Health insurance for white, yellow, and black fungus: Everything you need to know.
Good news for Indians, as mucormycosis cases are increasing with each passing day, people wonder if their insurance policies will cover treatment for Mucormycosis, popularly referred to as black, white, and yellow fungus. The great news is that it’s covered by default in comprehensive insurance policies. However, COVID-19 specific plans like Corona Rakshak and Corona Kavach won’t cover it as those policies cover you merely for COVID-19 treatment.
“Lot of individuals have bought COVID-19 specific policies. They must know that mycosis isn’t covered in those. However, comprehensive health policies will cover it. Someone doesn’t need a different health plan for it,” said by Amit Chhabra, head- insurance, Policybazaar.com.
“Secondly, when someone buys a brand new policy, there’ll be a one month or exactly 30 days waiting period during which, like several other diseases, Mucormycosis won’t be covered,” he added.
Star Health and Allied Insurance confirm that there’s no exclusion with regards to mucormycosis treatment. “Insurers cannot deny claims on account of mucormycosis. The treatment is indeed expensive, but insurers got to cover it,” says Dr. S Prakash, director, Star Health and Allied Insurance.
Star Health has been receiving more than 2000 COVID-19 linked claims every day, out of which almost 90 are fungus-related.
“The claims are dismissed only in cases where an unnecessary surgery has been performed,” Dr. Prakash has mentioned.
Bajaj Allianz General Insurance also says all of their health indemnity policies cover hospitalization expenses with reference to various infections. “There are a rising number of cases of black fungus or Mucormycosis that we’ve already settled claims. Mucormycosis, since it’s considered as infection, is going to be covered under our health indemnity policies,” says Bhaskar Nerurkar, Head — Health Claims, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance.
Policyholders are advised to stick to the terms and conditions of their insurance policy as they buy the policy. They must notify their insurer of any pre-existing illnesses, planned or emergency hospitalization, and submit all required documents, among other things.Also, since the price of treatment for mucormycosis is way more than that for COVID-19, one ought to have adequate insurance cover.
“Customers who are aiming to buy an insurance plan should positively search for a comprehensive plan with higher sum insured, because the cost of treating these infections in private hospitals is extremely high, making it unaffordable for several sections of the society, hence having a high cover are going to be beneficial,” says Chhabra of Policybazaar.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Govt. has declared that patients affected by the black fungus will get covered up to Rs 1.5 lakh under the government health insurance schemes just like the “Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY)” and “Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Jan Arogya Yojana.” The Rajasthan government has recently announced the Chiranjeevi Yojana Insurance Scheme to cap admission and treatment costs at private hospitals for those stricken by the disease.
