Health insurance coverage enables you to focus
on a speedy recovery without worries about how medical bills will be met
Not
only is the coverage offered by health plan exhaustive in nature (health plans
cover pre and post hospitalisation expenses, day-care treatments, even
pre-existing illnesses, etc.) but they are convenient to operate as well.
‘Assignment of benefit’ is one such convenience offered.
Assignment
of Benefit
During
a medical emergency, it may not be possible for either your family member(s) or
yourself to complete all the documentation formalities, collect the sum assured
from the insurance company and pay the same to the concerned hospital or the
doctor against the medical bill. In such a scenario, you can authorise the
insurance company to pay the medical service provider directly for the health
care that you have received. In other words, you are assigning the benefits of
your insurance plan directly to the medical service provider, without your
intervention.
Assignment
of benefits can only happen when a legally binding agreement is effected
between the insurance company and yourself.
Standard forms are available with the medical service providers to
effect the agreement. Once this agreement is in place, the hospital or the
doctor can send your bills directly to the insurance company and receive the
requisite payments. If there is no such agreement, you have to pay the medical
costs initially and then the insurance company will reimburse you up to the
maximum sum assured receivable under the health insurance plan.
Remember,
after executing the ‘assignment of benefits’, if the unsurer rejects the
medical bill furnished by the medical service provider, then, you have the
responsibility to make the payment to the underlying doctor or hospital.
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