Published in Mint on, Jan 29 2013, Written by Kapil Mehta
My electronic items are under warranty. Do I still need to insure them?
—Hemant
You do not need to get an all-risk cover or a machinery breakdown cover for electronic items. A simple burglary and fire insurance should do.
We had cashless treatment pre-approved before hospitalization. Despite this it took over eight hours to get discharged from the hospital. How could we have avoided this?
—V. Hotra
Discharge from hospital is one of the most inefficient processes I have seen. It probably causes as much trauma as the medical treatment itself. Matters become worse in cashless settlement. The actual hospital bill is often higher than the pre-approved amount and getting approval for the incremental money takes time. There are three places where delays happen: The hospital itself may have a complicated process and may not have addressed the queries of third party administrator (TPA); the TPA may not have acted on the reports in time; or the insurer may not have given the final approval to the TPA. This system is gradually improving as hospitals clean up their internal processes and insurers are in-sourcing their TPAs.
If you want to leave the hospital on time, the best short-term solution may be to pay the difference between the pre-approved amount and the actual bill yourself. You can claim reimbursement for the difference later.
I declared no-claims while renewing my motor insurance though I did have an accident claim in the interim. Subsequently, the insurer issued me a policy with the no-claim discount. Is the policy valid?
—Shresa
I am afraid you cannot escape the long arms of the insurer. They will check your claim status with the previous insurer even after issuing the motor insurance to you. When the insurer finds out that you falsified information, it will give you an opportunity to pay back the no-claim discount. If you do not pay this, the insurer will re-issue the insurance policy with a shorter term at penal rates. I recommend that you just pay the additional premium.
I recently purchased a fire insurance cover for my office. However, the insurer did not ask for a list of items covered and simply accepted my declaration of total value. Will my claim be honoured?
—Vinayak
For most low to medium value fire insurance covers, insurers follow an approach of investigating when a claim is made rather than at the time of issuing a policy.
If you have a fire, a surveyor will visit the burnt premises and make an assessment of the damages. If you have original invoices for the items that got burnt it will be very helpful, though not necessary.
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