WHY IS THERE A 90 DAY WAITING PERIOD FOR HEALTH INSURANCE?

According to the new rule of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), any employee needs to wait for 90 days before getting covered under a group health plan. If not so, any employer exceeding the 90 calendar days can be fined up to $100 per day. In simple words, every employee receives an effective 90 calendar days in which they newly become eligible for availing any insurance coverage from the date they are hired or if they have to work more hours than they usually work. Looking at a glance this rule looks simple, but there are minute technicalities that every employer needs to understand.

Understanding about the 90 days health care waiting period:

90 days waiting period is the time that needs to be passed before the employed person or dependents become eligible for the activation of the new plan. The waiting period is simply the time you need to wait for availing of the new health insurance policy. For instance, the most common type of waiting period is waiting to use benefits of maternity coverage. In such a case, the insured person needs to wait for 2-3 years before they avail of the benefits of maternity cover which means you need to have a policy for at least 2 years.

Different types of waiting period in health insurance policy:

Pre-existing disease: If you are going to purchase a health insurance policy, and you need to share your existing disease to insurance providers such as high blood pressure, diabetes, thyroid, etc then these medical conditions are known as pre-existing diseases. If you have these conditions then insurance companies may ask you to go for medical tests to check the seriousness of the disease. Based on the results of medical tests reports they will decide if they will offer you medical insurance or not. If the proposal is accepted by the insurance company then there could be a waiting period of about 4 years. In such a case, hospital expenses can be claimed for the only completion of 4 years by the insurer. Therefore it is always best to purchase a health care policy as soon as possible to avoid any type of waiting period.

Waiting period for infants: Some insurance companies offer maternity benefits but have a waiting period of 9 months to 36 months. As many health insurance policies have an option to include a baby addon as maternity benefits. It is best to add such a plan that will help you to meet the expenses that arise after delivery.

How to reduce the waiting period of healthcare insurance?

Some of the insurance offering companies offer to reduce the waiting period by paying some extra amount. In most cases, insurance companies do not suggest offering waiting periods for health care policies. According to IRDA rules, employers who are a part of group health plans offered by their organizations can convert their group plans into individualinto an individual plans. In this case, individualsindividual does not wait for the waitingfor waiting period as they have already surpassed the waiting period offered by their respective employer.

Some of the key points related to the waiting period:

In case during the waiting period, the insured person gets diagnosed with a disease, then it will not be considered as per existing disease. As time is changing, so insurance companies have designed some plans that are specially made for senior citizens where waiting time can be reduced by copay clause. The copay clause means the policyholders will have to pay a certain percentage of health insurance plans.

We hope that this blog has helped you in understanding about the waitingabout waiting period in detail. In health insurance terms, the waiting period is said to be a cooling period. It is the time where insurance gets covered before starting a health plan. So, if you have made up yourmade your mind to buy a good health care policy, then do some research and choose a plan which has the shortest waiting period.