Insurers Paid $63m in Covid Bills

EghtesadOnline: Insurance companies in Iran paid 16.7 trillion rials ($63 million) in Covid-related medical bills since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in February 2020.

News ID: ۷۸۷۷۱۷

13 February 2022

The Central Insurance company of Iran, the regulatory body of the insurance industry, said on Saturday that hospitalization costs accounted for nearly 36% of the payouts followed by medicinal bills 17% and Covid tests 14%.

Nearly 9% of the payouts was for doctors’ fees. The purpose of 18% of the payments was mentioned.

The brutal disease accounted for 6% of the payouts to medical insurance policyholders during the period. Nearly half the payments were made between March 2021 and March 2022.

The CII announced earlier that Dey Insurance Company, affiliated to Dey Bank, topped the list in terms of Covid bills with 29% of the total reimbursements. Iran Insurance Company, Dana Insurance and Sina Insurance were next each accounting for 10% of the total. Asia Insurance Company came in with 8%.

The insurance industry says it has done all it can to support medical centers and their staff in the fight against the pandemic that has cut short 1133,570 lives, affected almost 6.7 million people and battered the economy.

Law stipulates that insurance companies must pay 10% of their revenue from third-party auto insurance -- the category with the highest share in insurance companies' portfolio -- to the Health Ministry.

Insurers gave 6.6 trillion rials ($28m) to medical centers affiliated to this ministry to help overcome financial constraints inflicted by the virus that continues to spread.

Since the early days of the virus outbreak insurance companies were told to cover all the expenses of policyholders infected with the coronavirus and expand the scope of insurance cover to include PRC tests.

Perilous State

Figures released by the CII this week show the critical status of the medical insurance sector with its loss ratio crossing 106% in the first ten months of the outgoing fiscal year that ends in March.

Insurance companies generated 905 trillion rials ($3.14b) in premium during the ten months posting a growth of 37.5% compared to the same period of last year.

Medical insurance accounted for 162 trillion rials ($611m) or 17.9% of the total premium, up 19.6%. However, 172.3 trillion rials ($650m) was paid in claims in this segment that was 82% higher on the previous year.

During the said period companies sold 928,000 medical insurance policies, 177% higher than in the corresponding period last year.

Total medical insurance claims grew by 42% to 40 million and 94% of the claims were settled during the period.

Insurance companies see the pandemic, despite its destructive impact, as a rare development that allows them to burnish their credentials with customers who often complain about the strange practices, mainly of expensive private hospitals, in demanding full payment of bills and refusing to deal with the bureaucracy of insurance companies and other hassles.

More than 25 million Iranians have medical insurance.