Fortis Health care Holding Ltd, (Fortis) is setting up a world class Medicity at its Project, Sushant Golf City, located in Lucknow (U.P) and have signed an agreement with Ansal Properties & Infrastructure Ltd. Fortis facility for medical treatment and teaching at the Sushant Golf City, Lucknow will be a world-class model 

The Medical College is to offer undergraduate medical courses, specialized postgraduate and postdoctoral courses. The Medicity is planned to be spread over 52 acres of land and to be completed in about 7 years. It will have an 800 bed ultra modern hospital along with teaching facilities.

Moreover, the Medicity will have a College of physical medicine and Rehabilitation, a College of Rehabilitative Medicine, and also a College of Allied Medical Science offering Para medical and technical training.

The Fortis Medicity will also have a College of Pharmacy, which will offer graduation, post graduation and doctoral education. The Dental College is to provide both undergraduate and postgraduate dental education. The Nursing College in the Medicity will offer graduate, post graduate and post doctoral nursing education. The entire facility will be based on the norms set by Medical Council of India, Dental Council of India, Indian Nursing Council, Rehabilitation Council of India and Pharmacy Council of India.

Life Insurance Corporation will implement the scheme. The scheme would be finalized in consultation with the State Governments and would be implemented in 2007-2008. 

 “Aam Admi Bima Yojana the new death and disability insurance scheme will cover rural landless households announced Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.  According to a National Sample Survey report, the estimate of such households is about 1.5 crore. By end of March 2007, 70 lakh households would be covered through LIC’s existing schemes with the support of some State Governments and the social security fund with LIC.

 Mr. Chidambaram said the insurance scheme involves insuring the head of a family or one of its earning members. The Government would bear 50 per cent of the premium of Rs. 200 a year a person. He urged the State Governments to come forward to bear the other 50 per cent on behalf of the beneficiaries.  Taking into account the annual cost to the Centre, the Finance Ministry intended to place Rs. 1,000 crore in a fund that would be maintained by LIC.   

The results of the Medical Tourism survey reveals that improvement in the Indian health image would be the biggest gain (84%) with an increase in medical tourism. Nearly the same number felt that it would also lead to improvement in health care.  However, less than half (50%) felt that medical tourism would deny health care to the local population. 70% of the people (766 people participated in the survey) were of the opinion that this would make doctors greedy. 

Is health insurance a necessity in India?

The results of the survey have indicated that health insurance has become a necessity in view of the escalating cost of medical treatment, which is making it beyond the reach of the common man.

  About 400 people participated in the survey, out of which 93% considered that health insurance should be compulsory for all employers. Eighty-six per cent people voted in favor of covering pregnancy under medical insurance, 89% wanted free medical aid for people above the age of 65 and 67% people wanted that it should be free for the poor.  There was an inclination towards foreign participation but only 42% people voted in favor of private ownership. Seventy-three per cent people wanted it to be cashless. The results thus suggest that in case of a medical emergency, health insurance provides much needed financial relief.

Limited health budgets are a serious problem in many developing countries. Innovative ways to raise funds for the provision of health services, for example, through health care insurance, have a high priority.  Health care insurance for rural households shields such patients from unexpected high costs of care. However, there are questions about whether, and how much, rural households are willing to pay to purchase such insurance, as well as the factors determining willingness to pay.  In recent years the Iranian government has tried to improve health and medical services to rural areas through a health insurance program. This study was conducted to estimate rural households’ demand and willingness to pay for health insurance. A contingent valuation method (CVM) was applied using an iterative bidding game technique. Data has been collected from a sample of 2,139 households across the country.   

A resident of USA traveling to India for getting cosmetic surgery at a fraction of the cost that he may have paid in USA is just one example of what medical tourism is. Medical Tourism is an emergent concept worldwide where people travel to another country for medical treatment at much lower prices for various reasons.  Getting treatment in another country comes with other benefits  The most evident reason is low cost of treatment.  Another important reason for traveling to India and other countries to take treatment is to avoid the long waiting lists that exist in countries like USA and UK for getting treatments under national health schemes.  Immediate treatment is available in countries like India  Cheaper shorter holidays along with the medical treatment.  Quality service from qualified doctors and good environment are also other benefits.  

The hospitals/clinics in these medical tourist destinations also tend to be of high quality with highly experienced doctors (most of whom have foreign education and credentials).

 Key highlights of Medical tourism; Ayurvedic and relaxation therapies are incorporated at a low cost with their ongoing treatments.  The most favorite medical tourism destinations worldwide currently are:  

India: Especially for heart surgery, hip resurfacing, cosmetic surgery and high-end     surgeries. English as a primary language is also an advantage.

Hong Kong: High quality infrastructure and good quality doctors

 Thailand: Low labour costs resulting in lower treatment costs  Singapore: Has highly accredited hospitals and a very high quality infrastructure   

Currently Philippines, Brunei, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, United Arab Emirates and Malaysia are included in the list.

 Important points to note:   1) Having English-speaking people on the other end is always an advantage as it removes any form of miscommunication. 2) Please make sure before traveling that you have the appropriate VISA for the country you wish to travel to. 3) Medical treatments of severe nature normally require a separate medical VISA. 4) Please get appropriate vaccinations before travel. Consult your local health bureau or physician for more information. 5) Make sure that all reservations and appointments are fixed in advance.  

Like 45 million uninsured Americans, Williams didn’t know how he could pay for a knee replacement surgery after five decades of living with an aching knee. Finally Health care came to his rescue and enabled him to get a successful knee replacement surgery in India.  William Nilsson took his high school games knee injuries very easy. To add injury to the wound he tore his knee ligaments last year while playing golf,  A ray of hope dawned with Health base that helped him find low cost but high quality treatment in India. Health care ensured that Williams could play golf again.  William Nilsson is one of the many American patients uninsured and underinsured who seek help at Health base every year. Health base, arranges first-class treatment for them at major internationally accredited hospitals in India. It is a Massachusetts based medical tourism facilitator connecting patients to leading medical facilities overseas,  The Health base network includes Mexico, Thailand and Singapore, and continues to expand its network to Turkey, Panama, and Costa Rica. William Nilsson and his wife were happy to recall their amazing experience in India. He said that everything about the quality of care he received at Wockhardt hospital in India was great. He concluded that the quality of treatment and care in Indian hospital could be rated as a 10 and the doctors were very professional.  The cost of surgical care at Health base’s is typically a fraction of that found in the U.S., A knee replacement surgery costs only $6,500 in India, whereas it costs over $30,000 in the US,. The treatment packages offered by Health base provide a savings of thousands of dollars even if travel expenses are taken into account.  Healthbase works with only hospitals that maintain best practices such as JCI/JCAHO accreditation. Healthbase connects patients to leading hospitals around the world, through a secure web portal. It is certainly a one-stop source for global medical services.

Telemarketing is not a new concept in insurance. It was introduced way back in 1984 by UK non-life insurer Direct Line, which was built around the concept that insurance, could be profitably sold through telephone. Regulators the world over are coming down hard on companies selling insurance through unsolicited phone calls, yet telephone retailing appears to have a bright future in insurance.

According to management consultancy firm Watson Wyatt that specializes in the insurance business, direct marketing through telephones is turning out to be the third largest alternate channel for insurance companies. “In the UK and Australia, telemarketing and the Internet are the dominant channels for distributing non-life insurance products.

Telemarketing is already significant for some companies in Asia and there is rapidly growing interest in this channel,” said John O’Rorke managing director, distribution-consulting practice, Watson Wyatt. According to Mr O’Rorke, companies are looking at in-bound customer calls to sell insurance in many markets. He added that companies would either run an advertising campaign inviting callers to phone in or they would attempt to cross-sell to customers who had called in with some other enquiry. In countries such as Korea, telemarketing, as a channel, is the mainstay of distribution for personal lines. And today, the law in that country recognizes recorded acceptances.

In India, newly formed Star Health and Allied Insurance has started selling its products through telemarketing. For insurance companies, which have traditionally been selling their products through agents, any other sales channel is described as an alternate channel. Among the alternate channels, bancassurance is the most dominant followed by telemarketing. However, banks themselves are using telemarketing to sell to their customers. According to R Krishnamurthy, MD (distribution consulting), Watson Wyatt, some of the banks in India that are entering insurance business are looking at combining their sales force with insurance arms to create telemarketing teams.

Although there is a regulatory requirement that every individual who sells insurance needs to go through the 100 hours of training stipulated by IRDA, banks have made representation to ease this requirement for bank employees selling standard products, he said. Banks are better placed to engage in telemarketing because of the quality of data they have, coupled with the relationship of trust. It is because of this that banks have been more successful than retailers and departmental stores who started out trying to sell through the shop-in-shop route, but are now engaging in to selling to their loyalty card base.

Among private insurers, there are four companies, which have a telecom company within their groups. However, the quality of data possessed by telecom companies is not all that good. It is, therefore, not possible to achieve segmented selling. At the same time, most of the mobile owners in India are pre-paid subscribers, which makes billing difficult.

Health insurance grew by nearly 44% in 2006-07, which is double the growth of the entire non-life business last year. It’s a money-spinner that leaves a trail of angry consumers. Despite a mountain of client complaints, it is also the fastest growing insurance business.  An interesting aspect of last year’s growth was the aggressive push by the private sector. Private non-life companies accounted for 38% of health insurance in India on March 2007 against 24% a year ago. As of end-March, the largest private insurance player, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, was only Rs 30 crore behind India’s largest non-life insurer New India Assurance.  During the year, ICICI Lombard grew its non-life business 168% to Rs 735 crore. As against this, New India’s health business grew only 14% to Rs 765 crore. In the private sector, there is a clear segmentation. Over 80% of private health insurance is concentrated in four of the eight companies. These are ICICI Lombard, Bajaj Allianz, Royal Sundaram and Iffco Tokio. Reliance General Insurance, which is a later entrant, is turning out to be a strong contender. The Anil Dhirubai Ambani Group Company has sold over one lakh policies in the past few months and has grown its health portfolio from an insignificant Rs 8.6 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 67.7 crore in 2007-08 capturing a 2.1% market share. The private sector’s ability to handle high volume claims in this highly service-intensive business has not been fully tested. Most of them use the same third-party administrator network hired by the public sector. Some like Bajaj Allianz manage it internally through their health administration teams. The government companies have not been pushing health products and tapping the full potential of the market as they have been hit by large losses. Part of the reason for the losses is adverse selection as senior citizens are increasingly realizing the need for health insurance. It is also this segment where claims have been high. The PSUs have responded by sharply increasing premium rates for senior citizens. A significant part of the growth, this year, has been on account of rate hikes. Private companies, on the other hand, have been aggressively pushing health insurance as they see this product as a `door opener’ for their agents. The feedback that non-life insurers have received is that health insurance is the only non-statutory cover that individuals are most likely to buy.  Private insurers have also been aggressive in-group accounts last year. Sources say the growth in health insurance may accelerate this year despite the higher base for three reasons. First, three health insurance companies are set to expand across the country increasing the market for this product. Second, the full effect of rate hikes is expected to kick in during the current fiscal, which will increase realizations this year. Thirdly, PSUs are expected to fight back this year with a number of new products being lodged with the regulator.  New India has recently received clearance from IRDA for a new health plan called the mediclaim 2007, which is very attractive. The new scheme has sub-limits for various expenses such as room charges and surgery and is expected to help the company manage its claims better. The health insurance sold by non-life insurers does not represent entire universe of private health insurance in the country. From last year, life insurance companies, too, have started providing health insurance. ICICI Prudential has already launched its standalone product and has more schemes lined up.  The biggest impact would be when LIC, with its distribution force of over one million agents launches its health plan some time this year. The corporation has already set up a health division and is now awaiting regulatory approval for products.    

In a forthright effort to increase the benefits of policyholders the United India Insurance has appointed Third Party Administrators (TPA) who would process all the Mediclaim Policies issued by the public sector general insurance companies.  

The premiums on the Mediclaim Policies have been increased by six percent in order to compensate the payments the insurance companies make to the TPAs,  

Advantages of appointing TPAs:  

All new polices issued hereafter will be ‘Cashless Mediclaim’. Till date, the insured had to pay for his treatment, which would be claimed later. But now, under ‘Cashless Mediclaim’, the insured can get admitted to hospitals without a scramble for funds at the crucial hour.  All they will have to do is flash an identity card that will certify that insurance companies cover them under a policy.  

How to avail the facility? The following documents have to be submitted to the insurance company to avail these facilities

• Three passport size color photos
•  A Xerox copy of the proposal form
• Insurance proposal form

The Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram today introduced a new health insurance scheme for transgenders and marginalized women to facilitate their access to professional health services

The insurance cover will benefit transgenders and marginalized women across the state.

The health insurance will be for a year starting from July 1 2007 to June 30, 2008. To start the program the Tamil Nadu Aids Imitative and Vimosewa have tied up with eight hospitals, identified by the community members in Salem district to extend medical facilities under the scheme.

Mr Chidambaram assured that the government would take initiatives to make sure that transgender enjoy all rights.

He encouraged them to ‘emerge’ from their low self-esteem and lead a normal life.

Mr Chidambaram added that ”An awareness has to be created among the transgender about their citizenship, rights to live and their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS”.

Timely renewal of Mediclaim policy is crucial say insurance companies!

Missing your mediclaim renewal deadline can bring more trouble than forgetting your anniversary date or your spouse’s birthday. Here’s why you shouldn’t forget the renewal date of your mediclaim policy.

Some dates have special significance in our lives and we mark them in our planner, our office calendar and even on the cell phone. Our busy schedules can come in the way and we may forget those special dates but you cannot afford to forget your premium renewal dates and here are the reasons why you should remember them!

A mediclaim policy not only takes care of costs incurred during hospitalisation but also protects you from pre as well as post-hospitalisation expenses. Mediclaim provides a total cover for expenses in case of hospitalization. The longer the policy is kept, the better it serves you. A fresh policy doesn’t cover any pre-existing illness. “Not only that, if the policy is not renewed the insured will lose the no-claim bonus as well. Further, his policy will be treated as fresh policy and the first year exclusions will apply again,” says Mukesh Gupta, director, Wealthcare Securities, a financial advisory firm.

A very important aspect of mediclaim policy is that if you have made no claims on it for four consecutive years, you start getting covered for those pre-existing illnesses. The sum assured will be increased by 5-10 percent for every claim-free year,— that too without an increase in premiums.

A senior official from New India Assurance observes that “Most people are unaware of such benefits and that’s why they don’t attach much importance to renewal, little realising that all their hard work may go waste,”

Thus if the renewals are not made in time and if the insured has a health condition existing prior to taking the policy, requiring medical treatment, the same gets automatically excluded in the policy.

Correspondingly subsequent renewals ensures coverage of medical conditions prior to taking the policy and hence it is crucial to renew the policy without any break,”

Before April this year, policies covered pre-existing diseases after four claim-free years even if the policy was held with another insurance company. Under the current terms, policyholders need to be covered by the same insurer for at least four years.

Renewal of your mediclaim also becomes vital since the policy terms have become more stringent.

There are more reasons why you should keep continuing your existing policy. For starters, the premium rates have gone up considerably. Most insurance companies have hiked their premiums by 30 percent to 50 percent. “It simply means that not only will you lose out on benefits but also will have to pay a much higher price for being insured,” says Shreeraj Deshpande, head, Health Insurance, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance.

The list of diseases that are excluded from the purview of the policy has also been extended. Under the current policy, benign ENT disorders and surgeries such as tonsilectomy, adenoidectomy, mastoidectomy and tympanoplasty come under first-year exclusions. In case you’ve missed the renewal, it will require you to re-do the medical tests. “This leaves no option other than renewing your policy. Otherwise, you’ll start comparing the premium charged by various companies and decide accordingly,” adds Gupta.

Hence the mantra is “ Do not forget your renewal premium dates”

Health care costs have witnessed a phenomenal rise in the current times; this has led the customers to insure not only themselves but also their family members for any future medical expenses and other related requirements.

The need to insure assumes even more importance with older generation who is either retired or will be retired in the near future; you will be surprised how much heath care expenses can add up to in a year.

Types Of Health Care Insurance Available:

• Medical Insurance
• Critical Illness Insurance

Leading insurance companies are coming out with new plans to meet the requirements of their customers; health care insurance plans especially target customers in the higher age group. It is necessary for younger people to start planning for their future after they retire, at an early age, so as to lead a financially stable life in later years.

List of Some of Insurance Companies offering Health Care Insurance:

• ICICI Loambard – Health Plans
• Bajaj Allianz – Health Guard
• HSBC – HealthFirst
• Cholamandalam-Individual and family health insurance
• New India Assurance’s Mediclaim policy.
  

Star Health and Allied Insurance Company, based in the southern city of Madras (Chennai), says the scheme will provide cover of up to $1,100.

Aids activists have hailed the move saying it will bring psychological relief to HIV-positive people.

According to UN-backed official estimates, India has nearly 2.7 million people infected with the HIV virus.

Chief of Star Health, V Jagannathan, says the scheme will be available to HIV-positive patients if they pay an annual premium of 3,000 rupees ($70).

‘Good scheme’

He says once an HIV-positive person is diagnosed with full-blown Aids, they can get the insured sum of money from the firm.

The chief of India’s anti-Aids programme, K Sujatha Rao, told the BBC that the scheme looks “good”.

But, she says, it is essential to work out a payment plan. “Many people may not be able to afford to pay 3,000 rupees every year to buy the insurance cover,” she says.

Tata AIG General Insurance has launched a travel insurance policy for the first time in India, in an exclusive tie up with low cost carrier Spice Jet. With this passengers on Spice Jet will be able to avail insurance cover for accidental death, dismemberment, accidental medical emergency, trip cancellation, baggage loss and flight delays during their travel.

Domestic Trav’Insure – as this policy is called – is available on Spice Jet’s website, and can be procured while booking ticket online. The one time premium of Rs 129 for a particular trip per passenger across all sectors can be made through Spice Jet’s payment gateway. The payment is made while booking the ticket. This facility is not available for Spice Jet passengers booking their tickets through call centres or at ticket windows.

This policy can mitigate the problems arising out of sudden cancellation of tickets due to a death in the family, sudden illness or a co passenger falling sick. This would also take care of passenger’s expenses caused by flight delays. In case of delays due to uncontrollable circumstances, passengers can get paid Rs 1500 per hour to a maximum limit of Rs 10,500 that would take case of their hotel and food expenses.

Unlike full service carriers, low cost carriers sell their tickets based on the actual availability of seats and never refund money in case of cancellations causing financial loss to passengers. They also do not provide any hotel accommodation in case of flight delays. “Four per cent of our passengers cancel their tickets and they don’t get any refunds.

This policy will give such passengers protection and it is a value added service for our guests,” said SpiceJet chairman Siddhant Sharma. He added, “ This policy would add value to the passenger’s entire travel itinerary and not just the flight. It protects passengers on various modes of transportation for 30 days. We see considerable potential for travel insurance for domestic flights in India.” Though Tata AIG was talking to several other Indian carriers, the unavailability of cutting edge technology prevented implementation. “This has been possible due to host to host integration that AIG has with the reservation system that SpiceJet uses,” said Charles Bouloux,

President AIG, Middle East & South Asia. AIG has introduced similar policies for Air Asia of Malaysia, Pacific Airlines, Tiger Airways, Jet Star, Virgin Atlantic, and British Airways. Though all general insurance companies in India sell travel insurance policies, it is yet get volumes. Last year a total of 600,000 policies were sold amounting to nearly Rs 250 crore. Out of which Tata AIG’s share was Rs 50 crore. Globally AIG mobilises $1 billion as travel insurance premium.