New Delhi, Nov 14 : The Centre has asked insurers and hospitals to take measures such as expediting the onboarding on National Health Claims Exchange, devising standardised treatment protocols, common empanelment norms and seamless cashless claims processing to make healthcare affordable and accessible, according to an official statement issued on Friday.

Secretary, Department of Financial Services (DFS), M. Nagaraju, chaired a meeting to discuss the issues of medical inflation and rising premium costs.

The meeting was attended by representatives from General Insurance Council, Association of Healthcare Providers in India (AHPI), healthcare industry representatives from Max Healthcare, Fortis Healthcare, Apollo Hospitals and insurers like New India Assurance Company Limited, Star Health Insurance and Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company, along with several others.

Further, he emphasised that having standardised hospital empanelment norms across all insurers would ensure consistent cashless access for policyholders, streamline the service terms, improve operational procedures and reduce administrative burden on hospitals.

He stressed that the insurance companies should ensure that the policy holders are provided with the highest standards of service and better turnaround time especially during hospitalisation process and while providing approvals for settlement of claims.

During the meeting, the Secretary also advised that while medical inflation is interconnected with various cost drivers, greater collaboration between hospitals and insurers through cost control and standardization is necessary to bring transparency and efficiency to ensure better value for health insurance policyholders.

Inderjeet Singh, Secretary General, General Insurance Council, Dr. Suneeta Reddy, MD, Apollo Hospitals, Shivakumar Pattabhiraman, MD, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Abhay Soi, CMD, Max Healthcare, Dr. Girdhar J. Gyani, Director General, AHPI, Krishnan Ramachandran, CEO , Niva Bupa Health Insurance, Amitabh Jain, ED & COO, Star Health Insurance,. Meera Parthasarathy, General Manager, Oriental Insurance Company, participated in the discussions, along with several other stakeholders.

/IANS