The Association of Healthcare Providers-India (AHPI) has directed its member hospitals in north India to suspend cashless treatment facilities for Bajaj Allianz General Insurance policyholders starting September 1, 2025. A similar notice has been sent to CARE Health Insurance, with a deadline of August 31, 2025, for a response. If no response is received, AHPI will also suspend cashless treatment facilities for CARE policyholders. This means that policyholders will have to pay for medical expenses out of pocket and claim reimbursements later.
According to Dr. Girdhar Gyani, director general of AHPI, the reason for the suspension is that medical inflation in India is around 7-8% per year, driven by rising staff costs, medicines, and overheads. However, Bajaj Allianz has rejected AHPI’s proposal to review tariff rates every two years to keep them in line with medical inflation. Instead, the insurer has demanded tariff cuts, which AHPI claims is unsustainable. Additionally, member hospitals have alleged claim settlement delays and long discharge approval times against Bajaj Allianz.
AHPI has around 615 network hospitals in Delhi-NCR, 511 hospitals in Punjab, 242 hospitals in Uttarakhand, and 1,220 hospitals in Uttar Pradesh. Representatives from AHPI are scheduled to meet with CARE Health officials and Bajaj Allianz General Insurance to resolve the issues. CARE Health has stated that they were surprised by the announcement and did not receive any specific details from AHPI.
The claim settlement ratio for Bajaj Allianz is 95.99%, while CARE Health has a ratio of 92.77%. This ratio indicates the number of claims honored by an insurance company out of every 100 received. This is not the first tariff-related dispute for CARE Health Insurance, as they have had similar issues with other hospital associations earlier this year. CARE Health has also ceased to provide cashless treatment facilities at Max Hospitals across Delhi-NCR since February 17, 2025, due to “unsustainable demands” from the hospital’s perspective.