Health insurance portability enables policyholders to switch insurers without losing accrued benefits such as free medical check-up, no claim bonus (NCB) or waiting period credit. According to Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India's (IRDAI) rules, any individual, family and group policyholder is eligible for portability as long as they initiate the portability request to the new insurer at least 45 days before the renewal of the existing policy is due. The new company then has 15 days to either accept or reject your request, failing which your application is automatically accepted. However, porting is possible only at the time of existing policy renewal and cannot be undertaken when the existing health insurance policy is due for renewal or at any time throughout the policy year.
IRDAI's migration and portability guidelines are applicable to all retail (individual) and group indemnity health insurance products, making it possible for group health insurance policyholders to port to an individual health insurance plan. However, before initiating portability, you must first convert your existing group health policy into an individual health policy offered by your current insurer. According to reports from Mint, you must inform your insurance company that you want to switch to an individual (or family) plan at least 30-45 days before your current group policy expires. You can then compare various individual plans, fill out application forms with required supporting documents, and submit the form at least 35-40 days before your group policy expires.
For portability requests, policyholders need to provide previous years' policy certificates, latest renewal notices with clear mention of continuity in coverage, self-declaration by the policyholder in case of no claim, and documents like discharge summary, investigation report if any claims have been filed. As reported by Mint, your existing policy must have been renewed without break and not have lapsed during tenure, and you are required to have completed at least one year with your existing insurer before applying for portability. You are allowed to port your policy even after making health insurance claims during the policy year, though the new company can assess your claim history and request additional information.
According to Mint reports, a key point is that the insured can only port the existing policy to a similar health indemnity policy of the other insurer - a family floater policy can be ported to another floater plan only. The mandatory one-year tenure as an individual policyholder must be completed before the plan can be ported with an individual health policy offered by another company. Once the individual plan is approved and implemented, you must ensure regular premium payments either offline or online. Policyholders are not required to pay any additional charges exceeding the premium of the new health insurance policy to port their plan. IRDAI's portability rules allow you to switch insurers without losing waiting period credit - if you've held a policy for 3 years, the new insurer must give you credit for those 3 years, with any condition that was already waiting-period-excluded at the old insurer now covered at the new one.
