TOTAL Covid-19-related claims paid last year by health maintenance organizations (HMOs), insurers, and mutual benefit associations (MBAs) hit P3.89 billion, with the bulk of the amount going to death benefit claims.
Based on the consolidated data from the three Covid-19-related claims surveys conducted by the Insurance Commission (IC), the HMO sector paid almost half or 49 percent of Covid-19 related claims last year at P1.91 billion.
It was followed by life insurers which paid P1.46 billion or 38 percent of the whole amount. Meanwhile, MBAs and non-life insurers paid P354.9 million (9 percent) and P160.2 million (4 percent), respectively.
In terms of types of benefit claims, most of the Covid-19-related claims paid last year were for death benefits at P1.22 billion, followed by in-patient benefits amounting to P1.18 billion and out-patient benefits amounting to P933.7 million.
“At any rate, we hope that the aggregate amount of Covid-19-related claims paid in 2020 by life and non-life insurers, MBAs, and HMOs either within or outside of contractual obligations amounting to P3.89 billion, which by itself is no small feat, will continue to inspire consumer confidence in said four respondent sectors; and will educate our fellow Filipinos of the benefits of availing the insurance and HMO products,” the Insurance Commission said.
The IC conducted its third survey from October to December last year. The first survey covered the March to April 2020 and the second survey, May to September 2020.
The third survey had 111 respondents, of which 69 reported receiving Covid-19-related claims from October to December 2020. The total number of respondents in the third survey comprised 75.51 percent of 147 licensed life and non-life insurers, MBAs, and HMOs in the country.
Respondents in the third survey included 24 life insurance companies, 43 non-life insurance companies, 27 MBAs, and 17 HMOs.
The results of the third survey showed P1.48 billion in Covid-19-related claims were paid from October to December, of which 44 percent or P646.84 million were paid by life insurers; 40 percent or P592.47 million by HMOs; 9 percent or P132.88 million by MBAs and 7 percent or P103.65 million by non-life insurers.
Of the P1.48-billion claims paid, P1.27 billion was paid within contractual obligations and P209.38 million was paid ex gratia, or outside of contractual obligations.
On per benefit basis, death benefits took the biggest share of Covid-19 related claims paid during the same period, amounting to P602.07 million.
The rest of the amount was spent on in-patient benefits (P480.28 million), out-patient benefits (P220.88 million), other benefits (P141.72 million), medical reimbursement benefits (P12.36 million), and critical illness benefits (P3.7 million).
Read full article on BusinessMirror
