied on the insured for availing a portability facility.
• The insured can request to increase the sum insured during insurance portability.

Process of Health Insurance Portability in India

If you want to know how to port health insurance policy, here’s what you need to know:

• Complete the forms that are required to be submitted for the portability option.
• The new insurance company you have planned to port your policy will check the papers within 7 days.
• Once done, the insurer will pass the details of the plan for shifting purposes via the IRDA portal.
• In the next step, the insurer will forward the papers for the portability procedure.
• Lastly, the insurer will process the written application of the insured and propose a plan within 15 days.

Documents Required to Port Health Insurance Policy

• Policy papers of the earlier years.
• Renewal papers (revised) mentioning coverage, etc
• Self-declaration made by policyholder.
• Claim documents filed so far, if any, like discharge summaries, investigation papers etc.?
• Properly filled portability form

Can a Health Insurance Portability Request be Rejected? If so, Why?

Yes, insurance companies have the right to either accept or reject a portability request. Below are the factors why an insurer might reject a portability request:

• Incomplete information in the portability form.
• Delayed submission of papers.
• Flawed claim history (if you use fraudulent ways to make a claim)
• If the policy documents are inaccessible.
• If there is a lapse in renewal of the policy in the previous years.