What are Non-Medical Expenses in Health Insurance?

What are Non-Medical Expenses in Health Insurance?

Health insurance offers financial coverage during planned and unplanned hospitalization, nevertheless, in non-medical expenses, the expenses incurred on several items used during hospitalization are not included in health insurance coverage. Thus, the insurance company will not pay for the non-medical expenses during claim settlement, and one will have to pay on their own.

List of nonmedical expenses in health insurance

Under IRDAI’s guidelines, some optional medical items utilized during the treatment or hospitalization are not considered medical expenses when settling insurance claims. The nonmedical expenses list is classified based on the treatment and hospitalization.

1. Non-Medical Expenses Under Treatment Costs:

The cost of the following items is not covered during the treatment:

1. Registration/admission charges
2. Disinfectant, spirit & hydrogen peroxide
3. Infusion pump charges
4. Nutritionists or dietician charges
5. Urine container
6. Diabetic footwear
7. Antiseptic mouthwash
8. Blood reservation cost
9. Vaccination cost
10. HIV kit

    2. Non-Medical Expenses Under Hospital Room Charges:

The related expenses to the following items utilized during hospital room stay are not covered:

• Gown
• Hand wash
• Pulse oximeter charges
• Housekeeping charges
• Tissue paper
• Hot pack/ cold pack
• Toothbrush & toothpaste
• Comb, slippers & caps
• Foot cover
• Buds

  3. Non-Medical Expenses Under Procedure Costs:

The cost of the below items used during a surgical procedure is not covered:

• Surgical blades
• Bandages & cotton
• Disposable razors
• Arthroscopy and Endoscopy instrument charges
• Gauze blades
• Harmon scalpel blades
• Eye pad
• Hair removal cream
• Surgical drill
• Apron

  4. Other Non-Payable Medical Expenses:

The below non-medical expenses are not covered:

• Needles, syringes & sterilized injections
• Medicine box
• Referral doctor’s fees
• Digestion gels
• Paper gloves
• Washing charges
• Barber charges

Here are some things that one should remember about non-medical expenses in health insurance

• Any non-medical expenses will not be covered under the health insurance policy as per the guidelines of IRDAI in case of hospitalization.
• The IRDAI listed non-medical expenses are normal. Also, can be found in your policy documents.
• One has to make sure that they check their policy document to know about the non-medical expenses excluded under their policy. With this, one can avoid any surprises during claim settlement.
• It is better to know about non-medical expenses under your policy to curtail the out-of-pocket expenses. This will also prevent you from expending a lot on items that are not covered by your policy and therefore, your out-of-pocket expenditure will decrease.
• There are some health plans that may cover non-medical expenses as an add-on cover. In such cases, one can purchase this cover for an additional premium amount to eliminate any extra expenses.

Conclusion

It is important that one should go through the list of non-medical expenses that are excluded from health insurance as per IRDAI. This will help to reduce the extra expenses and avoid any bothers. Non-medical costs are an unavoidable part of every hospitalization, and unfortunately, one cannot claim these expenses under their health insurance policy.