Health Insurance: New India Insurance gifts ‘extra charge’ to its customers
Are you a New India Assurance (NIA) customer and hold a Mediclaim2007 policy? If so, you are probably paying more money than your premium.
An investigation conducted by Zee Business has revealed that the company converted ‘Health Plus Medical Expenses’ policy to its Mediclaim 2007 in the same year. This transfer from one policy to another has resulted in extra premium out of customer pockets, to the company.
45 year old Anant Nandu from Mumbai-based Chartered accountant is one such victim. He had renewed his 65-year old father’s Health Plus Medical Expenses policy and was promptly shifted to the new policy.NIA charged Nandu Rs 8,920 instead of Rs 7,800, an excess of Rs1,120 for the sum assured of Rs 2 lakh.
“The premium amount was more than what my agent had quoted,†he said. So he decided to find out why he was charged extra. He did not receive a satisfactory answer from the company but Nandu kept trying till the company paid the extra amount that it charged.
“They paid back Rs 1,688 including all other charges,†he said. Nandu then decided to find out if other policy holders were also charged extra. “If they could refund my money, they should also refund others’ as well. Going by the NIA’s large policyholder base all over India, there could be lakhs of similar victimsâ€
Nandu’s Right to Information (RTI) filing to know the number of over charged policyholders, did not yield any results. “They rejected my plea on the voluminous ground,†said Nandu. He appealed to the Central Information Commission (CIC), and received an order in his favour.
Forty RTI applications, five CIC hearings, three letters to IRDA over a span of four years later, Nandu came to know as many as 4,47,838 policyholders above 50 years under the policy, were affected.
New India admitted that all its policyholders of above 50 years who renewed their policies from 16 August 2007 to 28 May 2008 are eligible for refund. According to preliminary calculations, the total refunds could account over Rs 17 crore. The company also said that they had excessively charged 30,187 policyholders and refunded the undue amount of only one-tenth of these customers i,e 3,534. More than 25,000 customers have paid extra premium, and most of them don’t even know about getting refund!
“The company not only tried to misinform to his RTI queries but also failed to obey the CIC order, who directed NIA to release the accurate information,†laments Nandu. One of CIC’s orders said, “Considering number of these laksh of policies, the amount of excess premium held by the insurance company would run into several hundred crores of rupees.â€
Nandu also has complaints on the regulator. “IRDA acted like a postman in this case,†he said. IRDA had forwarded a letter that Nandu wrote to IRDA, to NIA, and asked them to take action in ten days. Two months later, when Nandu asked IRDA about an update, the regulator said, “There is no information available in material form on the reasons for not taking action against NIA, when it failed to resolve the grievance within 15 days.†they said in a letter.
BULLET POINTS
- NIA overcharged 4,47,838 Policyholders
- NIA collected excessive premium till one year
- NIA admits, they refunded only 3534 out of 30,187 policyholders
- NIA didn’t refund even after 4 years
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