Covid-19 patients isolated at home still eligible for insurance payout, says Public Health Ministry
The Public Health Ministry said on Monday that people who have contracted Covid-19 and were told to isolate at home or at a hospitel can still make insurance claims because this is equivalent to treatment in a hospital.
“Insurance companies cannot refuse claims on grounds that a patient’s home or hospitel is not a hospital,” Dr Thares Krainairawiwong, Department of Health Service Support’s director-general, said. “Under the Health Facility Act, a patient’s home that is used for isolation and hospitels are considered temporary health facilities, and therefore patients staying there for the purpose of disease treatment are considered inpatients.”
Thares added that the same interpretation applies to community isolation (CI) centres that have registered with the ministry.
“Eligible CI centres must have isolation quarters, on-call physicians either in person or via teleconference and oxygenators for patients with severe symptoms. If they meet these requirements then they are considered temporary health facilities,” he said.
Earlier this month, the Thai Life Assurance Association announced that insurance companies will only cover patients who have been admitted as inpatients at hospitals, not those who have been isolated at home.
It cited the Public Health Ministry’s requirements for a Covid-19 patient to be admitted to a hospital, in which the patient must have one or more of the following symptoms:
- A fever higher than 39 degrees Celsius for more than 24 hours.
- Taking more than 25 breaths per minute (applicable to adults).
- Less than 94 per cent oxygen saturation.
- Having a chronic disease that requires constant monitoring.
- Children who have trouble breathing, become lethargic and refuse to eat or drink milk.