Useful Add On Covers With Family Health Insurance Plans

The medical situation's uncertainty has pushed many people to buy family health insurance plans best suited for them. Since the market is crowded with insurers providing various add-on benefits on family health insurance policies it is good to have some basic knowledge of such add-on benefits so that you can choose better as per your needs.

What are Health Insurance Add-Ons or Riders?

Riders are the insurance policy provisions that add benefits to the policyholder by allowing them to change or amend the terms of the given health insurance policy. Riders provide the insured party the option to add additional coverage, or they may even restrict or limit coverage for different medical expenses.

Types of Add-Ons in Family Health Insurance Policies

Here is a list of add-on covers in family health insurance plans: 

1. Room Rent Waiver

A standard family health insurance policy offers hospital room rents to be capped to a certain limit. A room rent waiver add-on may either increase this limit or no limit will be imposed.
In metropolitan cities, room rents in hospitals are considerably higher, which may not get covered under a basic policy, with this add room rent is covered to the extent of the sum insured.
With this add-on feature, you can either increase the sub-limit provided for hospital room rent under your policy Or opt for no sub-limit on room rents.

2. Maternity Cover

With maternity cover, the company will provide coverage for all the expenses related to pregnancy and childbirth. Some policies may also provide coverage for the child's expenses either up to to the policy's maturity period or up to 3 months from the child's birth. These expenses may include vaccination, checkups, etc.

3. Daily Allowance

Under this add-on feature, the company will provide cover for additional cash expenses the policyholder might incur during the period of hospitalisation. The policyholder will get a lump sum amount for a specified number of days when hospitalised for the non-medical expenses such as transport costs, attendant costs, etc.

4. Critical Illness Cover

Under the critical illness health insurance cover, the insurer provides a lump sum amount to the policyholder when diagnosed with any critical illness, irrespective of the cumulative treatment expenses.
For example- A person has a health insurance policy with a sum insured of ₹5,00,000 and decides to buy a critical illness add-on with sum assured upto ₹10,00,000.
In case he is diagnosed with any critical illness, and takes cancer for that matter, he will get a lump-sum of ₹10,00,000 from the company even if the expenses incurred are lesser than that.

5. Personal Accident Cover

Personal Accident Health Insurance add-on provides coverage for accidental damages suffered by the insured individual, it may include partial or permanent disability, death etc.

6. Zone Upgrade

The cities of India are divided into three Zones based on the city's medical expenses. These are:

• Zone
• Cities
• Zone A
• Delhi/NCR, Mumbai.
• Zone B
• Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Pune, Chennai, and Surat.
• Zone C
• All the other cities apart from Zone A and Zone B belong to Zone C.

7. OPD Care

Medical costs also include opd services such as opd consultations, diagnostics, and medications. These may add up to substantial amounts, thus impacting one's finances. So, one can opt for opd care add-on in order to receive reimbursement for opd services too. The company will provide coverage for such expenses to a certain limit, subject to the terms and conditions of the policy.

8. Automatic Recharge

Under this add-on, the sum insured of your policy will automatically get recharged or renewed after the claim in a given year, you need to ask or pay separately for its renewal.

9. AYUSH Cover

Full form of AYUSH is Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy. You can avail financial coverage for expenses incurred on such alternative treatment methods. Usually, this add-on is available for senior citizen plans or for individuals above the age of 60. 

Disclaimer: This article is issued in the general public interest and meant for general information purposes only. Readers are advised not to rely on the contents of the article as conclusive in nature and should research further or consult an expert in this regard.