You can choose to switch your health policy in case you are not happy with the services and features of your current health insurer. In 2011, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) allowed porting of health insurance policies in order to policyholders maximum benefit. However, the sad part is that many people are still uninformed of the nitty-gritty of porting a health insurance cover.

Some of the reasons why people feel the need for porting their health insurance cover include expensive policies, capping on room rent, limited coverage and extended delays in claim settlement. Better features in terms of services offered by different insurers are also some popular reasons for porting of health policies. The various features that traditional health policies lack include OPD cover, automatic restoration cover, hospital cash, etc.

Insurers are now offering new-age health insurance products to customers that mostly focus on prevention as most insurers believe that regular preventative health checks are important for greater wellness. With the introduction of new-age health insurance products, the insurers are moving towards a more outcome-based preventive structure in order to promote healthy lifestyle amongst the customers. While earlier, a Rs 1 crore health insurance plan cost Rs 30,000 now they are available for as low as Rs 8,000 for a 30-year-old male. This is why it is advised to go for porting!

Similar policy types
Portability in health insurance cover is allowed in all health insurance related products — individual and floater covers. However, you are allowed to shift the insurer between two similar policy types. For example, if you have an individual health cover of Rs 10 lakh sum insured and you wish to switch your insurer, you can do the same provided you switch to an individual health cover. You cannot choose to change the policy type to a disease-specific cover or a critical illness cover.

Also, porting is only permitted during the policy renewal though some insurers even allow porting of the health insurance till the expiry date of the policy.

One of the main benefits for those who port their health insurer is that they are allowed to enjoy the advantage of the waiting period (usually for pre-existing disease and maternity) as they can carry forward the time already associated with the previous insurer. For instance, you have a health policy that has a waiting period of 24 months to avail maternity cover and with your existing insurer you have already passed 18 months. Now, when you port your policy to another insurer, the waiting period for availing maternity cover will be reduced to six months (provided the new policy also has a waiting period of 24 months for maternity cover) as you have already served 18 months waiting period with the previous insurer.

Waiting period
The waiting period for pre-existing diseases and maternity cover vary from one insurer to another. While porting a health policy, you may even port credits earned on no-claim bonus. Under this feature, assuming the sum insured of your existing policy was Rs 5 lakh and after two continuous annual renewals without any claims, the sum insured reaches Rs 6 lakh, thanks to NCB. Next year when you port the policy with a new insurer, total sum insured remains Rs 6 lakh. But the premium will also be calculated on the current sum insured, i.e., Rs 6 lakh.

To port, the policyholder needs to approach the new health insurer at least 45-60 days prior to the expiry date of the existing policy, though porting is even permitted till the last day of the policy. Once there, the policyholder needs to fill a proposal form for portability of the policy and furnish important details regarding the previous year policy copies and later apply for the portability. After the new insurer receives the porting request, the company approaches the existing insurer in order to verify the medical and claims history of the applicant. Based on various checks, it is the prerogative of the new health insurer to accept or reject the proposal. Once the new health insurer receives all the required details, it has to take a decision on whether or not to accept porting of the policy within 15 days.