Copy Paste Policy & Confused Insurance Board
Kathmandu. The Nepal Insurance Board has been found to have released defective policy rules regarding the Corona Insurance Guidelines. Since the corona insurance begun on the 7th of Baishakh, 2077 BS, and the general public will not be eligible to collect the payout of the premium as soon as the corona insurance has been registered.
The corona insurance guidelines released on July 20, three months after the launch of corona insurance, have been found to include the claim that the declaration of a large hospital, including a private hospital, is invalid.
On 3 August, the Nepal Insurance Board released another guideline requesting that only the PCR study be recognized under the Corona Insurance Guidelines under the Ministry of Health. Elaborating on the Corona Insurance Criteria, the guideline issued yesterday stated, “Per Article 1 paragraph 3 of the Corona Insurance Standards, 2077, issued by the Corona Insurance Claims Board, the Government of Nepal has requested that payment arrangements to be made only to the cases where Covid-19 has been seen to be contracted during PCR testing done by authorized laboratories.” It is requested that payment arrangements be made only if it is seen to be clearer.
According to the Guideline, only reports checked in laboratories related to national hospitals in Nepal are eligible for coronary insurance claims. This ensures the PCR assessments done in district hospitals, community hospitals, old zonal hospitals, and health centers would be accepted.
On the other hand, the reports from Teaching Hospital, Patan Hospital, and Bir Hospital will be invalidated according to the guidelines. Since the Teaching Hospital is operated by Tribhuvan University, Bir Hospital is operated by the National Academy of Medical Sciences and Patan Hospital is managed by the Patan Institute of Health Sciences. Similarly, reports on all types of teaching hospitals would be disqualified for the settlement of claims according to the Corona insurance guidelines. The Corona Insurance Policy 2077 is deemed to be faulty due to the provision that the claim of a hospital with a state-of-the-art laboratory testing of large PCRs is incorrect and that a region without a lab should be registered.
The Chairman of the Nepal Insurance Board, Chinjivi Chapagain, said that the Corona insurance criterion was not incorrect. He said, “The insured should send a report to the body under the Ministry of Health of the Government of Nepal for reimbursement of Corona Insurance claims.”Chapagain noted that the PCR research result from the private hospital would be invalid. He also said that the claim would be settled based on the corona test report from the government body only referred in the corona insurance guidelines.
All insurance providers, under the control of the Nepal Insurance Board, have since ceased making claims. Chunki Chhetri, Secretary of the Nepal Insurance Association, said, “We must follow the orders of the Nepal Insurance Board. We cannot go above the guidelines of the Board and resolve cases based on reports from private laboratories.”Ganesh Srivastava, Senior Health Education Officer at the Ministry of Health confirmed that all forms of PCRs in Nepal are under the Ministry of Health and are not private or public. He said, “All PCR tests are performed under the Ministry of Health and the PCR test cannot be carried out without approval from the Ministry of Health.” Srivastava also reported, “Teaching Hospital, Bir Hospital, and Patan Hospital are not under the Ministry of Health, rather they are just hospitals licensed by the Ministry.”
It was investigated why the Nepal Insurance Board had begun such a fracas under the pretext of making compensation to the plaintiffs. Sources say that the CEOs of some insurance firms have asked the Nepal Insurance Board to prohibit reports from private laboratories. The Nepal Insurance Board has sought to curtail the payout of Corona insurance premiums by providing child-style guidelines. It can be recalled that Corona Insurance has previously been discontinued and reinstated by the Nepal Insurance Board. In the meantime, Corona’s insurance scheme has also been updated many times.