The only medical emergency that happens suddenly is accidents. Except for accidents, other medical emergencies, no matter if it's just cough and cold, does not happen by chance. You first start experiencing the symptoms, visit doctors for consultation, diagnosis, and then take the final decision of hospitalization. The diagnosis involves several medical tests to understand the condition of the patient.
Similarly, the patient has to continue taking the medications after getting discharged from the hospital. The medical treatment continues while the patient recovers and gets better. Until and unless the patient does not feel perfectly fine, the procedure and the consultation continues.
Due to the sky-rocketing medical expenses, these expenses can quickly exhaust your savings if you are inadequately covered. Hence, before getting a health insurance policy, it is essential to check the coverage for pre-hospitalisation and post-hospitalization expenses provided by your policy.
Let's understand pre and post hospitalization expenses in detail -
Pre-hospitalisation payments refer to the medical cost incurred before the patient gets hospitalized due to the same disease. Most health insurance policies cover these costs anywhere between 45-90 days before the hospitalization.
Post-hospitalization expenses refer to the medical cost incurred after the patient gets discharged after the treatment for the diagnosed disease. Most
health insurance policies cover these costs anywhere between 45-90 days after the discharge date from the hospital.
Suppose a patient gets hospitalized for the treatment of typhoid on 3rd March 2018. However, the patient must have experienced the symptoms from a week before the final hospitalization. The pre-hospitalization phase must have involved events like visiting the doctor, medical tests, prescribed medicines, etc. Later that week, the hospitalization took place, and the patient got the treatment for the next seven days and got discharged on 10th March 2018.
Assuming the claim gets accepted, all the patient's medical expenses will be taken care of by the insurer company. The costs involved in treatment before hospitalization will be covered as part of the pre-hospitalisation payments. The prices of medicines, tests, and doctor fees after discharge will be reimbursed under the post-hospitalization expenses.