The Insurance Amendment Bill has been passed in parliament and has paved the way for increase in FDI limit. This will be a major boost in further expansion of the industry with introduction of more capital and resources. Also the industry may witness more mergers and expansion.
IRDAI has directed insurers to ensure transparency towards policyholders while rejecting insurance claims. The regulator said that insurers cannot simply reject insurance claims based on presumptions and conjectures and have to specifically state the reasons for the denial or rejection, while necessarily referring to the corresponding insurance policy conditions.
According to IRDAI Insurers will have to ensure that the policyholder is provided with granular details of the payments made, amounts disallowed and the reasons for the amount disallowed. Moreover, the insurers will also have to provide the grievance redressal procedures and the Insurance Ombudsman office addresses details to the policyholder.
Timely and proper claims settlement is the ultimate aim of Insurance Industry. The technology has ensured fast processing of claims as the information relating to loss can be fed realtime and processing can be done on inbuilt parameters. The Insurance Companies need to reinvent all its processes and make it consumer friendly so that the delay in settlement of claims is avoided and the time lag in settlement of claim is reduced. Technology will also help in reduction of fraudulent claims which is making a huge dent in pockets of Insurers.
IRDAI should also come forward to build a national database so that insurers can cross check data and identify fraudulent claims.
