Insurance portability plan postponed: Irda

New Delhi: Insurance regulator IRDA has decided to postpone the implementation of health insurance portability after a meeting with insurance company officials in Hyderabad today. Earlier, companies were supposed to offer health insurance portability from 1 July.

According to industry officials, portability of health insurance is now likely to come into effect from 1 October, 2011.

In a statement, IRDA said it “will implement portability of health insurance policies across non-life insurers in the country not later than 1 October”.

Portability will help a health insurance policy holder switch from one company to the other.

According to IRDA, it is necessary for general insurance companies to have historical data on the policy holder’s health related details of claims to ensure that portability is available in a smooth manner for the policyholders.

For this, it is working on a web based facility for the insurers wherein they can feed in all relevant details on health insurance policies issued by them to individuals which can be accessed by the new company to which a policyholder wishes to port his policy. This will enable the new insurer to obtain data on history of health insurance of the policyholder wishing to port.

This system is likely to be put in place before October 1 and facilitate the smooth transition for policy holders from one company to the other.

Remya.N@livemint.com