Now, Irda plans unique ID for hospitals

MUMBAI: The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority ( Irda) is in the process of issuing unique identity numbers to hospitals to determine pricing patterns for various diseases. There is currently no such coding for hospitals through the ministry of health or municipal corporations. The new system is expected to provide a better understanding of protocol and cost standards.

"IIB ( Insurance Information Bureau) is collecting transactional data of all insurers," said TS Vijayan, chairman of Irda, on the sidelines of an Indian Merchants' Chamber event. "We are working with hospitals of the national accreditation agencies on whether we can uniquely identify hospitals. Unique identity numbers will be integrated with the pin code of the area and name of hospitals."

The beta version of the system is to be released by this weekend. Irda has identified 30,000 hospitals working with insurance companies. Data is being collected from third-party administrators, insurers and the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana programme.

"We can know the pattern like pricing, customer mapping. We can identify culprits," said R Raghvan, CEO of IIB. The effort will also help curb overcharging by hospitals, he said.

The Bombay HC last month issued notices to non-life insurers seeking pre-packaged rates for 42 ailments on the basis of the sum insured and the type of hospitals. The next hearing is on November 28.

The regulator is also in the process of compiling data on fraud, largely pertaining to health and motor insurance. It will cover hospital fraud, intermediary-induced fraud, user fraud and insider fraud.