This deductible is applied to car/auto insurance policies, home insurance/ home content insurance and to travel insurance.

In case of auto insurance, your deductible will vary depending on the cubic capacity (CC) of your vehicle. The standard rule is, the higher the deductible, the lower the premium.

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Phone your company immediately - Insurance policies place a time limit on filing claims. Find out what the time limit is. Ask questions: Am I covered? Does my claim exceed my deductible? (Your deductible is the amount of loss you agree to pay yourself when you buy a policy.) How long will it take to process my claim? Will I need to obtain estimates for repairs to structural damage?

Prepare a list of lost or damaged articles - You are going to need to substantiate your loss. Avoid throwing out damaged items until the surveyor has visited your home. You should also consider photographing or videotaping the damage, if possible.

Take reasonable steps to protect your property from further damage. Save receipts for what you spend and submit them to your insurance company for reimbursement.

Get claim forms - Once your insurance company has been notified of your claim, the company is required to send you the necessary claim forms to you by the end of a specified time period. Return the properly filled out forms as soon as possible in order to avoid delays.

Your insurance company will immediately arrange for a surveyor to come and inspect your home. Co-operate with the surveyor, ensure that you provide him all the possible documentary evidence to ensure your claim gets settled without any hassle.

Once you and your insurance company agree on the terms of your settlement, your claim will be processed quickly.

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Factors to consider to get the right cover:

Not all insurers provide similar cover. Make sure the sum insured you choose for your home contents policy, includes the value of your jewellery.This value could vary from Rs 50,000 to Rs 3,00,000. For this kind of a cover, you do not need to provide any documentation.

If you are looking at customised cover for your jewellery, you need to provide the insurer with appropriate documentation. You will have to produce the invoice for each jewellery item you want insured, in case you do not have invoice, you should be prepared to get it evaluated by a jeweller and provide the valuation document to your insurer.

In case of loss, you will have to file an FIR regarding the loss/burglary as soon as you notice the same. Submit the filled claim form along with details of the stolen jewellery to your insurer. Your insurer will appoint a third party investigator to investigate the same. Obtain a non-traceable certificate from the police and submit the same to your insurer. Your claim will be settled once your insurer is satisfied with the investigation. Remember the claim amount will be only up to the limit specified and excluding the voluntary deductible component as per your policy terms and conditions.

Familiarise yourself with the terms and conditions to avoid confusion during claim.

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The benefit of holding a health card is that it allows you to avail cashless treatment in network hospitals. That is, you are eligible to avail medical treatments in the network hospital without having paying any cash, as your insurance company will take care of your payment. The card cannot be used in case of non-network hospitals.

Network hospitals form part of the insurance company’s Third Party Administrator (TPA) i.e. the insurance company’s TPA has a tie-up with such hospitals to provide cashless facility. Non-network hospitals do not form part of insurance company’s network list and do not provide cashless facility. However, a customer can avail medical treatment and can claim reimbursement from the insurance company on submission of relevant documents.

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Many insurance companies offer health insurance for children. Any minor over 90 days of age can be insured against various illnesses and ailments. The insurance company will pay for the treatment charges.

Health care cost is going up everyday, a simple sinus surgery or appendicitis surgery costs around Rs.40,000 to Rs.60,000. Emergency medical cost may be too high to manage with self-funding. Holding a health insurance policy for your child can be a boon at times of these emergencies, as you can be assured of giving your child the complete and proper treatment and concentrate on care giving rather than worrying about arranging for funds.

All Health insurance companies however might not cover all kinds of ailments. All policies have certain exclusions. One should read the policy terms and conditions carefully before signing on.

The policy terms and conditions document gives a list of covered ailments and the extent of coverage. Most of health insurance companies in India cover hospitalization, surgery, medicine, surgeon and other equipment charges.

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It may be recalled that on 2nd October this year, 373 villages in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were fully or partly affected by unprecedented floods. Apart from life casualties, livestock and micro-enterprises were washed out severely affecting the livelihoods of several people.

BASIX has been operating in this region for over a decade offering a wide range of Financial Inclusion services such as Savings, Insurance, Remittances and Credit; and Livelihood Promotion services such as Agriculture, Micro-business & Institutional Development.

For all affected customers in the region, who had availed of its Insurance Services, BASIX and their insurance partner Royal Sundaram, decided to pass on the insurance benefit proactively, instead of waiting for them to lodge their claims. This was done with a view of minimizing the lead-time to settle a claim and to ensure that the affected customers could quickly re-establish their livelihoods.

Consequently, as soon as the floods subsided, BASIX and Royal Sundaram commissioned an  “Emergency Response Team”, who organised a massive onsite survey to collate all required data. A simplified claim form was also specially designed to facilitate early settlement. 

In all, 22 SMART Facilitators (SF) from different regions of Andhra Pradesh were trained and deputed to collect the data and fill the forms. In the first phase of flood claims survey, 1,149 claims were reported, including 125 for livestock and 1,024 for Micro enterprise, in Kurnool, Bellary and Raichur districts. These claims were processed after verification by using the enrolment forms available in the BASIX units/ branches.

Following this, a sum of Rs.50,76,710 pertaining to 1,068 claims have been handed over for customer disbursements, to BSFL COO Mr.D. Sattaiah by Mr. M S Sreedhar, COO, Royal Sundaram.

Mr.  Sattaiah said, “BASIX’s strategy is to provide a comprehensive set of livelihood promotion services. Over the years insurance has become an integral part of this strategy. It is important to protect the Livelihoods of our customers and support them with effective Livelihood Promotion Services”

According to Ajay Bimbhet, Managing Director, Royal Sundaram, “Royal Sundaram has attempted to address the specific needs of the rural market with tailor-made products at an affordable premium. Basix is an ideal partner in this venture since people in the rural areas have enduring relationships with institutions like them based on their services, their drive to promote sustainable livelihoods, their trust and goodwill. The speedy and proactive measures taken by Basix and Royal Sundaram team to reinstate the lives of the affected customers, is a demonstration of our commitment toward the rural segment and the quality of claims settlement.”

Today BASIX, with its partners, Royal Sundaram and AVIVA, offers a wide range of insurance products covering life, health, livestock, enterprise, rainfall risks for all its credit and non-credit customers.

Around 1.6 million members are covered for life and health insurance and 250,000 customers are offered livestock insurance and other products. Cumulatively since 2001, BASIX has settled over 50,000 claims to the tune of nearly Rs.200 million.

About BASIX:

BASIX is a livelihood promotion institution established in 1996, working with over a million and a half customers, over 90 percent being rural poor households and about 10 percent urban slum dwellers. BASIX group entities work in 16 states - Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Rajasthan, Bihar, Chattisgarh, West Bengal, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Meghalaya and Assam and over 22,400 villages. It has a staff of over 5,900 of which 80 percent are based in small towns and villages.

BASIX mission is to promote a large number of sustainable livelihoods, including for the rural poor and women, through provision of financial services and technical assistance in an integrated manner. BASIX strives to yield a competitive rate of return to its investors so as to be able to access mainstream capital and human resources on a continuous basis.

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For instance, you are at the fag end of your trip and you have fallen ill and not able to travel. Inform your Travel Insurance company immediately in such a scenario and ask them to extend your policy.

In case your work has got extended and you are required to stay back for more than the period you envisaged and your policy is about to expire, then again it is better to inform your insurance company and get an extension on your travel insurance. It will be better if you are able to do this at least a week before  your travel policy expires, as this will ensure you are covered at all point of time.

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Make sure you make a note of your passport number and a photocopy of the personal details page. Keep one copy with you and leave one back home. 

If your passport is lost/stolen overseas, report it to the local police immediately and then contact the nearest Indian embassy. This is very important to ensure you get either  new passport or emergency travel documents instead of your original passport.

Your Travel Insurance company is liable to reimburse you up to the limit mentioned in your policy document to cover all the direct expenses you incur to get a new passport or emergency travel documents instead of your original passport.

Please note your insurance company will pay you only in case you have made a police complaint within 24 hours of losing your passport. Make sure you obtain a copy of the complaint as the same has to be submitted as proof to your insurance company.

Do not leave your passport unattended. Keep your passport separate from other important items both at home and when travelling. Your insurance company will pay for the expenses incurred to get a new passport/emergency travel documents only if you lost it in a public place and not in a private area/vehicle, unless the private area was forcibly broken into.

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If you are feeling ill or suffering from fever, write down the symptoms if you are able to do so. If you are familiar with the symptoms, use suitable medication which you are carrying with you. Remember, you should do this only if you know that this works well for you.

If the symptoms persist, get medical help as soon as possible. Notify your Travel Insurance company’s third party administrator immediately. If you fail to notify the same on time, there might be delays in receiving the appropriate support from your insurance company.

While seeking medical treatment inform your close relatives in India, if you are travelling alone. if your situation permits it is better to travel back to India to seek further medical support. Even in this instance you should be in touch with the third party administrator, as they would ensure that all your travel arrangements back to India is taken care of.

In case you are hospitalised abroad, aparting from informing your insurance company’s third party administrator ensure you collect all the medical documents, bills, discharge summary etc from the hospital before getting discharged. Once you have all the documents on hand, ensure you submit it to your Insurance company for claim reimbursement as soon as you are able to do so.

Even if you are not hospitalised, but you have availed of some emergency medical treatment as an out-patient, your travel insurance takes care of your medical expenses provided it is covered under your insurance policy.

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* Prevention is better than cure - this may sound clichéd, but this is the only way to keep your medical expenses down over a period of time. So, go ahead do a reality check on your lifestyle - diet, exercise, sleeping habits etc. And there is no better time to start then right now.

* Research and compare - if your company does not provide you health insurance coverage, it is best to scout around for an individual health insurance policy. Once you research and compare you would realize there is a wide variety of coverage available at varying pricing.

* Evaluate suitability - If you are a generally healthy person with a healthy lifestyle and just want protection against major accidents, consider buying a Personal Accident Insurance. However, if you visit the doctor frequently, you should look at a health insurance policy seriously.

* Out of pocket payments and exclusions - Evaluate each plan’s coverage and features, taking into account exclusions and limitations. Also find out how much you’ll end up paying out of pocket in the form of deductibles.

* Check your medical bills - Once you avail treatment and make claims, check every itemized statement you receive from your hospital to make sure that the bill accurately reflects the treatment you received and applies all available insurance coverage.

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