Comments
The Third Party Administrators (TPAs) in health insurance will now have to confine their services only to an insurance company.
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has withdrawn permission given to TPAs in 2005 to offer their services to bodies other than insurance companies, such as Central and State governments.
In a circular issued on Tuesday, Mr J. Hari Narayan, Chairman, IRDA, said licensed TPAs could not enter into arrangements for servicing health schemes promoted, sponsored or approved by any non-insurance body, including Central, State, local governments, corporates, and so on.
If any TPA is desirous of offering services to anybody (any schemes) other than an insurance company, it should first surrender its licence to the IRDA.
Growth in premium
Since 2005, the gross written premium of health insurance in India has increased from Rs 1,535 crore to Rs 11,145 crore as on March 2011.
“Given the growth of the health insurance sector, it is important that the systems in place for servicing health insurance should be dynamic and effective in order to ensure the orderly growth of the health insurance business in India,” the IRDA Chairman said.
Existing contract
With respect to existing contracts, TPAs can continue to service them till the expiry of the contract period without any further renewal.
The details of such contracts should be informed to the regulator, as per the circular.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.