Ref: IRDAI/HLT/CIR/MISC/174/09/2019
27th
September 2019
To,
CEOs of all General and Standalone
Health Insurance Companies
Re: Circular on Travel Insurance
Products and operational matters
All Insurance Policies
issued towards domestic and overseas travel coverage shall comply with the
following norms:
1.
Premium
shall not be received more than 90 days in advance to the date of commencement
of the risk covered in case of domestic travel or along with the ticket while
purchasing the travel tickets, whichever is earlier.
2.
Covers
towards overseas travel may be issued at any time. The aforesaid stipulation
shall not be applicable to overseas travel cover.
3.
Where
policies are offered under Group platform or through any travel agency or
portal, the following norms shall be complied:
i.
Insurers
are responsible to ensure an informed choice to the persons to be insured and
ensure compliance to Regulation 6 of IRDAI (Protection of Policyholders’
Interests) Regulations, 2017.
ii.
The
Name of the Insurance Company which is offering the travel insurance cover, the
amount of the premium that shall be collected towards travel insurance cover
shall be specifically disclosed as the cost of travel cover, at the time of opting
to buy a travel insurance cover. Rate of tax that is applicable to the premium
shall be also separately specified.
iii.
Insurers
shall ensure that any portal or App providing the travel insurance coverage
shall not pre-select the option of buying the travel cover as a default option.
iv.
The prospect shall be able to specifically choose whether
or not to buy the coverage.
v.
Where selected to buy, an option shall be provided for
opting out or de-selecting the option before concluding the transaction.
vi.
There
shall be a provision to let the person to be insured buying a travel cover go
through the benefits, terms and conditions offered under the travel insurance
cover on the screen itself and consent shall be obtained in the form of selecting
a radio button by the prospect / policyholder in confirmation of having read
and understood the terms and conditions.
vii.
In
order to ensure that every travel policy offered is in compliance with these
norms, there shall be a clause in the agreement entered with the master
policyholder and in the terms and conditions of the group policy along with a
provision to cancel the group policy arrangement if the master policyholder is
not adhering to the norms specified.
4.
Insurers
shall put in place procedures to verify that at least once in a period of three
months the travel policies offered are complying with the above norms.
5.
These
norms are issued under the provisions of Section 34 (1) of the Insurance Act,
1938.
6.
This
Circular shall come into force with immediate effect. All the group insurance
arrangements that are not in compliance to these norms shall be terminated with
effect from 01st October, 2019.
7.
This
has the approval of the competent authority.
(DVS
Ramesh)
General
Manager, Health