Understanding Employee Insurance Options: Which is Best for Your IT Company Today?

Hello All,

Can anybody provide me the differences between:

a) Employee's Health Insurance
b) Mediclaim
c) Group Insurance.

And in these days, which type of insurance will be good for an IT company and why?

Hi Madhu,

When it comes to Employee Health insurance: It is treated as a concept which may include cashless cards, cashless treatment at recognized hospitals, and mediclaims, etc.

Whereas Group insurance is a specific term in life insurance. Here, a group (at least 25 in general cases) gets life insurance, and the premium payment is generally by the employer or employer and employee. This deals with death benefits generally.

Medicalim is a non-life insurance term that generally comes under general insurance and benefits the person/employee in sickness, surgery, accidents, etc. For this, a minimum of 24 hours hospitalization is required if using cashless cards. This is a general trend that I have communicated to you. Specific information could be conveyed by an insurance specialist.

Regards, Tikam S Shekhawat

Hi Madhu,

1. Employee's Health Insurance is related to ESI for industrial workers.
2. Mediclaim covers the reimbursement of hospitalization/domiciliary hospitalization expenses for illness/diseases or injuries sustained. This can be provided by employers as individual (covering only the employee) or group (covering the employee and their dependents).
3. Group Insurance is life insurance covering employees along with their dependents.

Regards,
Rachna Sinha

Dear Madhu,

I think employees in IT companies are more concerned about income tax benefits and extra income from their insurance plans. That's why you should get an insurance plan according to your employees' needs.

1] Private insurance companies offer a variety of health insurance plans like mediclaim or cashless treatment plans, but their premiums are higher with many other facilities.

2] Government insurance companies provide low premiums with extensive risk coverage.

Here, I would like to suggest a plan that has been implemented in my company. We have taken an insurance plan that covers accident benefits along with a mediclaim insurance cover.

1] We have obtained risk coverage for accident benefits, medical expenses, and temporary disablement benefits under a personal accident policy. For this, we calculate 52 times the basic salary of an employee for the sum assured, which is sufficient for any employee with coverage exceeding 4.5 lakhs.

2] In addition, we provide a mediclaim coverage of up to 1 lakh for all family members of employees.

3] Regarding the mediclaim, we pay the premium from our employees' pockets, which is helpful for them in receiving income tax deductions.

You can consider the points mentioned above with your accounts head and create a comparison chart with all insurance companies before making a decision.

Okay.

Regards,
Mahesh

Please tell me, if you are paying for medical premium out of the employee's pocket, is it mandatory for every employee to get covered under it? What if an employee doesn't wish to?

Hi Madhu,

You can explore multiple options for your IT organization, as nowadays employees are covered under Mediclaim and Accidental Policy. You can cover employees and their families depending on the amount you are willing to spend. However, you can differentiate the coverage based on the levels of the employees working in your organization.

We can discuss this issue further if you could provide more insight into the numbers you have in your organization.

Cheers,
Mohit
hiitsmohit@gmail.com

Well, according to me, you should first understand all the plans that an insurance company is providing. Then, make your employees understand the same and let them decide which one is good for them. Also, ask for the corporate schemes available. Remember, group insurance and corporate insurance are different.

I think you can opt for mediclaim.

You can get the mediclaim policy as a group mediclaim policy where you can take cover of either 1+1, or 1+4, 1+6.

Since yours is an IT company, so the age group won't be too high, I suppose. The premium will be low, and you can negotiate with the insurance companies.

Take quotes from at least 3 insurance companies and compare the rates. You can lower down the premium up to 50% depending on the rates.

Insurance companies give a lot of unnecessary covers which can be waived off. Again, Health Insurance saves taxes.

Group mediclaim or individual mediclaim has two claim processing procedures: Cashless and Reimbursement.

Cashless is that where the insured does not have to pay a single penny from his pocket. He has to flash the cashless card in the network hospitals.

Reimbursement is the procedure where all the bills have to be submitted. Nowadays everyone opts for cashless, but if the employee's family is covered and they are in remote places, then reimbursement is the only option.

Also, take cover for maternity (if a woman employee is there), Pre and post hospitalization covers, etc. If the crowd is in the age group of 35+, you can waive off maternity benefits.