Does your hospital over charge on your health insurance?

Just like CRISIL rating for companies and credit ratings for customers, now hospitals will be rated. This rating is the initiative of IRDA, the insurance regulator in India, to curb the wide set disparity in the charges levied by hospitals for treating similar ailments.

IRDA, along with its arm, the Insurance Information Bureau, has already launched a hospital registry which identifies hospitals offering various treatments to patients.  “There is wide disparity in the charges levied by hospitals for a single ailment. For example in the case of cataract, it ranges from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 40,000 and above. The idea behind tapping information with the unique hospital identity number is to find abnormalities or any pattern in willful high charges for patients with insurance,” an IRDA member has said. The net outcome of this activity is to bring about a categorization of hospitals on the basis of charges levied in relation to ailments treated.

Currently as there is no regulator for hospitals or a way to authenticate them, this initiative of IRDA would help fill the vacuum and address the concerns of health insurers on inflated claims for ailments.

The policyholder also will benefit out of this move by the IRDA as it will provide them with information regarding as to which hospital is reasonable in their cost of treatment. And this will allow customers to approach the higher rated hospitals. Hospitals will also be cautious as to the treatment charges they levy on the patients to avoid being blacklisted by insurers and losing a chunk of business.