How to change your health insurance to another company?
If you want to change your health insurance to another company, you have to take into account several factors, such as the deadline to request cancellation with your current insurance, the coverage, and benefits offered by the new company, as well as the waiting periods that you could apply.
When can we change our health insurance?
The insurance contract law, which also governs health insurance, establishes that the duration of insurance contracts shall be one year. The reason is to avoid fraud and abuse and to be able to guarantee the medical coverage and services contracted with the company. The most common is the expiration on December 31, that is, the expiration in a calendar year. The law has recently been modified, the company informs the client 2 months in advance of the update of the premium for the new year, and a modification has been included favoring the client, who will notify the company if there is any change one month before his renewal. Therefore, we must check the expiration date of our insurance, regardless of the month in which we contracted it. If we do not communicate the decision to cancel our insurance at least one month in advance, it will be tacitly renewed, since it is regulated in this way by insurers.
However, some situations allow its cancellation in exceptional cases, such as death, being unemployed, or moving our residence to another country, provided that we provide the necessary documentation to prove the said situation.
How to manage the cancellation of our insurance?
The first thing we must do is contact our insurance company to tell us the procedures and requirements to request the cancellation of our policy. Most companies request this request in writing, which is recommended for the client, and thus be able to justify their intention. We recommend that, if possible, you go to your nearest office and request a specific request form to cancel your insurance, since if you do it by e-mail or fax, it may be that your company does not receive it due to a technical problem.
It is very important to remember that the fact of returning the receipts does not imply the cancellation of your health insurance policy and would generate unpaid receipts. Therefore, the company can claim the amounts not paid judicially. In addition, if in the future you wanted to take out health insurance again with the same company, you could have difficulties if the cause of the cancellation was late payment.
What are the deficiencies?
The deficiencies (term different from the “pre-existing”) are the period that elapses from the date of registration of the policy and the day on which certain tests can be requested, generally high-diagnosis tests, hospitalizations, and surgical interventions. Insurance companies require that the insured take a certain period to access these services. For example, for an MRI, it is common for the waiting period to be three months, and that it increases when it comes to hospitalizations and surgical interventions. They are usually tests and services of high economic cost. These deadlines try to avoid fraud and registrations are made when the need arises to request cancellation once said the need has ended. Although there are indeed specific insurance modalities such as group insurance that may have deficiencies eliminated. Some companies, such as Adeslas, exclude the grace period in case of vital risk of the insured.
Most insurance companies usually consider the possibility of eliminating these grace periods when the insured comes from another insurance company. For this, the usual thing is that they require that both insurances overlap, that the new registration occurs the day immediately after the cancellation of the previous company. Therefore, if you come from another company, you must notify the new company so that they inform you of the possibility of eliminating this grace period, and advise you if there are pre-existing or previous pathology since as a client you are obliged to communicate to the new company when completing the health questionnaire necessary to formalize your new health insurance contract. Our Adeslas offices will be happy to inform you and help you if you want to change your health insurance, improve your current insurance and take out your health insurance with Adeslas, it is important to contact a specialized mediator and go to your agent for advice on something as important as your health, that of your family and that of your company.
What benefits and coverage does the new company offer us?
It is very important that the new company informs us in detail and precisely about the coverage it offers us, since not all health insurance is the same, coverage can be basic, complete, or reimbursement, and there is a big difference in the market in terms of services and benefits. When an illness arises within the family it is a delicate and difficult situation, we need to have the peace of mind that our insurance offers us coverage with the best professionals and the best hospitals at our service. In personal insurance, such as health insurance, the monthly fee or premium that we pay is only indicative and the important thing is to know if the contracted insurance meets our needs.
At ADESLAS we know how important it is to know what is important.
- When you take out Adeslas health insurance, you will have at your disposal the largest medical team in the country, more than 43,000 professionals, and 1,150 assistance centers. Remember that if you travel abroad you have emergency medical assistance anywhere in the world.
- We adapt to your needs with different types of insurance to take care of your health, with or without a copay, with the Adeslas Plena range.
- You will have the coverage you need, tailored to your needs, ambulatory or complete, with or without a copay, with medical chart or reimbursement so that you can establish a personalized family or business plan: general medicine, specialties, diagnostic means, emergencies, hospitalization, and other treatments and additional coverage such as travel assistance or radioneurosurgery, among others.
