Insurance Companies compromising with interests of Healthcare insurance customers
These companies are playing with patient care also by fixing packages to maximise their own profit , compromising the consumer rights of insured . Same package is offered at a hospital for insured having different coverage. Situation is becoming worse from bad as GIPSA Insurance ecosystem is completely non transparent, new hospitals are not given entry into exclusive grouping.
Ideally all hospitals registered with state health departments , should be offered unconditional empanelment, if they seek empanelment as health is a state subject and most states have legislative acts for registration of Medical establishments. Even there is a Clinical Establishments Act 2010, passed by Indian Parliament but these insurance companies don’t value standards set by legislative assemblies and Indian Parliament and have set a corrupt & completely non transparent system of providers network.
All these companies act in collusion and hence limiting the options for patients to select their healthcare providers. These companies are also meddling into affairs ,like quality of healthcare, type of healthcare of an insured without accepting their own accountability.
IRDA is well aware of this GIPSA grouping of four public sector insurance companies but conveniently forgets its statutory responsibility to act against this illegal group of companies engaged in same business.
Complaints with IRDA india has not yielded any favourable results. IRDA instead of acting against these insurance companies for not widening providers network , is supporting this strong cartel of insurers, TPAs and providers . IRDA brought a circular making NABH accreditation compulsory for cashless to further reduce the providers base and promote a lobby of big hospitals. There is a systematic efforts to marginalise small healthcare establishments, which do a balancing act in pricing of medical services . more