Insurer picks ‘truck’ over ‘track’ to reject Rs 6 lakh death claim

SURAT: An inadvertent typing mistake in hospital documents can become a tool for insurance companies to misinterpret and reject the death claim.
The widow of a Valsad resident realized this when a private insurance firm was quick to latch on to the word ‘truck’ in the hospital’s discharge summary and reject the claim of her husband whose death was never caused by the heavy vehicle.
However, the Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum (CDRC) has come to the woman's rescue by observing that the company had misinterpreted the words 'truck and 'track' and ordered it to pay the death claim.
Alok Singh of Valsad had purchased a Rs 5 lakh life insurance policy for a period from Dec 2021 to Dec 2022 from Niva Bupa Health Insurance with a no-claim bonus of Rs 1 lakh. On July 11, Singh lost control of his car due to heavy rains and the four-wheeler jumped to the other side of the road after hitting the pole of a divider. Due to the impact, the car jumped the highway track on to the opposite track, and Singh suffered serious injuries. He died on July 27 in a Vapi hospital.
The FIR filed immediately after the accident clearly mentioned that the car driver lost control due to a pothole on the highway and rammed into a pole on the divider. However, the discharge summary of the Vapi-based Rainbow Hospital, where Singh died 15 days after the accident, wrongly stated that the car dashed with a ‘truck.’
The company rejected the death claim submitted by Singh’s widow Kanchan by misinterpreting the discharge summary and stating that Singh was driving on the wrong side of the road.
Kanchan moved the Valsad CDRC where the insurer argued that the applicant had not come into the court with clean hands. Observing that this was a deficiency in service, the CDRC ordered the company to pay Rs 5.97 death claim along with 8% interest and Rs 3,000 for physical and mental harassment.