Are you planning to take out a health insurance policy? Then below are the 5 things to keep in mind while purchasing a health insurance policy. The group term insurance plan as well as group health insurance can be purchased from an insurance broker. 

• Coverage:- The coverage in a health insurance policy is the maximum liability of the insurance company in case of hospitalization. This is also known as the sum insured under the group health insurance policy. The maximum amount of claim that would be settled depends on the sum insured under the policy. It is important to decide the best cover for your health insurance policy.  
• Premium:- Premium is the amount paid by the insured for availing the health insurance cover. The premium payable under the health insurance policy depends on certain factors such as the age of the insured, coverage, pre-existing health conditions etc. 

The premium should be reasonable while taking the health insurance policy after comparing the premiums from different health insurance quotes. The premium would be pre fixed for most of the retail health insurance policies in general conditions while that of the group health insurance policy should be underwritten based on different factors. The group health insurance and group term insurance plans are customizable which requires a different approach for each case. 

• Network hospitals:- Network hospitals are the hospitals which are tied up with the insurance companies to offer cashless claim settlement to customers in case of a hospitalization due to an illness or disease. More the number of network hospitals, higher would be the chances of availing cashless claim settlement facility.   

It is important to check the list of network hospitals in your area before purchasing the health insurance policy. If there are no network hospitals in your area, then it would require you to go for reimbursement claim settlement option. 

The list of network hospitals should be checked before taking the group health insurance policy. 

• Co-pay:- Co-pay or co-payment is the amount of claim that has to be borne by the insured customer at the time of claim settlement. If there is any co-pay clause in the health insurance policy, then the co-pay would be applicable in each and every claim under the policy. 

The co-pay ranges from 10% to 50% in health insurance policies. It is important to check whether there is a compulsory co-pay clause in the health insurance policy before taking it. The co-pay would be higher in senior citizen health insurance policies. The co-pay thing should be checked before taking the health insurance. 

• Hidden charges, exclusions etc:- There are certain hidden charges in the health insurance policy which would not be paid at the time of claim settlement. For instance the consulting fees and diagnosis fees or other scanning expenses might not be covered under the policy. 

All these should be checked thoroughly before taking the health insurance policy. There are certain exclusions which are policy specific and insurance companies specific.