Centre Works to Speed Up Hospital Mediclaim Track

Standardised forms, quicker settlements to bring more people under health cover

- Subhash Narayan

NEW DELHI: For harried patients and their relatives who twiddle their thumbs for frustratingly long to get medical insurance claim settlement or cashless authorisation approved, help may be at hand soon.

The Centre is planning to make it mandatory for health insurance companies to approve cashless authorisation requests within an hour, and final claim settlement requests within three hours, according to two people close to the discussions.

Alongside, a professional agency may be hired to design standardised insurance claim and application forms that are easy to understand and fill. Such forms would also ensure that insurance companies settle claims in full and within the specified period.