2018 Karnataka polls: Congress reduces number of Muslim candidates, fields more Lingayats

Bengaluru, Mar 11: The Insurance Regulatory Authority of India has asked insurers to settle all claims related to coronavirus expeditiously under existing health policies that provide for treatment of hospitalisation expenses.

It has also asked insurers to design products covering the cost of treatment of coronavirus that has fast spread across the world and also resulted in increasing number of infections in India. There has been over 3,000 deaths globally and 58 cases tested positive in India.

In order to provide need-based health insurance coverage, insurers are intro ducing products for various specific diseases, including vector borne diseases. "For the purpose of meeting health insurance requirements of various sections, insurers are advised to design products covering the costs of treatment for coronavirus," the IRDAI said in a circular.

The regulator said that under existing health insurance policies where hospitalisation is covered, not only the cases related to coronvirus disease (COVID-19) shall be expeditiously handled, but all the costs of admissible medic al expenses during the course of treatment, including the treatment during quarantine period, should be settled in accordance to the applicable terms and conditions of policy contract and the extant regulatory framework.

This would bring much needed relief to policy holders some of whom were facing difficulty in getting coverage for treatment takers to coronavirus. In the absence of clear information, a few hospitals were reportedly denying for forward such claims of policy holders to the insurers.

IRDAI has now said that all the claims reported under COVID-19 shall be thoro ughly reviewed by review committee before repudiating the claims. This would prevent blanket rejection of such claims.

But to get full claim for treatment of coronavirus, industry experts said, a person should be hospitalised at least for 24 hours. Most insurers do not c over outpatient treatment.

Mysuru, Jan 11: Accusing the Congress and other opposition parties of pursuing “vote bank politics” on the Citizenship (Amendment ) Act (CAA), Kannada littérateur and Saraswathi Samman awardee S L Byrappa accused the party of misleading the people on the issue.

Speaking to media persons here on Friday, Mr Bhyrappa said that Congress was adopting the divide and rule policy of the British, who had created a rift between the Hindus and the Muslims to break their unity during the freedom struggle.

Bengaluru, Jul 4: Karnataka Congress leader Dinesh Gundu Rao said on Saturday that he and his family would get tested for COVID-19 after one of his security persons tested positive for the infection.

Rao's family will also be in-home quarantine for the stipulated time.

"One of my police security person has tested positive for COVID yesterday. My family members and I are getting tested now and will be in-home quarantine for the stipulated time period. None of us are showing any symptoms," he said.

The total number of cases in Karnataka stands at 19,710. Out of them, 8,805 have recovered and 293 patients have lost their lives, according to the Union Health Ministry.

Across the country, the total number of cases stands at 6,48,315. As many as 3,94,227 patients have recovered so far and 18,655 have lost their lives due to the virus.