New India logs lowest claim rejections: Study
MUMBAI: New India Assurance has the lowest claims repudiation ratio of 0.2% in terms of the number of claims. The company, which is also the only listed public sector insurer, has the lowest claims repudiation ratio in health insurance and motor own-damage insurance too.
The Insurance Brokers Association of India recently provided a comparison of ratios for various insurers in its policyholders’ handbook. The ratios pertain to claims serviced in FY23 – the latest full year for which claims servicing data is available in the public domain.
The claims repudiation ratio refers to the proportion of claims rejected out of the total number of claims closed by the insurer. The lower the repudiation ratio, the better it is for customers. Other insurers with an overall low claims repudiation ratio are HDFC Ergo (2.9%), Aditya Birla Health (3.9%), Future Generali (3.8%), and Shriram (4.6%).
In the motor own-damage segment, New India has a claims repudiation ratio of only 0.5%. Other top performers include Future Generali (1.1%), Oriental Insurance (3.3%), and Iffco Tokio (5.8%). Under health insurance, other companies with low rejection ratios are Iffco Tokio (4.7%), Bajaj Allianz (5.9%), and Go Digit (7.9%). IBAI’s handbook reveals that when calculated across business lines, SBI General, Chola MS, and Tata AIG have higher claims repudiation ratios of 9%, 10.4%, and 13% respectively.
Certain companies have high claims repudiation ratios in the health sector, indicating a higher proportion of denied claims. While Chola MS stands at 15.3%, Tata AIG and Star Health recorded 19.1% and 18.5%. In the motor segment, Chola MS (9.3%), Magma HDI (10.9%), Zuno (11.7%), Navi General (15.8%), Tata AIG (10.1%), Reliance General (10.3%), and ICICI Lombard (10.8%) have relatively high repudiation ratios.
Incidentally, other public sector insurers do not fare as well as New India in claims rejection. For overall claims, the ratios were: National Insurance (8.3%), Oriental Insurance (9.9%), and United India (5.4%).
In health insurance, the ratios are 8.8% for National Insurance, 6.6% for Oriental Insurance, and 6.6% for United India. For motor own-damage (OD) claims, National Insurance has a ratio of 9.3%, Oriental Insurance of 3.4%, and United India of 6.6%.
