Heart Attack at Work: How Would You Handle Lack of Medical Insurance and Support?

I am working at a hotel in Gurgaon. On 31st December, during preparations for the New Year's event, I had a heart attack at the hotel. I was taken to the hospital and received treatment in the ICU. The next day, I was discharged as the hospital does not have the facility to provide treatment for heart disease. In the following days, I underwent angioplasty with two stents placed in my heart.

The company did not provide any financial support for medical treatment, except for 50% of the cost borne by the company when I was initially admitted to the hospital. The total cost was INR 13,562. I had angioplasty done at my own expense, costing 1.50 lakhs. When I inquired about the treatment cost, HR informed me that there is no medical insurance policy at the managerial level. Furthermore, the company deducted 15 days' salary for the leaves taken during treatment, stating that no sick leave was applicable.

The company should be persuaded to provide group medical coverage for all managerial employees. Additionally, every individual should have a medical insurance policy from a company with a good claim settlement ratio. Regardless of any company-provided coverage, a family floater policy would be a secure option.

Dear Mr. Rao,

Thank you for your response. Could you advise me on the salary deduction during treatment for 15 days?

If your employer doesn't provide sick leave, your 15 days leave for the treatment can be adjusted from your earned leave accruals.

Regarding Medial, every company should have a Medical policy for their employees.

Regarding Leaves - Earned Leaves to be deducted if there is insufficient balance; otherwise, the salary will be deducted. Moreover, a company has to verify, and an employee has to inform his Manager or email HR, looping in the Manager, about any medical issues preventing them from coming to the office.

Dear Akrani,

It is the bounden duty of the employer to cover any medical cases during working hours and on the premises of employment. As suggested by Nathrao, please pursue the matter immediately with the higher-ups and seek relief. Please address the issue with the management, as the HR department downstream cannot resolve the problem unless a policy is established. It would also be a learning experience for the management.

Medical Insurance and Employee Benefits at the Hotel

The establishment, the hotel at Gurgaon, seems to be a third-class establishment. Nowadays, even the smallest of establishments provide mediclaim benefits to their employees, including those in the managerial category. Though the provision of mediclaim is purely a management prerogative, and there is no law that mandates employees should be given medical insurance other than that provided under the ESI Act or the Workmen's Compensation Act, this is considered a part of current-day professional ethics. There are plenty of medical insurance policies available, and those who are out of ESI can certainly buy any of these policies depending on their family size, age of each family member, etc. However, it should be easier for the employees when it is a policy for the entire establishment's employees. Certainly, when it is a corporate policy, it will be cheaper, and there will be a single point of contact for the employees. For the establishment, no cost will be involved because the policy premiums will be part of the employees' CTC and thereby borne by them only.

Handling Medical Emergencies During Employment

It is true that you cannot have a separate leave policy for one person who had an incident like a cardiac arrest. But if you had a mediclaim policy, you would also have been compensated for the loss of salary or income due to absence from work. Now, the most important thing is that the heart attack happened during the course of employment, and as such, the employer should have taken it seriously and considered treating it as a special case because it is our duty to determine whether the incident has any connection with work pressure or if the individual was overstressed to make the event (New Year) successful. If so, it should come under the definition of "during the course of employment," where the responsibility lies with the employer, and such responsibility cannot be shared to make it 50-50.