Health Insurance
Care
Care Health Insurance (formerly Religare Health Insurance) is an Indian health insurance company. Started in 2012, the company offers many insurance policies including critical illness, top-ups plans, senior citizen plans. It also has policies that cover pre-existing heart diseases and policies for diabetic patients without any pre-policy medical checkups.
Care Health insurance plans
Joy Today
If you're considering a maternity health insurance policy and are loyal to Care, their product, Care Joy, might interest you. The "Today" variant offers up to ₹50k in coverage (with a ₹5 lakh cover) and has a 9-month waiting period for maternity. While the policy is appealing overall, there are some drawbacks to consider. The plan is expensive and requires a 3-year premium payment structure for the 9-month maternity waiting period. It lacks restoration benefits, domiciliary perks, and free health checkups. Additionally, there is a 3-year waiting period for pre-existing conditions (PED) and a room rent restriction to a single private room.
Care Freedom plan
Care Freedom could be your only choice within the Care stable if you have pre-existing complications like diabetes, blood pressure or a high Body Mass Index. But they'll make you wait 2 years before they start covering these illnesses. And you'll have to split a part of the bill when you are hospitalized. So do read more below.
Care Plus Complete
As the name suggest, this is a complete plan. Outpatient consultations, dental treatments, hefty no claim bonus, accidental death benefit, and an inflation shield to make sure your cover grows as medical costs rise. Very few plans offer all these benefits at once.
Care Heart
If you've had a heart complication or a surgery in the past 7 years, chances are you won't find many insurers willing to cover you. And while Care Heart isn't the most comprehensive policy, it still extends you reasonable protection. So if you're a heart patient, you should be considering this policy.
Care Classic
Care Classic is an okay policy. While it does offer some protection for people considering assisted reproductive procedures, it falls short in other departments. Most notably, it imposes restrictions on the kind of room you can pick. So in many ways, this is build for a very specific audience and isn't very appealing to the general public.
Senior Health Advantage
Care Senior Health Advantage is a last resort plan for senior citizens. Sure, it comes with a poor bonus structure, with no restoration, with room rent limits and sub-limits on cataracts, knee replacement surgeries, cancer treatments, modern treatments and more, but, it’s still one of the very few plans available for senior citizens aged 60 and above with critical pre-existing conditions. On the flip side, if you are not a senior citizen or a senior citizen with benign health conditions you can consider other alternatives.
Care Supreme - Senior Super
Care Supreme—Senior Super is a variant of the insurer’s now-famous Care Supreme health insurance plan. The Senior Super variant is targeted specifically for senior citizens who have complex PEDs, including cardiac issues or diabetes. Now, coming from the stable of Care, the policy is definitely more affordable than most of the senior citizen health insurance plans available in the market. However, this plan, too, has a few pitfalls - 20% mandatory co-payment, disease-wise sub-limits, and room rent coverage only up to the most economical Single Private Room. Despite all this, the plan is still a good pick overall.
Care
Care is a decent policy. It's got a few conditions, but nothing too outrageous. It covers most bases and throws in some nice benefits. One stand-out feature is that if you have pre-existing diseases (say diabetes), you can bring down the waitng period from 3 years to 2 years, with an add-on of course. However, there are other alrernatives to this policy.
Joy Tomorrow
If you're considering a maternity health insurance policy and are loyal to Care, their product, Care Joy, might interest you. The “Tomorrow” variant of Care Joy offers maternity coverage of up to ₹50k, provided you have a base cover of ₹5 lakhs. While it offers coverage for the newborn from 91 days to 24 months, the policy surely isn’t without its set of caveats - no restoration benefits, domiciliary perks, or free health checkups. You are covered for your room rent in full, unless you choose something more luxurious than an AC private room. This plan has a PED waiting period of 3 years and a maternity waiting period of 2 years. On the other hand, if you have your mind set on Care Joy, the “Tomorrow” variant might still be more affordable than its “Today” variant.
Care Plus Youth
A complete plan for young people. Outpatient consultations, dental treatments, hefty no claim bonus, accidental death benefit, and an inflation shield to make sure your cover grows as medical costs rise, all bundled in one plan
Enhance Super Top-up
A pretty decent super top-up plan overall. And while the plan doesn't offer a disproportionately large cover (has a cap of 55 lakhs) it covers most use cases and that should be decent enough for most people.
Care Advantage
A ridiculously high cover for an almost unbelievable price. This policy sounds too good to be true. Perhaps the only chink in its armour is that if you're forced to get treatment at home due to the unavailability of hospital beds, the insurer won't cover these expenses. Despite this, the policy stands out as a solid option.
Care Senior
Care Senior is a good choice if you’re 60+, with pre-existing complications or if nobody is willing to insure you. However, if you have other alternatives, this policy could be a letdown, considering they'll make you wait 4 years before they start covering pre-existing complications. Also you won't have the full cover for certain diseases.
Care Supreme - Senior Premium
The Care Supreme - Senior Premium is a variant of the stable’s popular plan, Care Supreme and a tweak on its Care Supreme - Senior Super plan. The Senior Premium plan, like the Senior Super policy, offers coverage for senior citizens with complicated PEDs like heart ailments or diabetes. However, in the case of Senior Premium, there are no disease-wise sub-limits, although the policy does have a couple of caveats - 20% mandatory co-payment and room rent coverage only up to the most economical Single Private Room.
Care Supreme
Care Supreme is a bargain at the price at which it's selling and while it has a pre-existing disease waiting period of 3 years, you can cut this down to a mere 30 days for select conditions including Asthma, Hypertension, Diabetes, Hyperlipidimia. Similar to most plans from Care, you have to tag along add-ons to unleash its true potential.
Care Health insurance claim process
Care claims can be of different types based on the hospital in which you are getting the treatment. If it’s part of Care's network hospitals, you can get a “Cashless claim” in which insurance company directly pays the bills to the hospital. But if your choice of hospital is not part of their network, then you have to pay the bills and apply for reimbursement claim. Here’s a brief process for both types of claims:
Cashless Claims
Inform the Hospital Desk
All network hospitals have an insurance desk. You can submit your policy copy (even soft copy works), ID proof, initial diagnosis report and the insurance desk will request the insurance company for “pre-authorization”. In case of planned treatments, you need to do this process 2 days before hospitalization
Insurer’s decision
Based on the provided documents, insurance company approve the claim and the hospital will start the treatment and they will co-ordinate with insurer for the treatment costs. In case of Cashless claim rejection, you can still go ahead with the treatment. In this case, you will need to pay the bills initially and can file for a reimbursement claim later
Discharge
If your cashless claim is approved, at the time of discharge, the insurance company will do the final settlement with the hospital and once that is sorted, you are good to go.
Reimbursement Claims
Inform the insurance company
For any planned treatments, you need to inform the insurance company 2 days before hospitalisation. In case of emergency, you can inform within 24 hours of admission. Insurance company will acknowledge the intimation.
Hospitalization
You need to submit a insurance claim form along with original copies of hospital bills, doctor consultation reports, and diagonstic reports.
File the claim
Within 30 days post discharge, you can initiate the claim online or at any of the registered offices of the insurance company. You need to fill a claim form and attach all the reports and bills.
Insurer’s decision
Based on the claim form and submitted documents, insurance company will settle the claims as per policy terms and conditions.
Care Health Insurance Renewal
Firstly, if you’ve purchased the policy online, you’ll always receive an intimation e-mail from the insurer around 30 days before the renewal date. The e-mail will have a renewal link that will directly take you to the page where you can make the payment and check policy details. And it’s done. You’ll receive the policy document via e-mail.
However, in case you choose to do it on your own, here’s what you need to do:
Visit the website
Visit the Care website and then go to the Renewal section here.
Enter details
You’d be asked to provide your current policy number which you can find in the policy soft copy. You may as well be asked to enter your mobile number, email ID, Date of Birth or policy expiry date.
Review and edit the policy details
Next, you’ll be able to see details of your new policy and the renewal premium you need to pay. Also, you’ll be given the option to make some changes related to sum insured, existing covered members, etc.
Complete the payment and it’s done
Once you confirm the details, you’ll be directed to the payment gateway. Once the payment is complete, you’ll receive your new policy soft copy via e-mail.
Few things to consider when renewing your Care health insurance policy
- If you want to increase your Sum Insured, now is the time. You can’t do it anytime during the year.
- If you didn’t make a claim in the past year, make sure you have been given a no-claim bonus if your policy offers it.
- If you want to add members like your spouse or kids, you have the option to do so only at the time of renewal. So do give this a thought.
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