Over 225,000 death claims due to the pandemic were settled by insurance companies up to March 2022, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) said in its recently released annual report.
It further said general insurers and standalone health insurers received a huge number of claims related to COVID treatment which the industry handled "quite efficiently" and settled claims of about INR250 billion (US$3.02 billion).
As per the data in the report, a total of 26,54,001 health insurance claims were settled.
IRDAI said insurance companies settled over 225,000 death claims on account of the pandemic and paid INR172.69 billion towards claims up to 31 March 2022.
The life insurance industry paid benefits of INR5.02 trillion in 2021-22, which constitutes 73.1% of the net premium.
LIC accounted for 70.39% of total benefits paid and private insurers the remaining 29.61%.
"In case of individual life insurance business, the life industry's death claim settlement ratio increased to 98.64% in 2021-22 from 98.39% in the previous year and the repudiation/rejection ratio decreased to 1.02% from 1.14%," the report said.
General and health insurers settled 21.9 million health insurance claims and paid INR694.98 billion towards settlement of the claims. The average amount paid per claim was INR31,804.
The net incurred claims of the general insurers stood at INR1.41 trillion in 2021-22 as against INR1.12 trillion in 2020-21, an increase of about 26%, reported The Economic Times.