Health Insurance Portability: Benefits and Steps of Health Insurance Portability

Tripti purchased a health insurance policy from a family friend, who happens to be a health insurance agent. She felt secure knowing she had a high cover amount for medical expenses and hospitalisation.

Unfortunately, when she made a claim two years later, she found out that her health insurance policy had numerous deficiencies. So, she wanted to cancel the policy and purchase a new one.

This was when she discovered Ditto Insurance, where we told her not to cancel the policy in haste and that there were other options, such as porting your health insurance policy to a better insurer.

When you cancel a health insurance policy and purchase a new one, you will have to undergo the waiting periods again, lose your no-claim bonus from your previous policy, and may even have to pay a higher premium for the new policy. This is where porting comes into play.

What is Portability in Health Insurance?

Imagine you can carry forward the benefits from your current health insurance policy to a new one. This means you don’t have to serve the waiting period for pre-existing conditions. You can also retain your no-claim bonus and other accumulated benefits even after switching your insurance provider. This is exactly what portability in health insurance is.

Portability allows you to transfer your existing health insurance policy from one insurer to another without losing the benefits you have accrued.

Heads Up: It takes an average person up to 5 hours to read & analyse a policy, and 10 hours or more to compare different plans and make a decision.

This is why we propose a better alternative - taking a 30-minute FREE consultation with Ditto’s certified advisors. We have a spam-free guarantee, and we’ll never push you to buy a plan. Don’t delay this - we have limited slots every day, so book a quick call here before they run out.

How to Port Your Health Insurance Policy?

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to port your health insurance policy to another insurer:

Pros and Cons of Health Insurance Portability

Portability ensures you can switch insurance providers while retaining benefits such as waiting periods, no-claim bonuses, and other accumulated advantages. This ensures you can change your insurance provider if you find better services, lower premiums, or a more suitable cover amount without starting from scratch. Let’s take a look at some more advantages of this.

1. Advantages of Porting Your Health Insurance Policy

Here are some advantages of portability in health insurance:

• Increased coverage: Porting allows you to switch to a more comprehensive policy. This includes a higher cover amount and, sometimes, even additional benefits like maternity cover, OPD cover, and coverage for specific treatments that your current policy might not provide.
• Better services: If you're dissatisfied with your current insurer's claim settlement process, customer support, or network hospitals, porting can help you find an insurer with better service quality and a more comprehensive network of hospitals. Porting encourages healthy competition among insurers and allows you, as the customer, to choose the best policy in the market that suits your needs.
• Lower premium cost: Sometimes, porting can benefit you if you find a policy that offers similar coverage and benefits at a lower premium. This also helps if your current policy premium increases due to age and you find a more economical health insurance policy elsewhere.
• Unhappy with the current insurer: Most importantly, if you’re unhappy with your current insurer or dissatisfied with their services, porting allows you to switch to an insurance provider with better metrics, customer service, and a better hospital network.

 2. Disadvantages of Porting Your Health Insurance Policy

Let’s take a look at the cons of portability now:

• Policy Restrictions: Not all insurers accept porting from every other insurer, and not all policies are eligible for porting. For example, you cannot port into HDFC ERGO Energy or Aditya Birla Activ Plus.

Sometimes, you also cannot port from one policy to another. For example, you cannot port into Niva Bupa ReAssure 2.0 if you have Niva Bupa Aspire. If you want to port into Aspire, it entirely depends on whether the underwriter allows it.

• The moratorium period will not be carried forward: If you bought a health insurance policy more than 8 years ago, as per current IRDAI norms, the insurer must accept your claim due to non-disclosure of pre-existing diseases. However, if you port your policy, the moratorium period will reset, and you will have to go through it again.

Note: As per a new proposal by the IRDAI, the moratorium period is to be reduced to 5 years. And, if you have already served the period and are porting your policy, you don’t have to serve it again. However, keep in mind that this is just a proposal and has yet to be confirmed.

• Waiting period: While you retain waiting period benefits for pre-existing conditions, any new benefits added in the ported policy might come with their own waiting periods.
• Risk of Rejection: The new insurer can reject your porting request based on their underwriting criteria, claim history, or health conditions. You should consider this before porting your policy.

Use Cases Under Which You Should be Opting for Health Insurance Portability

Now that you’ve understood the pros and cons, here are some situations where you may want to port your health insurance policy:

1. Not satisfied with the current insurer: Porting your health insurance policy is a good option if you are dissatisfied with the services provided by your current insurer. If your insurer lacks transparency in their dealings, or you are frequently burdened with hidden charges and exclusions, you might want to look for a more reliable insurer.

For instance, if you've faced delays, frivolous rejections, or unsatisfactory claim settlements, or if the customer support from your current insurer is consistently unhelpful or unresponsive, porting to one of the top insurers in 2024 may be the right choice for you.

 2. Unable to increase cover amount: If your current insurer does not provide sufficient coverage for the healthcare you need or does not cover specific treatments or medical procedures that you require, it might be time to look for better health insurance options.

 3. Premium increasing: Similarly, if another insurer offers more comprehensive coverage, including additional benefits like maternity cover, OPD expenses, or a higher cover amount at a lower premium, you can consider porting to a better health insurance policy.

 4. Network hospitals: If your current insurer has a limited network of hospitals or the quality of service at these hospitals is subpar, porting to an insurer with a wider and better network might benefit you. Another reason could be that the insurer may not have a strong presence in your city. For instance, Royal Sundaram has a strong presence in Chennai and Manipal Cigna in Mangalore. If you move out of these cities, other insurers could better serve your needs.

 5. Change in healthcare requirement: Over time, your health needs may change, and you may need a policy with more benefits. If another insurer offers wellness programs, preventive health check-ups, and other advanced services for a reasonable premium, porting might be better for you. Similarly, porting might be necessary if you need to switch to a family floater plan with better coverage for all family members, as not all insurers offer all options.

Now that you’ve considered these scenarios if you are considering porting to a good health insurance policy, here are some top policies to consider in 2024!

Best health insurance policies you can port into in 2024

Before we take a look at the policies, let’s understand what we should look for in a good health insurance policy in 2024:

1. No co-payment, room rent limits, and disease-wise sub-limits.
2. A Low pre-existing disease waiting period (PED WP) and specific illness waiting period (SI WP).
3. A good restoration bonus, pre- and post-hospitalisation cover, network hospital list, and no-claim bonus are also added advantages.
4. Apart from these features in the policy itself, you should also consider some metrics that assess how well the insurer is performing. These include the Incurred Claim Ratio (ICR) and the Claim Settlement Ratio (CSR).

Feel free to compare the different policies with our Policy Comparison tool for a better understanding!

Things to Remember While Porting Your Health Insurance Policy

Before making the switch, here are some essential factors to keep in mind:

1. Eligibility: Ensure your policy is eligible for portability and check the portability window with your current insurer.
2. Documentation: Before porting, have all necessary documents, such as your previous policy document, claim history, medical records, etc., ready and ensure they are accurate.
3. Porting Timeline: Adhere to the timelines to ensure there is no gap in coverage. Ensure the new health insurance policy is issued and activated before the old policy expires.
4. Read New Policy: The new policy may have different terms, limits and exclusions, so read the new policy document carefully and have any queries you may have cleared immediately.
5. Check if the Insurer is good: Before switching, you must evaluate the new insurer's financial stability and reputation. Think about it – the insurer can cover your expenses only if they can cover theirs first.

Why Talk to Ditto for Your Health Insurance?
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Conclusion

Porting your health insurance policy can significantly improve your coverage, service quality, and overall satisfaction with your insurance plan. However, before making the switch, you need to consider the new insurer's waiting periods, policy terms, financial stability, and reputation to ensure a seamless transition without gaps in coverage.