First time renewing health insurance?

Now that your health insurance policy is just a few months away from expiry, here’s the guide you need before the renewal period.

Health insurance policies are generally a one-year contract that must be renewed on expiry. Ideally, your insurer would send you a renewal notice reminding you of the upcoming expiry of your health insurance policy. The process of renewal is quite straightforward, and since health insurance is mandatory in the UAE, this is a process you cannot avoid.

Let’s break it down even further.

Understanding your existing health insurance plan is essential for a smooth renewal process. Renewal is merely an annual check-up of your health insurance policy. You must go through the policy to understand what works for you and what doesn’t, and if you would like to make any changes, what would those be.

If you are looking at the renewal of your group health insurance policy, you must understand that the renewal constitutes a new contract between the insurance company and the client. Renewals are an opportunity for you to revisit the existing policy and make changes to the benefits that align with what your team needs.

The process of health insurance renewals is straightforward. If you have an existing broker, they would be able to help you through it.

1. Firstly, at the time of renewal, the insurance company would reassess the pricing for the new year. It is important to keep in mind that the costs typically rise every year to account for inflation, doctor’s fees, new healthcare technology and drugs.
2. Once this is done, the insurance providers will present you with the available plans along with the pricing. It is at this stage that you must select the plan that provides the most value to your employees. While selecting the policy for your employees, make sure you go through the benefits and acknowledge all the changes. There is always a scope of negotiation, it is essential that you are transparent with your broker so that they can get you the insurance plan that best fits your needs.
3. The next steps are working out the paperwork to ensure a smooth policy placement. A good practice is to provide your insurance company or broker with all the required documents as soon as possible. The documents required for renewal of a group health insurance policy are standard.

If you are deciding to renew your group health insurance through a new insurance company or broker, make sure you give the process a considerable amount of time as this process can be longer as compared to renewing with the same broker. You want to avoid the risk of having no medical insurance coverage during the renewal period.

Your health insurance renewal period is a good time to reassess the health needs of your organization, the budget and choose a policy that best fits your needs. The insurance market today provides a myriad of insurance plans to choose from but having done your research along with a thorough understanding of your employees’ needs will aid you in making the right decision.