What Should You Do If You Forgot to Renew Your Health Insurance Policy?

February 9, 2022 Mutual Fund

Health insurance provides coverage against any medical emergencies arising from an injury, illness, or accident. It extends its coverage to medical expenses, such as hospital bills, medicines, pre, and post-hospitalisation expenses, consultation fee, etc. With the rising cost of healthcare, health insurance is seeing a sharp increase in sales. Like many other people, you too are aware of the importance of covering yourself and your loved ones with a Health Insurance Policy. To keep the policy active and stay secured with health insurance, it is crucial to timely renew the policy. But, what should you do if you forget to pay the premium of the health insurance policy? Let’s find out in this article.

What should you do if you miss the premium due date of the Health Insurance Policy?

Not paying the premium before the due date of the policy makes you uninsured. That means your health insurance company will stop providing you medical coverage, and you will no longer be able to claim for the medical expenses.

Grace Period:

Do not worry if the premium due date has recently passed. The insurance companies provide a grace period, during which you can still make the payment and continue your health insurance coverage. The grace period differs from insurer to insurer and plan to plan. Most insurance companies provide a 7 to 30 days grace period. So, open your policy document and check the grace period offered by your health insurance company. If your policy is still within a grace period, then you can pay the premium and enjoy your health insurance coverage. However, you should know that the grace period mentioned in your policy document includes both working and non-working days. For example, suppose the premium due date of your Family Floater Health Insurance Plan was 1st Jan 2022, and you realised today i.e. on 9th Jan 2022, that you have missed the premium payment. If your health insurance provider gives you a grace period of 15 days to make the payment, the extended due date will be 16th Jan 2022. So, you can easily make the payment until the extended due date and renew your health insurance policy. However, if you plan to make the payment on 16th Jan 2022, but unfortunately, you have a medical emergency before that, you will not be able to make a claim for it.

Here are a few important points you should know about the Grace Period:

• The policy does not get terminated if you fail to make the premium payment until the grace period ends.

• You should check the grace period of your health insurance policy as it differs from insurer to insurer.

• Most insurance companies do not settle claims raised during the grace period when the premium is not paid.

• Insurers may charge a penalty for the premium paid during a grace period.

Renew a Health Insurance Policy within a Grace Period:

You can renew your health insurance policy within a grace period online as well as offline. For offline renewal, you will have to visit the nearest branch of the insurer along with your policy document and make the payment. Or, you can visit the insurer’s official website, log in to your online account and make the payment. In both ways, you will receive a renewed policy within a time specified by the insurer. In case you do not receive the policy document within a reasonable period, you should contact the insurer’s customer care.

Revival of a Policy:

When the premium is not paid even during the grace period, the health insurance policy gets lapsed. The lapsed policies are generally terminated by the insurance companies. However, some insurers may allow reviving the lapsed policies within a stipulated period.

Generally, the health insurance companies offer a six months period to revive the lapsed policies. However, the insurers will charge you with late payment penalties and interest. Furthermore, the revival of lapsed health insurance policies can be done either on medical grounds or non-medical grounds.

In case of a revival on non-medical grounds, the sum assured will be lower than what was offered to you at the time of purchasing the policy. Whereas, in case of a revival on medical grounds, the revival and sum assured depend upon your medical check-up outcome.

The revival of a policy is similar to purchasing a new policy, as you will lose all the benefits you were receiving for a continued policy. You will lose your No Claim Bonuses, have to survive the waiting period again, not receive the renewal discount, lose pre-existing coverage, and not be able to port your policy to a better insurer.

Purchase a New Policy:

When the health insurance policy is terminated due to the failure to make premium payment during a grace period and revival period, an insured has to buy a new health insurance policy to get the health insurance coverage. However, you should know that if you have not paid the premiums of your earlier policy on time, you will be listed as a high-risk individual by the insurer, which is why the new insurer will charge you a much higher premium.

Therefore, before reviving the existing policy or purchasing a new policy, it is advisable to check and compare the premiums of both and choose the one that offers the lowest premiums and better benefits.

How to avoid the lapse of a Health Insurance Policy?

If you have already missed the premium payment date of your health insurance policy, you already know how much trouble it causes to renew it and how stressful it is not having health insurance coverage. Therefore, you should make sure you do not miss the premium due date again.

• The best way to avoid missing premium payments is to opt for ECS, which will automatically deduct money from your registered bank account on a due date.

• To ensure you have a sufficient balance in your bank account on the due date, it is advisable to set a reminder on your phone/computer through Calendar or any other app.

• You should check for the insurer's emails and SMSs as most insurance companies send you reminders through emails and SMSs when the premium due date is near.

This article first appeared on PersonalFN here