Government seeks uniform norms and faster integration to address medical inflation and improve cashless claims

A high-level meeting led by DFS Secretary M. Nagaraju on November 13, 2025, brought together major hospitals, insurers and industry bodies to address rising medical inflation and premium costs.

The discussion focused on faster adoption of the National Health Claims Exchange, standardised protocols, smoother cashless access and better service for policyholders.

Participants agreed that closer cooperation between insurers and hospitals is needed to improve transparency, control costs and deliver better value to health insurance customers.

According to the PIB press release, the meeting was attended by representatives from the General Insurance Council, Association of Healthcare Providers in India (AHPI), healthcare industry representatives from Max Healthcare, Fortis Healthcare, Apollo Hospitals and insurers like New India Assurance Company Limited, Star Health Insurance and Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company, along with several others.

Inderjeet Singh, Secretary General, General Insurance Council, Dr Suneeta Reddy, MD, Apollo Hospitals, Shivakumar Pattabhiraman, MD, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Abhay Soi, CMD, Max Healthcare, Dr Girdhar J. Gyani, Director General, AHPI, Krishnan Ramachandran, CEO of Niva Bupa Health Insurance, Amitabh Jain, ED & COO, Star Health Insurance, Meera Parthasarathy, General Manager at Oriental Insurance Company, participated in the discussions alongside several other stakeholders.

Secretary advised insurers and hospitals to take measures such as expediting the onboarding on the National Health Claims Exchange, devising standardised treatment protocols, common empanelment norms, seamless cashless claims processing, etc., to make healthcare affordable and accessible.

Further, he emphasised that standardised hospital empanelment norms across all insurers would ensure consistent cashless access for policyholders, streamline service terms, improve operational procedures, and reduce the administrative burden on hospitals, per the PIB press release.

He stressed that the insurance companies should ensure that the policyholders are provided with the highest standards of service and better turnaround time, especially during the hospitalisation process and while providing approvals for settlement of claims.

During the meeting, the Secretary also advised that while medical inflation is interconnected with various cost drivers, greater collaboration between hospitals and insurers through cost control and standardisation is necessary to bring transparency and efficiency to ensure better value for health insurance policyholders, per the press release.