Health insurance may soon cover dental, infertility, stem cell treatment

IRDAI has removed around 10 items, including procedures such as dental, stem cell, infertility and psychiatric treatment, from the list of “optional cover” for health insurance. IRDAI in a notification said in a partial modification of guidelines on standardisation of health insurance business some items have been deleted from the list of “items for which optional cover may be offered by insurers”. These include dental treatment that does not require hospitalisation but is widely availed of, hormone replacement therapy, infertility, subfertility, assisted conception procedures, obesity treatment, psychiatric and psychosomatic procedures, corrective surgery for refractive error, treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, any expense for retro virus or suffering from HIV and AIDS, stem cell implantation etc. “Earlier these items were optional and, therefore, were not covered by most insurers. Now, insurers can design products to include these items,” an industry analyst and researcher said.