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Star Health cover for BPL families in Andhra Pradesh

CHENNAI: For the second year in a row, the Andhra Pradesh Government has chosen the Chennai-based Star Health and Allied Insurance Company, a standalone health insurance firm, to provide accident cover to BPL (below poverty line) families in the State.

Star Health has collected a premium of around Rs. 13 crore to provide one-year accident cover to 7.87 crore people in the age group of 18-69 falling under the category of BPL families, which are given white ration cards.

V. Jagannathan, Managing Director, said Star Health had landed this order against some stiff competition. The country’s first standalone health insurance company had also collected the second instalment of premium worth Rs. 33 crore for providing surgical intervention cover for five specified diseases to BPL families in three districts of Andhra Pradesh. The company had already collected a similar amount as first instalment, he added. The Andhra Pradesh Government was planning to bring five more districts under the insurance cover, he said. Mr. Jagannathan said Star Health was also in talks with the Puducherry Government for replicating similar insurance schemes for BPL families in at least two districts of the Union Territory.

He said Star Health was now toying with the idea of creating an independent vertical for government business.

He was hopeful of collecting premium income of Rs. 200 core this year. Star Health, he said, had a pan-India presence now, with the opening of a number of branches in the North. The company has tie-ups with about 2,900 hospitals.

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