The regulator also told the court that, apart from the Corona Kavach policy, there were over 19 products offered as insurance policy by general and health insurers, which covered ancillary treatment of Covid-19.
In its reply, IRDA added that it had issued a circular on June 21 this year advising insurers “to explore the feasibility of offering “homecare treatment or domiciliary treatment” as an add-on cover with the existing health insurance products to enable the policyholders to exercise the option of having these treatments in their existing policies, if such coverage was not available already.
The response of IRDA came after the court in May had pointed out that many Covid-19 infected people would not be able to get insurance benefits as they could not secure a hospital bed due to the dearth of medical infrastructure. It had asked the sectoral regulator IRDA to look into the issue.
IRDA added that it had laid down guidelines to cover scenarios where the condition of the customer was such that he/she was not in a condition to be moved to a hospital, or customer took treatment at home due to non-availability of room at a hospital.
“If a person is diagnosed as Covid-positive and is admitted into any such make-shift or temporary hospital on the advice of a medical practitioner or appropriate government authorities, the treatment costs are required to be settled by insurers,” IRDA submitted in the court.
