General insurers' rejected more claims in 2010-11

The number of claims rejected by the general insurance industry has been increasing in 2010-11, according to the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority's (IRDA) annual report.

“The rise is due to the fact that the sector is expanding rapidly and business volumes are increasing. The number of policies issued by non-life insurance companies is increasing year on year. It stood at 7.93 crore in the year 2010-11 (4.67 crore in the year 2006-07, at the time of de-tariffing). Accordingly, the number of claim intimations is also higher and, therefore, an increase in claim repudiations in numerical terms,” IRDA said in the report. The net incurred claims of the 24 non-life insurers stood at 29,536 crore in 2010-1, against 22,274 crore in 2009-10. The incurred claims showed an increase of 32.60 per cent during 2010-11. While the public sector insurers reported growth at 30.95 per cent in the incurred claims, the same was higher for private insurers at 35.99 per cent However, overall the growth in incurred claims during 2010-11 at 32.60 per cent was significantly higher than 12.97 per cent recorded during the previous year.

Among the various segments, motor insurance and health insurance had high claims ratios, at 102.69 per cent and 100.08 per cent respectively. Compared with the previous year, the incurred claims ratio in all segments except in health insurance, has increased. There was a substantial reduction in the incurred claims ratio in the health segment from 111.13 per cent in 2009-10 to 100.08 per cent in 2010-11.

Overall, the percentage of claims rejected at the non-life industry level is only 2.6 per cent, from the total number of claims processed during 2010-11.The industry settled 85.3 per cent claims of the total claims lodged.

IRDA has constituted an elaborate grievance redressal mechanism, Integrated Grievance Management System (http://www.igms.irda.gov.in), which enables access to grievances lodged with insurers on the website of IRDA.

deepa.n@thehindu.co.in