As an employer, you care about your employees. You want them to stay healthy and lead a good life because of the hard work they put into your company’s growth. As an employer, you can help to ensure the well-being of your employees with a group health insurance policy.
As the name suggests, group health insurance is a type of medical insurance policy that insures a group of people. Buying this policy is highly advantageous for both, employees and the employer.
According to a recent ICMR report, lifestyle diseases are on the rise in India. There are also growing risks of infectious diseases spreading due to urbanization and crowding in cities. To help your employees manage these diseases, buying a group health policy is essential.
One common myth related to group health insurance for employees is that only large-sized companies can buy it. Which is not true. You can purchase group health insurance to offer health benefits to your employees even if you run a small business.
How Many Employees Should You Have to Buy Group Health Insurance?
As per the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), you must have a minimum of twenty employees in your company to become eligible to buy a group health insurance policy. However, a micro group policy can be issued to an even smaller group of five people. There is generally no upper limit to the number of employees covered under the policy. From a small startup to an established organization, every company can buy a group health policy to offer health insurance benefits to its employees.
Here are a few common questions you might have about group health insurance:
Do All Group Health Insurance Policies Offer the Same Benefits?
There are several insurers offering group health insurance in the Indian market. Are all these policies the same in terms of the benefits that they offer?
Not really. Your business, like many others, is unique in terms of its employees. For instance, the number of employees working for your company can be different from that of your competitors. Their age profiles and their health situations among other things all differ from employees working in other organizations even if similar to yours.
What makes a group health insurance policy differ from others could be the number of employees covered by it. The insurance company selected, the coverage limit is chosen, the policy exclusions and add-ons, and any other policy terms you agree upon. These also determine the premium of the policy.
How Does a Group Health Insurance Work?
The main benefit of a group health insurance policy for employees is uniform coverage to all the insured group members. While buying the policy, you need to start by choosing an insurer (or shortlisting a few insurers), then selecting a plan to cover all your employees. You can customize the coverage limit of this plan by opting for add-ons or riders.
In general, group insurance policies are valid for a period of one year, you need to pay its premium upfront. You can also pay the premium in installments over the year.
When employees leave your company or new ones join, the employee details get updated every month or more frequently in the policy. Accordingly, charged you extra or given a refund on the premium paid on a pro-rata basis.
Do Employees Get Cashless Facility Under Group Health Insurance?
Just like for individual health insurance, your employee can avail of cashless claims service in the hospitals that are part of your insurer’s network. Most renowned insurance companies in India have thousands of hospitals across India listed in their network.
To get health insurance benefits, employees need to show their insurance cards to the TPA helpdesk in the network hospitals. SecureNow’s mobile App (https://securenow.app) actually helps you and your team here. Since it stores the employees’ and their family members’ e-health cards on their mobile phones so that these are always available during a medical emergency.
Even if your employees get the necessary treatment in an out-of-network hospital. The medical bills reimbursing as per the policy terms.
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Offering group health insurance to your employees won’t just ensure they stay healthy. But also motivates them to maximize their work productivity. However, irrespective of the number of employees in your company, it’s best to buy a group health insurance policy to cover them all.
In case you do not know much about choosing the right policy, contact us. At SecureNow, (www.securenow.in) we are committed to helping our clients buy the best group health insurance plan based on their business needs and specific requirements.
