National Health Insurance Portability

National Health Insurance Portability

With National Health Insurance Portability, customers can port their current health insurance plan without losing accumulated benefits. They can choose the plan that best meets their needs and budget without starting over from scratch. Individuals can raise the portability request with details of their preferred National health policy approximately 45 days before their current policy lapses.

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Benefits of Porting to a National Health Insurance Policy

The following are a few notable advantages that one can avail while switching to a National health insurance policy:

• Enhanced Scope of Coverage– Anyone dissatisfied with their current health insurance can switch to any of the National health plans for a better scope of coverage and benefits. People can switch to upgrade the sum-insured amount, opt for add-ons like critical illness cover, maternity cover, global health insurance cover, annual health checks, OPD benefits, etc.
• Continued Waiting Periods– The waiting periods completed under the previous policy are counted. For instance, the waiting period clause under the new health plan is 36-months, and the policyholder has already served a waiting period of 24 months in the current health plan, then he only needs to complete a waiting period of the remaining 12 months to claim for that particular illness or disease.
• Accrued No-claim-bonus– The portability feature ensures no loss of the accumulated NCB (No Claim Bonus) when the policyholder ports to a National health insurance policy. To illustrate, if the NCB from the previous policy amounts to 20%, the same percentage goes to the newly selected National health insurance policy.
• Option to Choose a Lower Premium Plan– One can switch to a National health insurance policy for a lower premium if their current policy with similar coverage has become costly due to factors like pre-existing diseases, insured members’ age, etc.

How to Port to a National Health Insurance Policy?

Here is an overview of the steps for porting to a National health insurance policy online on Policybazaar.com:

Step 1: Select the National health insurance policy you wish to purchase.

Step 2: Initiate a porting request with Policybazaar approximately 45 days before your current policy expires to switch to your preferred National health insurance plan

Step 3: Complete and submit the online proposal and portability forms to Policybazaar.

Step 4: Now pay the premium online for the plan that was zeroed down

Step 5: Policybazaar will inform the National Insurance Company Ltd. Regarding the porting request

Step 6: National Insurance Company Ltd. will communicate with your existing insurer to gather information such as your claims history, medical records, etc. which otherwise is available on the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India’s website.

Step 7: Within 7 business days, your current insurer will furnish all requested details to National Insurance Company Ltd. through IRDAI's shared data platform. If there are any delays in data sharing by your current insurer, your porting request can be put on hold.

Step 8: National Insurance Company Ltd. will evaluate the documents received within 15 days to accept or decline your porting request. If no decision is made, your porting request will be automatically accepted.

Documents Required for National Health Insurance Portability

Here is the list of documents an applicant would need while porting to a National health insurance plan:

• Copy of medical insurance policies from the previous year.
• Comprehensive information regarding claims filed during the policy term
• The most recent renewal notice mentioning the No Claim Bonus (NCB).
• Medical records, such as hospital discharge certificates, test reports, and related documents, particularly in the event of prior claims.

How Does NCB Work Under National Health Insurance Portability?

To understand how the No-claim-bonus works under National health insurance portability. Let us discuss three different scenarios where the NCB is decided based on the sum insured by the New health plan:

Scenario 1: Here, the policyholder selects a National health insurance plan with a similar base sum insured, and the waiting periods from the last policy will suffice.

For instance, Siddharth has a Rs. 12 lakh health plan with a no-claim-bonus of Rs. 3 lakh. If he decides to port to a health plan of Rs. 12 lakh, the waiting periods from his previous policy are considered. This enables him to access coverage benefits without any additional waiting periods.

Scenario 2: If the policyholder ports to a National health insurance with a base SI equivalent to the cumulative value of the prior policy's base SI and the NCB, the waiting periods of the previous policy will be sufficient.

For example, Siddharth holds a Rs. 12 lakh health policy with an NCB of Rs. 8 lakh. If he opts to port to a National health insurance plan of Rs. 20 lakh, the waiting periods from his previous policy are considered. This is because the combined value of the previous policy's base SI (Rs. 12 lakh) and the NCB (Rs. 8 lakh) equals the National health insurance policy's base sum insured (Rs. 20 lakh).

Scenario 3: When the policyholder selects a National health insurance having a higher base sum insured than the sum of the previous health policy's base SI and the NCB, waiting periods will be applicable for the additional coverage amount.

For instance, Siddharth has a Rs. 12 lakh health policy with an NCB of Rs. 8 lakh. Suppose he intends to port to a National health insurance policy of Rs. 30 lakh. In this case, the waiting periods covered by the previous policy will suffice for the Rs. 20 lakh coverage amount. However, to claim the additional Rs. 10 lakh, he will have to serve the standard waiting periods.

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