Hospital Cash Insurance is simply an insurance policy that provides a fixed sum insured for each day of hospitalization of more than 24-hours. It is a fixed daily allowance that is paid to the policyholder to meet miscellaneous expenses during the period of hospitalization.
Coverage Provided under the Hospital Cash Insurance:
Your health insurance policy pays for most of your medical expenses during the hospitalization, but some of the expenses are still not covered by your medical insurance plan. Hospital cash insurance can include some of the inadmissible expenses such as X-Ray charges, surgical accessories, visiting family member charges, etc. Also, you can avail of daily hospital cash benefits without submitting any supporting bills for hospitalization of more than 24 hours. This daily cash allowance is only available if the hospitalization becomes admissible. If the insured is hospitalized for some medical treatment, then the health insurance company pays a lump sum amount daily and the amount can be utilized as per the need of the policyholder. In some cases, the coverage amount can be used to meet any additional expenses that are not covered by your health insurance policy or for any loss of income during the hospitalization period.
Coverage Limit under the Daily Hospital Cash Plan:
Daily cash benefit usually ranges from Rs 100 to Rs 10,000 but the actual amount will vary from one insurer to another. It is suggested to check the hospital cash plan limit in the policy wordings or at the time of purchasing hospital cash insurance. If the hospital cash benefit is inbuilt in the health insurance plans then the coverage is provided on percentage bases i.e. a percentage (%) of the Sum Insured. For example, the Daily hospital cash policy can provide 1% of Sum insured as a hospital cash benefit. However, the coverage limit can vary from one insurance company to another and has to be checked at the time of policy purchase.
Tenure of Daily Hospital Cash Benefit:
On an average, a daily hospital cash policy benefit is available for 15 days to 45 days. However, the actual number of days can vary from one health insurance provider to the other and the same needs to be at the time of policy purchase. In case you get hospitalized for 10 days then also you are eligible to receive hospital cash benefit for 30 days during the policy term.