Seth’s Blog on Finance

Enhanced Aviva MyShield

Good news to MyShield policyholders and people considering to take up MyShield – Aviva has recently enhanced MyShield, their integrated Medishield policy designed to insure against healthcare costs in Singapore. Even better news would be that these improvements in benefits do not come with any increases in premiums.

Here are the notable enhanced benefits:

Interim Coverage while policy is being processed
Letter of Guarantee now includes private hospitals
Increased Annual Claim Limit

In my opinion, the interim coverage is quite a useful feature to have. While most life policies give interim coverage should the person pass away due to an accident before his policy is in force, Aviva’s MyShield would be the first integrated Medishield hospitalisation policy that provides interim coverage while the application is still being processed. This coverage is up to $30,000 in medical reimbursements for inpatient expenses in a local restructured hospital due to an accident. As such healthcare policies are integrated with Medishield, they are only processed once every month unlike other policies. Someone who misses the month’s deadline would have to wait an entire month for his cover to kick in. Such an interim cover will give some basic coverage at least while the policy is being processed.

The Letter of Guarantee feature is now extended to private hospitals such as Parkway East, Mount Elizabeth and Gleneagles hospitals. Simply informing the hospital that one is covered under MyShield will take care of the upfront cash deposit and hospital claim with the hospital directly, subject to terms and conditions.

The annual limits for MyShield Plan 1 has also increased from $500,000 to $650,000. With the rising costs of medical costs, this allows a better safety net for unexpected events.

These new enhancements join the rest of Aviva’s innovative features such as Moratorium Underwriting and free coverage for children. Aviva was also the first to pioneer the “As Charged” integrated Medishield policy which is now the norm. Hopefully such enhancements also encourage other insurers to step up their game.

Aviva has also shown some examples of large claims they have processed: