Now, all health insurance policies with tenure of less than a year would not have a free look facility.
IRDA has allowed insurance companies to do away with a free look period of all new individual health insurance policies with tenure of less than a year. However, the facility is still available in policies with tenure of a year and above.
Earlier, IRDA had instructed insurance companies to provide a facility of free look period of 15 days in all health insurance policies irrespective of its tenure under new product guideline which come into effect from today.
Rajesh Chheda of Finance Factory says that IRDA wants to encourage the adoption of health insurance policies with long tenure of at least 3 to 5 years.
However, some advisers are skeptical about the withdrawal of free look facility from health insurance products. Nisreen Mamaji of Moneyworks Financial Advisers terms the move regressive and says that it will increase mis-selling of health insurance products.
IRDA has also tightened norms under Ayush coverage since it has disqualified hospitals which are not accredited by any government recognized institution or Quality Council of India/National Accreditation Board on Health. Ayush coverage allows insurers to provide health insurance coverage to a policyholder who undergoes non-allopathic treatment.
Meanwhile, IRDA has modified the cumulative bonus structure on benefit based policies. Now, the insurance regulator has allowed insurance companies to provide cumulative bonus on personal accident cover. Earlier, it was not allowed any benefit based policies.