Step by step guide for porting health insurance

18 Apr 2019

When it comes to health insurance, most people prefer to invest in a policy that can be purchased by paying affordable premiums, while also offering high amounts of coverage. Apart from these two factors, one also looks at the level of services offered by the insurer, the flexibility of guidelines and the claim settlement ratios among other things. However, if you are unhappy with your insurance provider, you do not have to stick with them, even if you have been paying premiums for years together. You can simply port your insurance policy form one insurer to another without losing out on the benefits of having invested in a policy for many years. Here’s all you need to know about what health insurance portability is and how to port health insurance.

What is health insurance portability?

Health insurance portability refers to the act of switching between insurers without worrying about losing out on the benefits accrued from an existing health insurance policy. This simply means that one does not have to forego their benefits such as the no claims bonus, nor do they have to undergo another waiting period to use a policy, if they have completed it with a previous insurance provider.

How to port health insurance policy?

If you find an insurer that offers better benefits and services and charges an affordable premium you can port your health insurance policy by going online and conducting a simple Google search. You can also take help from your insurance agent to port the health policy. You can simply follow these below mentioned steps to port health insurance. These include the steps taken by the policy holder as well as those taken by the insurance provider.

Step 1 – Choose your new insurer

You can go online and conduct a research about the various health insurance policies offered by various lenders and choose one that suits your requirements. You can also seek advice from your insurance agent if you have any confusion.

Step 2 – Apply to the new insurance company

You can begin the process of porting the insurance policy by applying to the new insurer. This can be done online or via an insurance agent. However, you need to remember that you should apply for the portability of the policy 45 days before the expiration of your health insurance policy. You also need to be aware that not all insurers can guarantee portability and your proposal may be declined if the insurer does not find the risk acceptable as per their policies.

Step 3 – Fill the portability form

The new insurer receives your application to port health insurance and sends you the portability and proposal forms which you must duly fill up by providing all the details required by the insurer. You need to submit these forms to your new insurance provider.

Step 4 – Verification of details

The new insurer conducts a background verification of the details provided by you. This includes a verification of your medical history and the claims made in the past. The verification is conducted by requesting details from your existing insurance provider. The verification period differs from insurer to insurer and it typically takes 7-14 days for this process to be completed.

Step 5 – Exchange of information

Your existing insurer now passes on the details requested by the new insurer via the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDIA) portal, as per the format prescribed by the regulating authority to port health insurance policies.

Step 6 – Framing of proposal

Upon receiving the necessary information from your previous insurer, the new insurance provider frames the proposal as per their company’s norms.

Step 7 – The proposal is sent

Your new insurer processes the insurance policy and sends you their proposal in approximately 15 days. Note that, if an insurer has received all the necessary information and still have not sent out the proposal, you can rest assured that the new insurer is bound to accept the porting of your insurance policy.