Best tips to detect fraud in your health insurance plan 14^th July 2022

The time of a health crisis is a vulnerable time for you and your loved ones. And this moment of panic is where most frauds occur, where mischievous minds exploit your vulnerability with their fraudulent strategies. Everyone can't look into the small details of fraud unless they understand how it takes place beforehand.

Medical emergencies are a time of great financial insecurity. A lifetime of savings can be drained due to your loved one getting into a sudden accident or the unexpected detection of chronic disease. In this time of need, health insurance is a great boon. It can provide you and your dear ones with much-needed protection from financial disaster. However, it is imperative to have the correct information to avoid falling into the trap of health insurance fraud. You won't ever want your hard-earned money to go to waste by falling prey to frauds or scams.

This blog gives you some pointers you can keep in mind to safeguard yourself from health insurance frauds.

Most common types of fraud:

Before getting into how to protect yourself from this deceit, here are some of the most common ways people can swindle money from your health insurance policy –

1. Medical identity theft: This type of fraud involves scammers using your personal information to charge fraudulent bills or make health insurance claims in your name.

2. Marketing scams: If you do not do adequate research about the company's reputation and decide to buy insurance, it may result in the company taking a high premium from you but not responding to any claims. These companies give out forged insurance documents to individuals and then become untraceable.

3. Ambulance fraud: Holding the spot of being the most overlooked type of fraud, ambulance fraud comes in the form of unnecessary charges and facilities you might not have taken, paying huge dividends to scammers.

Tips to safeguard yourself from scammers –

1. Take your time: The biggest red flag in an insurance company is when they ask you to make hasty decisions. Avoid schemes that promise you a lesser premium or better claim if you sign immediately. It is advisable to take your time with the decision-making process and be sure what kind of policy is necessary for you.

2. Be wary of unsolicited calls: Reputed insurance companies rarely call individuals to market their health insurance policies; if they do, they never pressure a customer. Be cautious of aggressive salespeople. However, even if the salesperson seems to be from a reputed company, you must never share your personal information or documents without proper research about the company.

3. A hard copy of policy and seller's signature: Request a copy of the policy they offer, complete with the company's seal and seller's signature.

4. Extensive research on plans: Become familiar with the kind of plans that insurance companies usually offer. This will help you be aware of unsolicited advertisements to sell insurance policies. Understand that if something is too good to be true.

5. IRDA licence: If an agent does not have an IRDA licence, there is a higher probability that they are a scammer.

6. Avoid online transactions: It is safer to avoid sending any money online to the agent upfront unless it is an IRDA licenced insurance firm.

Researching a quality health insurance policy is already a demanding process. The process is complicated, from finding a good plan to cover all your needs to looking for a reputed doctor in an emergency that your insurance covers and then claiming the insured amount. This is when people are most susceptible to getting scammed by fraudsters.

Be careful while opting for a health insurance policy, and always remember to read the fine print. Always buy from genuine insurance firms and avoid the manipulative sales tactics of agencies. Rely more on your personal research for buying the best health insurance and guarantee yourself trustworthy and reliable protection.

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Disclaimer: The information provided above is for illustrative purposes only. To get more details, please refer to policy wordings and prospectus before purchasing a policy.