KATHMANDU, May 7: Health insurance renewal payments can now be made through service providers like payment wallets and the Interbank Payment System (IPS).
According to Executive Director Dr Raghu Raj Kafle, the Health Insurance Board (HIB) recently introduced this system. The arrangement has been made for online renewal by linking it through the Nagarik app.
Payment of COVID-19 insurance claims halted
With this new arrangement, the HIB believes that the renewal process will become more convenient for users, as they can now complete it easily via mobile devices.
Minister for Health and Population, Pradip Paudel, has recently been working to improve health insurance services to make them more accessible to the public.
As part of these efforts, a new provision has been implemented—approved by a cabinet meeting—allowing citizens to access health services from their current place of residence. Additionally, the waiting period to access services after registration has been reduced from three months to just one month.
Although the decision to enable online health insurance renewal was made earlier, it had not been implemented in practice. However, Information Officer Bikesh Malla said that citizens can now immediately renew their insurance using this service.
Until now, renewals could only be done through agents, which created difficulties for those wanting to renew their insurance instantly at their convenience. The HIB expects that removing this obstacle will lead to an increase in the renewal rate.
