KYC mandatory for buying health, auto, and other insurance from 1 Jan | Mint – Mint

Until now, sharing KYC documents was a voluntary choice while purchasing a policy. However, from today onwards, the insurers will have to collect KYC documents from their respective customers.

With this new rule, experts believe that the claim process may become faster and more seamless as the insurers will have a detailed profile of customers.

For insurance companies, the KYC details can help to improve the accuracy of risk assessment and pricing, and it may reduce risks of fraudulent claims.

In a separate news, Irdai has asked insurers to consider giving discount on renewal of general and health insurance policies to policyholders who have taken three shots of Covid-19 vaccine.

The insurance regulator has also asked both life and non-life insurance companies to settle Covid-19 related claims at the earliest and reduce paper work, PTI news agency reported.

The regulator also urged insurers to ensure that empanelled hospitals are prohibited from taking deposit for Covid hospitalisation, adding, some of the hospitals indulged in asking for deposit for Covid treatment during the first and second wave despite having cashless policy.

The insurers should create a war room for Covid-related assistance to all stakeholders for the worst case scenario, the regulator asked the industry adding that data should be reported in a set format so that there is no discrepancy.

On the other hand, the insurers asked the regulator to look at standardisation of treatment protocol so that fraud cases are minimised.

Over 2.25 lakh death claims due to Covid were settled by insurance companies up to March 2022, Irdai said in its latest annual report.