When Should You Consider Porting Your Health Insurance Policy?

Health insurance is crucial today because it helps people avoid financial burdens and offers real-time accessibility and affordability to deal with medical uncertainties. Life is unpredictable, and a health insurance policy that once meets your requirements may not be the most accessible with time.

Thus, health insurance portability comes into the picture and allows policyholders to switch from their existing policy to the new one, which offers them the most reliable policy benefits and covers all their expenses.

Also read: What Has the Pandemic Taught Us About Life and Getting the Right Insurance

What is Health Insurance Portability?

It is an ability that allows policyholders to switch from their existing policy while retaining existing benefits from the new policy. It aims to offer flexibility to the policyholders, meet the proactive needs to change demands and ensure the best possible convergence access to their health insurance policy.

Benefits of Porting Healthcare Insurance

Following are the benefits of porting your existing health insurance policy to a new one:

1. It covers all expenses during hospitalisation, like medicines, consultation fees and much more. At the same time, you can enjoy other expenses like room charges, ICU, and any diagnostic charges incurred during a healthcare emergency.
2. Porting healthcare insurance can be budget-friendly for holders as they can find multiple insurers due to high competition in providing best-in-class healthcare benefits.
3. While switching to a new policy, porting an existing healthcare service helps you with multiple options without waiting on your benefits claims.
4. Portability helps you with tailored coverage that fits your current lifestyle and healthcare needs.
5. With portability, you can switch to a provider that better meets your needs and adequately covers your premiums.
6. Portability helps you with personalised flexibility to choose your policy and add-ons according to your lifestyle.

Also read: Everything You Need to Know About Health Insurance Laws

What is the Procedure to Port Your Healthcare Insurance?

Porting not only transfers your existing policy to a new one but also covers additional premiums and add-ons to your healthcare without losing your accumulated benefits.

Following are the steps you need to follow to port health insurance policy:

1. Do Research: With comprehensive research, go for a new policy. You can look for a plan that satisfies your present-day demands and is pocket-friendly.
2. Compare Good Plans: You can compare different platforms that offer a wide range of comprehensive policies that can upgrade your existing plan. You must ensure that the waiting period for the new policy is equal to or less than your existing health insurance policy.
3. Inform Insurer: Notifying your current insurer about your plans to switch to a new policy. Per the norms, you must inform your insurer 45 days before changing your plan.
4. Request a Portability Form: After finalising the new plan, you can request the portability form from the new insurer.
5. Duly Fill Out the Portability Form: In the next step, you must fill out the portability form with the correct information along with the plan you want to go for and its premiums, and submit your application form to the new insurer for efficient porting of the insurance.
6. Wait for Approval: After requesting the new insurer, you must wait for 15 days to get your portability done.
7. Issuance of the Policy: If your policy is accepted, you will get a confirmation of your new application.

Documentation Required for Porting to a New Healthcare Insurance

Following is the list of possible documents that may be required for porting your health insurance policy:

• Valid identity proof like an Aadhaar card, driving licence, etc.
• Address proof documents
• Claim history from existing insurer to show claim records for assessing your risk profile
• Proposal form for new policy to understand your health history and other requirements
• Policy portability form from current insurer to declare your intention to port the policy
• Current health insurance policy documents
• KYC documents like PAN, Passport, etc.
• Proposal acceptance letter
• Medical reports for underwriting purposes

Also read: Why it is important to have insurance for diabetic patients

What Scenarios Make it Necessary for You to Port Your Health Insurance Policy?

Multiple scenarios may lead you to port your existing healthcare insurance to the new one, like searching for better benefits, choosing pocket-friendly plans, enhanced customer services, where you geographically relocate, long-term waiting periods and much more.

Following are the scenarios that make it necessary for you to port your health insurance policy:

• Employment Change

If a change in your job profile or corporate policy can affect your policy benefits, switching your policy will allow you to maintain the uncertainties and all the coverages. This will protect you against the loopholes in your policy due to the relocation, as some insurers fail to provide benefits to the individual according to their needs.

• Embracing Cashless Network Hospitals

Cashless hospital networks are the most pivotal factor when considering a switch from your existing policy, as it can be a game changer. In cashless mediclaim insurance, a holder can receive treatments without making any upfront payments. It has financial burdens in tough times but maintains the claim process seamlessly.

In this cashless policy mode, holders can claim their health premiums without panicking to manage emergency funds. Thus, you must switch to a new policy if your current one does not include it.

• Getting Self-Employed

The transition from being employed to opening your start-up and becoming self-employed will lead you to a place where porting to a new health insurance policy will unlock new benefits and coverages to suit your specific requirements.

• Expansion in Families or Change in Lifestyles

The transition from being single to getting married or becoming parents needs a proper healthcare approach that undergoes significant transitions. Thus, porting your existing policy to a new family healthcare policy with premiums that cover all your loved ones in a single-family policy becomes essential.

• Porting to a Senior Citizen Policy

When people approach their retirement age, the need and requirement of policy switch becomes inevitable to cover the health care needs of senior citizens. Some new comprehensive health insurance policies cover critical illnesses and offer a comprehensive health care plan.

Thus, porting to a senior citizen healthcare policy plan will work and ensure you are well covered under premiums that will make your golden years worth it.

• Moving to a Different State or Country

With the change in place, your existing policy plans may cover less than the extensive network of your healthcare providers. Hence, you must port your existing health insurance policy to a new one to avail all benefits and premium facilities without compromising coverage. Visiting or relocating frequently worldwide or elsewhere is essential for quality healthcare facilities.

Policy portability as a feature has emerged as a powerful tool for policyholders’ that helps them switch to multiple policies and offers them perks to change to new policies that pursue enhanced coverage. From providing better plans that best suit the population’s changing needs, the porting facility in health insurance policy ensures dynamic coverage of the policyholders’ health. Read More About: Famous Quotes