Supreme Court directs Centre to address complaints of Non-payment of Covid Claims

The Supreme Court took judicial notice of general complaints about insurance companies playing truant in reimbursing the full cost of Covid treatment and told the Union government to proactively look into the problem faced by citizens during the pandemic. A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian told solicitor general Tushar Mehta to “take care of the insurance companies” who are allegedly slashing the reimbursement amount due to Covid patients. It has been the general complaint that the cost of Covid-19 treatment has risen because of an increase in the number of consumable items – from PPEs to face shields – by doctors, nurses and health workers but the insurance companies were not reimbursing the billed amounts for consumables by hospitals. Mehta said that the IRDAI has already issued strict instructions to all insurance companies that the entire cost of consumables has to be included in the Covid treatment. “The IRDA can be asked to ensure that no person seeking reimbursement of Covid treatment cost in hospitals is left high and dry,” he said. The CJI-led bench said, “At the time of pandemic, the insurance companies cannot adopt a hands-off approach, especially when people are facing hardship.” These remarks came during the hearing of PILs filed by advocate Sachin Jain and others who sought capping of the cost of Covid treatment at hospitals across India.