Insurance cover for Planned Admissions:

In case of a planned admission, to avail insurance coverage from your international insurance company, the following steps can be followed.

1. Check with our Dept of International Patients Services if your insurance
    provider is recognized by our associated hospital for insurance covered
    treatment. You can contact the international patient services at
    mktg@mediescapes.com or + 91-11-280 35368.

2. If your company is listed you may contact them directly from your home
    country and seek an issue of GoP (Guarantee of Payment) by fax to our
    International Patients Service office.

3. Once our International Patients office confirms the receipt of GoP from your
    insurance provider you can avail insurance covered treatment at our
    hospital.

4. In cases where the International Patients Office contacts your insurance
    company (provided they are in our panel) for GoP on your behalf, your claim
    to avail insurance covered treatment will depend upon your insurance
    company’s response and the hospital will not be responsible for any delay on
    their part. We will not entertain any GoP after discharge and in case of
    delayed response from Insurance Company you are required to make
    appropriate deposit to the hospital and if the delay extends to your discharge
    date you will need to make full payment to the hospital. The hospital will issue
    a refund of your deposit subject to receipt of GoP from your insurance
    company. In cases where the GoP is delayed or not received at the hospital
    you can claim a refund directly from your insurance provider, however
    refund will be subject to their discretion.

5. Any hospital charges not covered by your insurance provider must be paid
    to the hospital.

Insurance cover for unplanned Admissions:

1. This happens mostly in a medical emergency. Most of the international
    insurance companies provide an option for contact in case of medical
    emergency. Please note that an emergency contact details by any
    international insurance company does not entail an insurance covered
    treatment at our associated hospital and it is strictly based on our
    arrangement with your insurance provider. However you will be provided all
    required medical care at our associated hospital and you can continue your
    treatment after paying the required deposit to the hospital.

Your Medical Insurance and opt - in Medical Treatment in India.

People who travel across borders for surgery must be protected from negligence or malpractice or false advertising which concerns brokers and insurance agents both. So far, the industry of facilitating patients to other hospitals around the world, without giving medical advice, isn’t still very regulated at this time. This issue will probably be addressed in a near future.

There are large regulatory issues involved. Part of the problem is the unwillingness of health insurance companies (and politicians) to take it seriously. Legal issues abound: what happens if there are complications, what happens with extended stays in the hospitals, what happens if you die? If something goes wrong, can you sue? Many countries don’t have the protective legal systems westerners are used to yet. There is no international regulation concerning this area of international trade. What is the legal status is, we don’t really know?.

Complications do arise in any potential operation that is undertaken. You can’t guarantee that health care and the sequels to operations are always going to run smoothly, there will always be issues about problems that arise. And how one deals with those on a patient who, let’s say, has made a contract with a company or a broker in New Delhi to travel to Mumbai (all these cities are in India) for surgery, or to travel within India for recuperative holiday and such like, and something goes wrong in the operation itself? Trying to resolve these legal issues really is going to become a quite fundamental issue over the next 10 or 15 years.

And of course it’s going to differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. It may even differ from where the patient comes from. You can have a hip replacement in Bangalore, or heart surgery in Mumbai, or dental work in New Delhi (all these cities are in India), but you may find it hard to get insurance, or a legal comeback.

Probably the answer lies in International Accreditation !

With an aim to increase overseas clientele and to give a boost to medical tourism, hospitals are looking at JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) for accreditation. JCAHO is a US-based non-voluntary organization.

Most of the new hospitals in India are now being built as per ISO norms in order to reach JCAHO norms as soon as possible. Anyway it’s a necessary step to occupy the first positions in an increasingly competitive market. Once accredited, the hospitals would actually boost the much-talked-about medical tourism. Once they are JCAHO accredited, the hospitals can begin talks with overseas insurance companies like BUPA and Blue Cross Blue Shield for a tie-up to route patients to their facilities.

Initiatives to get recognised globally and meet international standards are being taken by many hospitals across the world, in different ways. Tie-ups with foreign institutions is one. Manipal Hospital in Bangalore for instance, recently tied-up with EPOS, a German organisation. This will give them the opportunity to benchmark themselves against the best hospital chains in the world. As and when the concept of medical tourism catches on, these initiatives would help to attract more and more patients from foreign nation by medical brokers such as Mediescapes India.

For more details please contact us mktg@mediescapes.com