The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, Mr. J. Hari Narayan, justified IRDA’s non-intervention in the current stand-off between some insurers and hospitals on extending cashless treatment facility citing contractual aspects of health insurance policies.
Addressing a “Protecting Investors’ seminar organized by the Institute of Economics recently in Hyderabad, he said the number of hospitals extending cashless facility had gone up from 320 on July 1, 2010, to about 450 at present. Supporting insurers, he said that there were ‘serious’ anomalies in billing/charges being levied by hospitals, and charges for the cashless facility were too high when compared with the reimbursement policies.
Talking to newspersons on the sidelines, he said the IRDA will take a common stand along with other regulators on the issue of parking its surplus funds with the Government. The Finance Ministry recently sent a directive to the IRDA and the Securities and Exchange Board of India to deposit their surplus funds with it, following a recommendation from the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
Published in The Insurance Times, October 2010
