Lesson 2 of 3 · 8 min
Two clocks at the hospital desk
A cashless request must be decided within an hour, and a discharge authorisation within three. Miss the second clock and the insurer pays for the delay.
The two moments a health policy is actually tested are admission and discharge, and both used to run on nobody's clock. A family would sit in a hospital corridor with a bill and no answer, and the only honest thing anyone could say was that it would come when it came. Both moments now have a stated limit.
| Moment | The limit | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Request for cashless authorisation | Decided immediately, and in no case more than one hour | The admission answer is not an open-ended wait |
| Request for discharge authorisation | Final authorisation within three hours | You are not held at the hospital while the file moves |
| Delay beyond three hours | Extra hospital charges are borne by the insurer | The cost of the insurer's delay is not yours |
| Death during treatment | Claim settled immediately; remains released immediately | The family is not held over paperwork |
One more thing sits behind these clocks: insurers are required to work towards settling every claim cashless, with reimbursement reserved for exceptional cases. That is a direction of travel rather than a guarantee on any one claim — but it tells you which way to push when a hospital says a policy is reimbursement-only.
Put these in order
Put a cashless hospital claim in order.
- The insurer grants final authorisation within three hours
- Treatment happens, and the hospital requests discharge authorisation
- The insurer decides on that request within an hour
- The hospital sends the insurer a request for cashless authorisation
Check yourself
1 / 3
Kabir asks
How long may an insurer take to decide a cashless authorisation request?
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