There are many people who despite having a good health insurance plan do not get the treatment they need. Reason—because they are unable to pay the initial amount required to get the treatment. Before the onset of cashless insurance in India, most insurance plans were designed to reimburse the amount spent on treatment by the individual. But this meant that people had to pay for the treatment at their own expense. This did not reduce the financial strain that a person had to go through.
On the contrary the conventional means of payout increased the strain on the individual. Instead of paying the premium, they would rather have saved the money and used it for the treatment. This was when people lost faith in health insurance. There was no way that the person could bear the burden of both—the insurance premium plus cost of treatment. In addition, one also had the anxiety of whether the insurance provider would reimburse the claim. With the birth of cashless insurance in India, this problem has been solved.
People now merely need to go to a network hospital and get the treatment that they need. The insurance provider settles payments with the hospital directly (or through a Third Part Administrator, TPA). This saves the policy holder the trouble of having to arrange money for the treatment as well as ensures that the individual does not have any trouble in getting the reimbursement. However, this facility is only applicable in network hospitals.
Although cashless insurance in India has become popular, there are many people who still prefer to use non-network hospitals. Apollo Munich Health Insurance gives individuals the choice of both. One can pick the kind of hospital that they wish to get treatment in. A policy holder now has the freedom to pick the doctor, hospital and the payout mode in health insurance.