60 per cent of patients delay treatments because of lack of health insurance: Pristyn Care

According to the Pristyn Care study, a vast majority of people want these alternative treatments to be covered under health insurance

The National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5) recently revealed that India has witnessed a marginal improvement in health insurance coverage. However even those who are insured face various challenges such as dealing with complex paperwork, delay in discharge, uncertainty about disease coverage etc. As per a study conducted by Pristyn Care Data Labs, almost 50 per cent of patients feel that long waiting time for approvals is the biggest pain point while filing for the insurance claim. The results come from a Pristyn Care survey answered by 1,100+ respondents and insights from internal data of 4 lakh+ patient interactions around health insurance studied by Pristyn Care Data Lab.

Another big pain point for customers is that health insurance policies are too complex to understand. The study revealed that 67 per cent of respondents believe that their health insurance policies are difficult to understand and don’t give a holistic view of the benefits provided. Some of the other challenges faced by patients while claiming insurance were deduction of money at the time of claiming (24 per cent) and complex paperwork (17 per cent). To ease the process of claiming health insurance, more than 60 per cent Indians would opt for a third party end-to-end health insurance service provider who takes care of the hassle. With the rising costs of medical treatments in the country, as per the study shockingly nearly 60 per cent of the respondents are delaying treatment due to the lack of any health cover.

According to the Pristyn Care study, a vast majority of people want these alternative treatments to be covered under health insurance. It is followed by cosmetic procedures (plastic surgery, weight loss treatments) to be covered by health insurance providers at 21 per cent. As per industry reports, 27.5 million couples in India suffer from infertility. Many doctors believe that these numbers will increase. 20 per cent of survey respondents also believe that IVF and infertility procedures should be covered under insurance given the rising costs.