Customary and reasonable satisfactory charges in network hospitals
I have a Sbi arogya premier policy it covers maternity with no sub limit but with customary and reasonable satisfactory charges clause, my question does this apply in cashless claim in network hospital ? As in network hospital mou rates are pre agreed !!
Dear Sir
Customary & Reasonable charge clause means a fair charge charged for a particular treatment in specific region. If hospital is charging exaggerated charges than what is running in your nearby region than this clause will be applicable to Reimbursement Claim as well as Cashless Claims Too.
So you just need to be proactive and find out the charges for a particular treatment in your nearby hospital so that you cannot be a victim of this Reasonable & Customary Charge Clause.
Dear Dinesh,
Reasonable and Customary charges has been the most debated condition of mediclaim policy. Insurer do deduct on this basis if they find the spending as exorbitant vis-a-vis amount charged by another hospital in same geographical area for the same procedure, however, many a times they also take the advantage of this condition to do unfair deductions.
In my opinion,in this case the insurer has not done the right thing by imposing Reasonable and Customary condition on maternity claims. Most insurers fix a sub-limit for procedures like maternity and cataract which makes the treatment of claim very clear.
Not to forget, onus of proving the Reasonable and Customary deduction is always on the insurer and most times,if challenged in ombudsman or consumer court, claimant wins. That is the precise reason why most insurers are removing this Reasonable and Customary condition from their policies now. The case of insurer is even more weak if these deductions are done by a network hospital.
Suggestion-If you are yet to claim then discuss with TPA/Hospital/Insurer to avoid any complication regarding the interpretation. If you have already claimed and deduction has been done, lodge a protest with the insurer.
The customary & reasonable charges cannot be applied in case of cashless claim since the rate decided with network hospital are already predecided rates based on the MOU signed with the Hospital by the insurance companies.
Here it can be noted that if there is an ailment capping then the claim will be processed based on the sublimit even though the agreed rates may be higher than the sublimit.
The customary and reasonable charges are applied on reimbursement claim and incase if the insured has opted reimbursement claim in network hospital then the claim will be processed on the agreed rates and balance amount will have to be borne by the insured.
Let me explain you what's customary and reasonable satisfactory charges as per the policy.
This clause in short tell you that just because you have health insurance you can't overspend for a particular treatment.
You need to be aware about the costs of the nearby hospitals in the locality/region before getting admitted and basically limits you to avail expensive treatment if same is available for a lower charge at some other hospital nearby.
The clause will be applicable for both reimbursement and cashless.