5 Steps for Selecting Best Health Insurance Plan

A health insurance is not just an investment but a necessity. It can not only be a life savior but can be the best financial management tool. You can avail many other benefits through health insurance plans. Some of them can be saving your tax, staying health conscious, early diagnosis of disease and many more. 

When a health policy can offer you so much you must be aware of how to select a suitable plan for yourself. Before buying any of the plans you must analyze them on certain criteria and select the suitable plan accordingly. An informed decision can always lead to the best returns of investment.

Use the Online Premium Calculator

An online premium calculator is available on any online comparison site without any additional cost. Using an online calculator on any insurance aggregator can give you quotes from any of the leading insurance companies. You can compare the premium of leading companies and buy a suitable plan. To calculate the rate of premium from any of the company you just need to enter a few basic details. Some of the variables required to get the amount of premium from various health insurance firms are as follows.

Online Premium Calculator Details

• Age
• Gender
• Sum Insured
• Mobile Number
• Monthly Salary 

To get the best premium rate you can visit PolicyX. You can surely get the best price from various leading players. PolicyX is one of the fast growing and leading insurance web aggregator.

Select Right Type of Health Plan

Luckily there are varied health insurance plans to choose from. You can select the one that meets your requirements and purpose. Types of the plan that you can select can be an individual plan, group plan or family floater plan. All the plans have got different coverage. Some of the plans are elaborated below.

• Individual Plans - Individual plans are suitable if you are single. Sum insured that can be taken is as per your choice. The advantage of this plan is you can take the entire cover as and when you need once annually.
• Group Plans - Group plans are suitable for the organizations or communities that want to cover more than 10-20 people. The benefit of the group plan is it is available at a very less cost and the coverage can be much more.
• Family Floater Plans - Family Floater plans are good if you plan to cover your entire family. With the same amount of premium, you can secure a certain sum insured for your family. The advantage of this plan is any one member of your family can use the entire amount at the time of any ailment.
• Senior Citizen Plan - This plan is specific to the people above 60 years of age. You can choose the plan for an elderly member of your family. The benefit of this plan is the concerned person can cover specific disease with the help of this plan. After deciding about specific health policy you can buy it from any of the leading players. There are many players who can suggest you customized plan as per your requirement. One of my friends brought an individual plan Optima Restore from Apollo Munich. The feature that made her took this decision was the option of increasing the sum insured. You may plan to choose any of the health plans as per your requirements.

Compare Features

Before buying any medical insurance plan you must compare their features. Every health insurance players may have a different feature from other. You can select the plan that has got the most suitable attribute that you want.

Claim Settlement Ratio

One of the game changer in helping you in taking the right decision for your health insurance plan can be the claim settlement ratio of these health insurance firms. Most of them have got the settlement ratio of more than 90%. You can give some weight to the claim settlement ratio of these players.

List of Networked Hospitals for Cashless Treatment

This is one of the important criteria for choosing a health insurance plan. Almost all the health plans facilitate cashless treatment. You don't have to pay anything from your pocket if you got your health insurance policy details. The number of hospitals covered by these health policies may differ. They may also include the different brand of hospitals in their network. You can either choose the health plan based on the hospital you want or the number of hospitals covered. Some of the leading players with the approximate number of hospitals covered by them are shown below.

Leading Players	Hospital Network
Reliance Health Insurance	4000
Apollo Munich	4500
ICICI Lombard	4500
HDFC Ergo	5000
Religare	5400
Star Health	8400

After deciding about a specific health plan you can select your medical insurance online from any comparison sites. PolicyX can assist you with a free Insurance manager that can help you in checking all the above parameters with ease.

How Can We Fight The Battle Against Cancer?

As soon as we hear about cancer we get dead scared. But do we also know that we can cure it? By getting little awareness about this disease we can help people around us managing this deadly disease. Before helping others, we must get familiarise with this illness.

This can be done in many ways as follows:-

• Attending cancer awareness programs
  Many organizations conduct cancer awareness programs time and again. Through their workshops, they make people aware of various types of cancers. And what can be done to prevent it? These sessions are conducted throughout India and usually free of cost. As a health conscious individual one must attend these seminars. Not only can it help in preventing it but we can win the battle against cancer as well.
• Doing little Lifestyle modifications
  One of the major reason of cancer is related to our lifestyle. We may be working or partying late hours. Also eating any junk. All these may not have any immediate effect. But it can impact us later. At times it may result in cancer as well.
• Regular Workouts
  Any kind of exercise can not only keep us fit but prevent many critical illnesses as well. One such deadly disease that can be avoided through the workout is cancer. We can do any kind of exercise to keep us fit. It can be going to the gym; attending yoga or doing aerobics. Alternatively, we can also try going for Zumba classes or participate in Marathons. Whatever form of exercise we may choose we need to be consistent. Going thrice a week at least for 30 minutes is good to keep us healthy.
• Going for regular checkups
  We must do all the medical tests bi-annually. It can always assist us in early detection of any form of illness. We can take some good packages of the companies that can offer good discounts. At times we may be entitled to get some corporate discounts as well.
• Buying Cancer Insurance Plans
  Last but not the least this is the best solution to protect us from cancer. It is an ideal health Insurance cover all expenses from day one. It can prevent us from any kind of financial crisis.

How to cure cancer?

As we know prevention is better than cure. We can avoid this disease to a certain extent by taking some precautions. However, at times, it may not be in our hands. That times the best thing to handle it is by proper treatment. That can be done with Cancer Insurance plan as well.

Cancer Insurance Plan can help us in managing these diseases in many ways as follows.

• Arranging required funds.
• Awareness programs
• Facilitating Cashless Treatments
• Covering person immediately
• Expert Advise

An insurance company and their features

There are some of the leading players that can also help in curing and managing this deadly disease. They are as follows.

1. ICICI Pru Cancer Plan

2. Apollo Munich Cancer plan

3. Future Generali Cancer plan

4. Max Life Cancer Insurance

5. HDFC Life Cancer Insurance plan

6. Bharati Axa Cancer

7. BSLI Cancer Shield Plan

Some of their common features are as follows:-

Free Lookup Period

Every company gives us a grace period of 15 to 30 days. If for any reason we are not sure of continuing the policy that we can cancel it.

Flexibility in payments

We can make payments in easy installments of monthly, bi-annually or yearly.

Tax Benefits

We can save our taxes as per the applicable law.

Eligibility

Anyone from 25 to 65 years of age can take this plan.

Policy term

Policy term varies between 10 to 40 years.

We must take all steps to sageguard ourselves from any such deadly diseases. This can be done by following above steps. 

How is Health Insurance the Best Gift for Our Parents?

We all know importance of Health Insurance policy in today's time. It's not only investment but best security for our health. Every person requires it to manage any health-related urgencies. In case of senior citizens, it's even more important. There are many kinds of Health Insurance Policies. We can choose the same as per our health condition. People above 60 years of age may need more customised plan. They can choose a Health Insurance policy in which they can get maximum benefits. Besides covering all expenses at the time of hospitalization it provides many other benefits as well. Some of them are like free tests, wellness programmes, timely health updates etc.

As a responsible citizen, we must ensure all members of our family are covered in the Health Insurance Plans. We must take special care of our aging parents. While selecting the policy for senior citizens of a family we should first be aware of their health conditions. Infact Health Insurance Policy can be the best gifts for your parents. 

How Tanya surprised her parent's on their golden jubilee?

Tanya has been planning for her parents the day that is their 50th anniversary from few weeks. She made all arrangement but she was still not sure what should she gift to her parents. As she felt they got everything. Then one day she got the call from an agent about the policy. She was about to disconnect the call but as soon as the advisor asked the age of her parents she got an idea. Her both parents were senior citizens but they didn't have health Insurance plans. Her dad had a cholesterol problem and mom was suffering from one of the critical illness. She couldn't think of buying a better gift than 2 health policies as per her parents need. When she gifted that plan to her parents they got emotional. They hugged her as they couldn't expect a better gift than that.

How to choose a Health Insurance Policy?

Good Health Insurance Plan for parents should be carefully chosen. Factors that we should keep in mind before selecting the right policy for us is as follows.

1. How many Hospitals they have:- Most of the Health Insurance policies have thousands of hospitals in their panels. We can check the same from their websites. Some of them may be preferred by us for any reason. One of them can be our relative is a doctor there. We can check the hospital details and choose the policy accordingly.
2. How many policies they have already sold:- Most of the Health Insurance Policies publish these details on their websites. We can also check that in any of the web aggregators sites. This can help in understanding their existing customers and credibility.
3. How much claims they have already settled.
4. What additional benefits they are providing- Many Health Insurance companies offers many additional benefits. Few of them can be Wellness programmes; Free Health Checkups, Informative emails etc. These all initiative help us stay health conscious. We can decide to buy based on these factors as well.
5. What is their premium amount.
6. Is there flexibility on the payment of premium like monthly or yearly.
7. What is the locking period and till how long we have to pay.

After analysing the criteria above we can choose Health plan thatis most suitable.

Some of the Health Insurance Policy company to choose from are as follows :-

Sno.	Health Insurance Companies
1.	Apollo Munich
2.	HDFC ERGO
3.	Tata AIG
4.	Aditya Birla
5.	Reliance Health Gain Policy
6.	ICICI Lombard
7.	Aviva Health Secure
8.	Religare
9.	Star Health
10.	Max Bupa
11.	Birla Sun Life

Next time if you are confused about what to gift your parents then you can follow Tanya.

Best gifts any parents would cherish is good Health Insurance Plan.

Get Wings to Your Financial Freedom Through Pension Plans

At the time of Retirement best gift, we can give ourselves is good Pension Plan. Though nowadays there’s no age of retirement as its more of personal choice. However, official retirement age varies between 62 to 67 years. People also take voluntary retirement at the age of 50 years or even early. We may choose our retirement as per our choice and interest.It may be as early as possible or later threshold of our life.However, The major factor that may delay our retirement is financial constraint. But with proper planning, we may choose to retire anytime.

This can be possible by taking good Pension plan as per our requirements. This has got many other benefits as well that has been explained in details below.

Why do we need pension plans after Retirement?

1. Financial Freedom:- Biggest Advantage of having compare & buy pension plan is guaranteed source of Income and required capital after retirement. Even if we have a pool of funds, Pension policy is an additional source of Income and helps us leading a luxurious life.
2. Managing Urgencies:- Money is never in abundance more we have more we want. Medical urgencies or any other kind of emergency can occur with anyone with us or anyone close to us. What can immediately save is ready availability of funds. If we have money when we need; it can save us from many problems.
3. Tax Advantages:- Maximum advantage of this policy can be availed if we start investing much before our vesting* age. This is because premium that we pay assists in saving our taxes as per section 80c.
4. Liquidity Benefits:- During the time of accumulation i.e when we are paying for Pension funds we can take funds in urgencies even before maturity.However, the amount we get may not be much but it may help us managing contingencies.This may be possible only after locking period is over i.e usually 3 to 5 years.
5. Insurance Cover:– The additional benefit of this policy is we can get life cover as well .This may act as a boon in case of any mishap. It acts as great support system especially for family i.e spouses; kids or parents. This applies only to specific plan that we buy.
6. We can chose our *corpus:– We can also choose the amount we want to pay as per our current Income and the amount we want during the vesting period. Most of the pension plans got that flexibility.

Types of Pension Plans

S.No	Plan Name	Details
1	Deferred Annunity Policy Plan	As per this plan, a policyholder is entitled to get annuity after fix period. Like if someone chooses a period of 25 years then they will get a deferment till that period. The period can be paid once or as regular Installments.
2	Immediate Annuity Pension Plan	According to this plan, annuity starts immediately after payment of premium.
3	Life Cover Policy	As is clear from the name of the policy there is additional coverage of Life provided.
4	No Cover Policy	This policy doesn't cover the life. Complete corpus amount is paid as pension Income.
5	Assured Annuity	This plan pays the annuity for a period as decided by the policyholder
6	Annuity Guaranteed Period	As per this plan, an annuity is given for some fixed time duration.It can be 5 years; 10 years o 15 years.

Not Limited to above there are many other plans as listed below

1. Annuity Life

2. NPS (National Pension Scheme)

3.Pension Investment Funds

How Ramya planned her Corpus during Vesting time?

Ramya; 25 years old Investment banker plans to retire at 50. She is currently earning around Rs.1,00,000 per month and she wants to get assured Income of Rs.50000 for 10 years ie till 60 years. She needs to Invest at least 60 lakhs to get that much of amount. Ramya can either choose to pay a lump sum or can Invest annually or after some interval as per Insurance plan she may choose.Definitely, the amount she will get will be much more than Investment due to interest and other funds that gets added timely as per the plan.

At the same time, she may choose to have Life coverage and no Life cover. Based on her needs she can go for any of the plans as above. Since she is single as of now; but plans to get married afer few years her decision to take the plan was based on that. As per her requriement she planned to take Deferred Annunity Policy Plan by 25 years of Term. She took the plan from Reliance Smart Pension plan. Annually she’s paying around Rs. 2,40,000 Lakh for the same.This plan is always helping her saving tax as well. She leads a happy life and is quiet prodcutive as work as she can retire young without any financial burden.

Vesting* Period:– It’s duration when we need assured monthy Income. It can be 5 years ; 10 years or 15 years based on our needs and requirements.

*Corpus:- It’s total amount that we may need to Invest that can give us required Income during Vesting period.

Current Leading Pension Plans with Details

S.No	Company	Term of Policy	Age of Vesting	Age Bandwidth
1	HDFC Life Guaranteed Pension Plan	10 years – 20 years	55 years – 75 years	35 years – 65 years
2	LIC New Jeevan Nidhi	5 years – 35 years	55 years –65 years	20 years -60 years
3	SBI Life Saral Pension	10 years – 30 years	40 years – 70 years	18 years – 60 years
4	Reliance Smart Pension Plan	10 years -30 years	45 years – 75 years	8 years – 65 years

In additon there are many others to choose from as mentioned below.

1. Bajaj Allianze Retire rich
2. Aegon Life Guaranteed Plan
3. Advantage Insurance Plan
4. BSLI Empower Pension Plan
5. HDFC Life Assured Pension Plan
6. LIC Jeevan Akshay
7. HDFC Life Personal Pension Plus
8. Reliance Immediate Annuity Plan

*Annual Premium & Sum Insured is based on corpus & vesting age.

How to File a Claim with Apollo Munich Health Insurance?

Apollo Munich- One of the top most health insurance companies of India, which is not only providing a wide range of healthcare products for customer but also serve a hassle free claim process to get the competitive edge in the market. Apollo Munich deals in two types of claims- Cashless claims for either planned or emergency visits, and reimbursement claims where policyholders can ask for refund of cash already spent for hospitalization and other charges.

Apollo Munich carries a wide list of network hospitals where a person can get the cashless hospitalization benefits. Whenever a policyholder is going to file a claim, it is always advisable that they should keep a copy of the documents that they have submitted towards the claim.

Incurred Claim ratio of Apollo Munich Health Insurance:

ICR or Incurred claim ratio is basically the amount or the value of claims paid by the company and divided by the total sum of premiums collected by that company for a specific period of time.

Claim Procedure:

Policyholders can go for cashless claims. At Apollo Munich, the claim process is really easily and same for almost all policies along with slight differences.

The following claim procedure highlights the necessary steps required to file the claim.

Cashless Claim:

The best thing about the cashless claim settlement procedure is that under the same, a person need not settle the bill themselves. Under the same, a TPA will take care of all the payments related to the hospital bills and treatment charges. However, the procedure related to cashless emergency claims and cashless planned claims vary.

Cashless Claims Procedure for Emergency Admission:

There is no doubt in saying that the emergency hospitals visits are a matter of concern and stress related to associated funds, insurance claims will only add to it. At the time of admission a person should make sure that it is a network hospital or not, otherwise cashless claim would not take place. Lfit is a network hospital, and then the following procedure needs to be followed.

Inform the Apollo Munich about the hospitalization within 24 hours. You must reach out to the desk of hospital and fill the forms related to cashless claim and share the same with the Apollo Munich for a cashless claim. It is important for the claim to be certified by the attending doctor.

The hospital authority will send the insurance claim themselves or can fax it to Apollo Munich.

After that, the TPA will check the documents submitted. If additional documents are required, the TPA will ask for it. If the claim got approval from TPA, then the hospital bills and all expenses will get cover under the effective health insurance plan(Why Health Insurance Is Must For You?). If the claim got rejected, then the bills need to be settled by policyholder and later he/she can ask for reimbursement.

Cashless Claims Procedure for Planned Admission:

If the policyholder is going to take a treatment in a network hospital and wants to avail the cashless benefit then he/she requires following the planned cashless claim procedure which is as follows:

Choose the hospital from the wide list of network hospitals. Inform the company about the same at least 48 hours before the hospitalization. For the same, the policyholder have to submit a few details such as policy number. You can inform the company by dialing toll free number 1800-102-0333.

The policyholder have to fill the cashless request form and can faxed the same to the company. Attached the form along with a certification from the doctor and medical records. Apollo Munich will check the submitted documents and send their decision to the hospital.

In a few cases, the company can also ask for a few additional documents. If the claim got approve then the Apollo Munich will take care of the same. In case of rejection, the bills have to be cleared by the policyholder and later on he/she can ask for reimbursement.

Reimbursement of Treatment Expenses:

In case where the cashless claims face rejection, the bills will get clear by the policyholder and Later on he/she can file for the reimbursement of expenses. Cashless claims get rejected because of less supporting documents or because the hospital is not the in the network list of Apollo Munich. The following procedure needs to be followed to make reimbursement claims:

You will have to inform Apollo Munich about the hospitalization in a specific time period.

You will have to intimate Apollo Munich on admission or treatment within a stipulated time frame. More often than not the sooner one intimates the insurance provider, the better the chances of getting approved.

Claims Process:

The team of claim process will review all documents and ask for additional if required. For the additional documents you will get the time of 7 days for submission

If the claim is acceptable, the cheque will be dispatched within 30 days

If the claim is not acceptable you will get a rejection letter along with the reasons for rejection.

What are network and non-network hospitals? How does it affect your health insurance claim?

Health is wealth, there is no doubt in this statement. We all know that a good health is much more important than holding lots of wealth. A person with a good health will be able to earn huge wealth that can provide a quality life. Whereas, if we talk about a person who does not have good health, he will spend all of his savings and wealth in getting the right treatment for it. It is true that good health can never be compromised.

So, are you taking the essential steps to secure it? Regardless of all precautions, we still fall sick, meet accidents and they are out of control. You can't control it, but you can prepare yourself to fight against it. Most of the time we fall prey just because of the economic crisis. In several cases, we have to stop working just because of poor health. Sometimes we were unable to bear the burden of heavy healthcare expenses, in such cases, we have to spend all of our hard-earned money to get proper treatment.

In most cases, people borrow money from friends and relatives to get the required treatment. But with the help of an effective health insurance plan, you can completely focus on treatment rather than the cost involved in it. If you are not fine with the reimbursement concept of health insurance then it is advisable for you to have a look at the cashless benefits. Cashless hospitalization refers to the concept where the insurer will pay directly to the hospital for your treatment and you will be able to have quality treatment without paying a single penny from your pocket. But to avail cashless benefits you have to get the treatment in a network hospital otherwise you will not be liable for the treatment.

What are Network Hospitals?

There is no doubt in saying that health insurance companies know the fact that the hospital will charge more from a patient with a cover as compared to those who may not have a cover. It can be a huge loss for insurance companies. For turning the same into profitability and reducing the level of losses, they tie up with a hospitals and make them a part of network hospitals. Thinking about the convenience that they offer, many policyholders prefers to visit in-network hospitals for various treatments. Network hospitals gradually become the part of the broad hospital network with whom some insurance companies are associated.

It is advisable for those who are purchasing a medical insurance policy that pay attention to its features and the list of network hospitals. It will help you in saving a lot of money and the insurer will have no issue at the time of claim settlement. Under the process of a network hospital claim settlement, the insurer will check all the relevant documents of patients and his/her policy and give a final approval of the claim settlement after checking the policy terms and conditions and hospital bills.

Who wins?

A person who takes the advantage of treatment in a network hospital surely gets more benefits compared to non-network ones. The reason behind the same is that in a network hospital he/she will be able to get the quality treatment without paying a single penny from his/her own pocket. In such situation insurer will take care of all the expenses. It is always a wise decision to go for a treatment in a network hospital.

Mostly all insurance companies provide a list of network hospital to the consumer along with the policy documents at the time of purchase. It is usually a good idea to have a handy list of all network hospitals that can provide quick help in the case of any emergency. This list and its related coverage acts like a savior in case when you need it the most. Through it, an insured can easily approach a network hospital and can take benefits of insurance policy. He/she will get medical treatment at an affordable cost and can avail the cashless benefits as well. In the case of pre-planned hospitalization, the insured must inform the TPA beforehand and take all the necessary approvals. You must rely on non-network hospital only in case of unavoidable emergencies.

It is thus important that the insured pays all the premium on time in order to get better coverage in case of need. They can expect to be taken care of during hospitalization without worrying about burdening their pocket with extra expenses. Thus, having treatment in network hospital is much better than having it in a non- network hospital for the benefits they offer to the insured.

Having a cashless treatment is always a wise option. With the same, a person and his/her family would be able to take proper care of the patient rather than arranging funds for the treatment. The insurance company will be there to clear all the bills on time on behalf of the insured.