Benefits of buying OPD cover with health insurance policy

Insurance companies, of late, have started offering out-patient department (OPD) cover with health insurance policies. TheOPD cover, which comes as an additional feature of the health insurance policy, offers reimbursement of expenses such as ambulance charges, diagnostic tests, prescribed and over-the-counter medicines, preventive health check-ups, etc. Most of these are usually out-of-pocket expenses borne by the patient and not covered by in-patient health insurance policies, which primarily cover expenses incurred on hospitalisation.

The expenses incurred by an out-patient (who is not hospitalised) can be substantial considering the high cost of medical treatments nowadays. Even a single visit to a doctor’s clinic can cost anywhere between Rs 5,00 to Rs 1,500, not to speak of the costs incurred on various medical tests that may be required to be done by the patient for diagnostic purposes. The cost of these tests can range between Rs 100 to Rs 5,000, depending on the type of tests required to be done. That apart, other costs such as ambulance charges and costs of medicines can be a crushing burden for an out-patient whose health insurance policy does not cover these OPD costs.

Considering all these factors, a policy offering OPD cover would be a better option than a policy that does not offer cover for OPD costs. Of course, such OPD cover may come at a higher cost, but the extra money paid for the cover could be worth it as almost all the medical expenses would be paid by the insurance company. However, one needs to read the policy document carefully to ascertain which of the OPD expenses are covered and which ones are excluded, as well as the maximum limit prescribed by the insurance company on various expenses.