NTUC Incomeshield rewarded me with $75

Yes, that’s because I supposedly chose a lower ward category than what I am insured for for my day surgical procedure. I said supposedly because I didn’t make the choice, knew I could make a choice for such a simple procedure, the hospital (TTSH) did.

At the time of scheduling for my procedure, I was given a form to fill if I wanted to pay for it using my Medisave. With cash in my Medisave account earning 4% interest whilst my physical cash is earning next to nothing, it makes sense to pay by cash. However on the morning of my procedure the staff told me that if I wanted to pay by cash I would have to wait till after the procedure as it would only be then that the exact amount could be ascertained. Plus, I would have to queue again just to pay. The thought of queuing again made me decides to use my Medisave. It was never my intention to claim this from Incomeshield because unnecessary claims will have a bearing on your claim history, claimable amount and premiums payable. So I was surprised that it was paid by my insurer instead of Medisave.

An Incomeshield staff I spoke to said that this was normal – if a patient has other medical insurance, the amount will eventually come from the insurer and not Medisave (if Medisave was deducted first, Incomeshield will reimburse the amount back to the Medisave account).

As for the $75 cheque I got, it was my “hospital cash benefit”, resulting from using a lower ward category than what I was insured for. This was also possible partly because my cover was with Plus Rider, meaning the entire bill amount (up to my insured limits) will be fully covered.

So I didn’t fork out any of my own money, cash or medisave, for the procedure and on top of that I got $75 which I am definitely not spending it on chicken’s essence.

A notice attached to the cheque exhorts me in future to claim from my employer or another insurer instead and if I submit such documents to this effect to Incomeshield, I will get $30 worth of Fairprice vouchers! I am speechless and don’t know how to react to this!