Star Health and Allied Insurance, an insurance company that specializes in providing health insurance products has now introduced a special product that can cover outpatient procedures. Generally called OPD or outpatient department, the terms refers to patients who go to a hospital to consult with the doctor or receive treatment without getting hospitalized.
None of these expenses incurred by are reimbursed within a normal health insurance policy. There are one or two companies in India which offer OPD as an add-on to the health insurance policies, but the amounts assigned for reimbursements are very limited. This brings to the fore; the significance of this new OP policy being introduced by Star Health.
It’s called the Star Outpatient Care policy. It covers doctor fees diagnostic tests, pharmacy bills, physiotherapy, non-allopathic treatments, dental treatments and other therapeutic procedures.
Customers in age group of 18-50 years are eligible to apply for this policy. In addition, dependent children upto 25 years age, who are economically dependent on their parents, can be covered. The maximum family size is six members. It comes with a one-year duration, with options to cover an individual as well as the family. There are multiple variants also offered, like Platinum, Gold, and Silver; and OP sum insured options are available up to Rs 1,00,000. Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani Sidha and Homeopathy systems of medicines can also be claimed within this policy. You will have to check with Star on the list of clinics and other institutions which are included as authorized by Star for receiving treatment and making claims.
This is the first such product in the Indian market and should come as a welcome relief to many people who are spending tidy sums on all these healthcare expenses. The costs of doctor consultation and diagnostic tests have gone up exponentially in the past few years and if this OP policy is structured correctly and if the premiums are reasonable, it must surely find many takers.