I am new to this thing of medical insurance because earlier I used to see the ads in the Tvs about Insurance companies being your guardian during bad times and wasn’t entirely convinced whether they would pay the entire money.Coming to my case, my dad recently suffered heart attack and angioplasty was performed on him and it costed around 2 lakhs. My mother being Tamilnadu State government employee, our family(me, mom and dad)come under Star healths cover .We got cover only during the last 3 months and my mom was not aware of it but incidentally I remembered the medical id she gave me to keep as safe some time before and I contacted the toll free number given in the book let given by the company .
They were very help ful and asked us to give the xerox copies of the id card to the insurance department of the hospital and they would fax it to them.the maximum coverage under our scheme was 2 lakhs and I expected a return of about 1-1.5 lakhs as with other companies but viola, we got the whole 2 lakhs.I really cant believe it, how helpful at this time of financila crisis.Onyl people who have come across a sudden need of money will understand it.More over its a cashfree insurance and you dont even need to pay a rupee in case of emergency and you just have to submit the id card xerox.I now recommend it to every one
P.S when I read the booklet our hospital didnt come under coverage but when I contacted the toll free number, they told me that I t does come under coverage.So I ask every one not to go by the booklet and contact the toll free number for queries
Update may 2015
I had used Star health earlier for my father’s emergency.I was very satisfied with their claims service and had written a good review about that experience in Mouthshut .A user even questioned the credibility of my review.I have been recommending them to every one from my circle who are on the lookout to buy a health insurance policy and many of my relatives and friends had bought it.For my aunt’s family, I bought a family floater policy with initial coverage of 3 lakhs and we have been paying premiums for the past 4 years.Now she suffered some issues with hernia and uterus and she had undergo a surgery.The hospital preferred by us was in their cashless network of hospitals and on contacting them regarding pre approval for making such operations, they asked us to get admitted to the hospital and a claims representative will visit us to ge the details.
After getting admitted, the claims person came and took the details but the next day before operation the hospital asked us to pay advance money.When we enquired about cashless facility, we came to know that since the claims person only took the details late in the day, it was not approved.We got disappointed and paid the money and we submitted all the documents(Doctor’s advice, bills) and whatever claims dept asked for.We got no futher communication from them about our claims status and a day after they asked us for medical records, 5 years ago(the ultrasound report during her pregnancy and other reports related to it)
We got frustrated as its difficult to maintain those documents for so long and we were never educated about the need to preserved all the previous medical documents even when took the policy.They were only concered with out premiums.When we enquired more on this, they asked us to submit another claims application.Don’t know what happened to the previous one.
Still no word from them and we have paid 80% of the hospital expenses.What if some one couldn’t afford all the amount and believed on their cashless promise.I understand that their claims service has become very bad over time.I gather the same from the feedback I read in online forums.
They are going to lose some loyal customers and many other prospects atleast from my side.