Insurance Ombudsman Health Insurance Complaint Format

The Insurance Ombudsman is a free, fast forum to settle health insurance disputes up to Rs 50 lakh, set up under the Redressal of Public Grievances Rules 2017. You file by sending a written or online complaint with policy and rejection documents to the Ombudsman whose territory covers your address, after first giving the insurer 30 days to respond.

Part of the Health Insurance Claim Recovery Series by RightToInformation.Wiki.

The Insurance Ombudsman is a quasi-judicial body set up by the Government of India. It is not a court, but its Award is binding on the insurer once you accept it. There are 17 territorial offices across India, and you file at the one whose jurisdiction covers your address.

• Free of cost. No fee, no court stamp.
• No advocate needed. You can argue yourself, or take a family member along.
• Disputes up to Rs 50 lakh accepted. The cap rose from Rs 30 lakh in 2021 and again to Rs 50 lakh under the 2024 amendments.
• Decision within 3 months of receiving full papers in most offices.
• Established under the Redressal of Public Grievances Rules 2017, notified by the Central Government under the Insurance Act 1938.
• The body is administered by the Council for Insurance Ombudsmen at Mumbai.

This forum was built for the citizen who cannot wait years in a consumer commission and cannot pay a lawyer. If your health insurance claim has been rejected, partly paid, or delayed, this is usually the first external door to knock.

The Ombudsman can pass two kinds of orders. A Recommendation comes early in the case, often within one month, and requires the consent of both sides to take effect. An Award is the full decision after hearing, with reasoning, and is binding on the insurer. You as the policyholder can accept or reject the Award. If you accept, the insurer must comply within 30 days, or face escalation to the Consumer Commission for enforcement.

Importantly, time spent before the Ombudsman is excluded from the consumer-law limitation under Section 14 of the Limitation Act, 1963. So filing here first does not close the door to a Consumer Commission later.

The Ombudsman accepts complaints from any individual who holds a personal-line insurance policy. That includes:

• Policyholder or claimant under a life, health, motor, fire, marine or any other personal-line insurance policy.
• Group health policyholder. An employee covered under an employer group mediclaim can directly approach the Ombudsman when the insurer denies or short-pays the claim.
• Legal heir or nominee in death-claim cases.
• A senior citizen filing through an authorised family member, with a signed letter of authority.

You cannot complain if:

• The same dispute is already pending before a Consumer Commission, High Court, or Supreme Court for the same cause of action.
• The complaint is on a corporate policy where the insured is a company, partnership, or firm (only personal-line covers qualify).
• The grievance is on a service the Ombudsman has no jurisdiction over (such as a pure agent commission dispute).

This is the single most common reason complaints get rejected on the first hearing date. Read it twice.

1. You must FIRST give the insurer 30 days to respond to your written complaint. Address the complaint to the insurer's Grievance Redressal Officer and also raise a ticket on Bima Bharosa.
2. If you got an unsatisfactory final reply from the insurer, the 30-day clock is treated as met.
3. If the insurer is silent for 30 days, you may file directly with the Ombudsman.
4. Limitation: the complaint must reach the Ombudsman within 1 year of the insurer's reply, or 1 year plus 30 days if the insurer was silent. This is reckoned from the cause of action.
5. The Ombudsman has limited power to condone delay, only on satisfactory cause. Do not test that power, file in time.

A short letter to the insurer's grievance officer is enough to start the clock. Keep proof of dispatch, an Indian Post tracking slip or a Bima Bharosa reference number works.

A practical tip. Many policyholders waste the entire 30-day window by emailing the call centre or chatting on the insurer's app. That is not the grievance officer. Every insurer in India must publish a Grievance Redressal Officer (GRO) with a named email address on its website, under the IRDAI Master Circular on Protection of Policyholders Interests 2024. Write to that exact email. CC the Bima Bharosa portal acknowledgement. Only then does the 30-day clock have proof.

Another point on limitation. The cause of action begins on the date of the insurer's act of repudiation, deduction, or partial payment. Not the date you discovered the deduction, not the date the hospital handed over the file, not the date a relative explained the policy clause. So calendar the limitation early.

You must file at the Ombudsman whose territory covers EITHER your residential address, OR the insurer branch office that issued the policy, OR the place where the cause of action arose. Pick one, and pick the one most convenient to attend in person.

There are 17 territorial offices. The full list is published on cioins.co.in / Office Directory:

• Ahmedabad (Gujarat, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu)
• Bengaluru (Karnataka)
• Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh)
• Bhubaneswar (Odisha)
• Chandigarh (Punjab, Haryana excluding Gurugram and Faridabad, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Chandigarh)
• Chennai (Tamil Nadu, Puducherry)
• Delhi (Delhi NCR, Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad)
• Ernakulam (Kerala, Lakshadweep)
• Guwahati (Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura)
• Hyderabad (Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Yanam)
• Jaipur (Rajasthan)
• Kolkata (West Bengal, Sikkim, Andaman and Nicobar Islands)
• Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh districts barring NCR)
• Mumbai (Goa, Mumbai Metropolitan Region excluding Navi Mumbai and Thane)
• Noida (rest of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand)
• Patna (Bihar, Jharkhand)
• Pune (rest of Maharashtra)

A live map and email address for each office is at cioins.co.in / Ombudsman directory. If you live in Kolhapur, your office is Pune. If you live in Faridabad, your office is Delhi.

Copy the block below into a Word file. Replace every bracketed placeholder. Print, sign, and dispatch.

To,
The Insurance Ombudsman,
[Address of the Ombudsman office covering your territory]
[Email + phone from cioins.co.in]

Subject: Complaint under Rule 13 of the Redressal of Public Grievances Rules 2017, Health Insurance Claim, Policy [POLICY NUMBER], [INSURER NAME]

Sir / Madam,

1. Complainant:
   Name: [Your Name]
   Address: [Full address with PIN code]
   Contact: [Phone] [Email]
   Policy: [POLICY NUMBER]

2. Respondent insurer:
   Name: [INSURER NAME]
   Branch / Office: [Branch]
   Grievance Officer: [Name + email]

3. Brief facts of the case:
   (a) I hold health insurance policy [POLICY NUMBER] since [DATE] with [INSURER NAME].
   (b) [PATIENT NAME] was admitted at [HOSPITAL NAME] on [DATE] for [DIAGNOSIS] and discharged on [DATE].
   (c) Total hospital bill Rs [AMOUNT]. Claim filed on [DATE] with TPA [TPA NAME] under claim ID [CLAIM ID].
   (d) On [DATE], the insurer / TPA rejected / partly settled the claim citing [REASON]. Settlement received Rs [AMOUNT].

4. Grounds for the complaint:
   (a) The rejection / deduction is contrary to policy clause [CLAUSE].
   (b) The IRDAI Master Circular on Health Insurance Business dated 29 May 2024 was not applied.
   (c) [Add Section 45 / 8-year moratorium / other ground as applicable]
   (d) [Add other specific reasoning]

5. Grievance officer reference: I filed a written complaint with the insurer's grievance officer on [DATE]. The insurer's final reply was received on [DATE], or, the insurer has not responded within 30 days.

6. Bima Bharosa reference, if any: Filed on [DATE], reference [NUMBER].

7. Relief sought:
   (a) Direct the insurer to pay the rejected / withheld amount of Rs [AMOUNT].
   (b) Interest under the IRDAI Protection of Policyholders Interests, Operations and Allied Matters of Insurers Regulations 2024, from the date of cause of action.
   (c) Cost of the complaint.
   (d) Any other relief the Ombudsman deems just.

8. Declaration: I declare that the dispute is not pending in any court of law and that this is the first complaint to the Ombudsman on the cause of action.

9. List of enclosures: (i) Policy schedule + KFD, (ii) Claim form, (iii) All hospital bills, (iv) Discharge summary + ICP, (v) Rejection / deduction letter, (vi) Insurer grievance officer reply, (vii) Bima Bharosa reference, (viii) Bank passbook / cancelled cheque, (ix) Aadhaar + PAN.

Place: [CITY]
Date: [DATE]

[Signature]
[Your Name]

Always attach this letter to the official Annexure VI-A complaint form. The Annexure form captures the structured fields, and your letter carries the story.

Send TWO sets: one to the Ombudsman office, one retained by you with a stamped acknowledgement from the postal receipt. Some offices accept the bundle by email or via the BIMS portal.

1. Pick the right Ombudsman office. Open cioins.co.in / Procedure, match your address to the territorial list, and note the email and phone.
2. Download the Annexure VI-A complaint form from cioins.co.in / Complaint.
3. Fill the Annexure VI-A form. Add the sample complaint text above as a covering letter.
4. Attach all twelve documents from the checklist.
5. Send by Indian Post registered post AD, with a duplicate by email to the Ombudsman office. Many offices also accept online submission via the BIMS portal at cioins.co.in / Complaint portal.
6. Note the registry number from the acknowledgement card or the BIMS auto-reply email. Save it.
7. Wait for the hearing date. The standard timeline is 30 to 60 days, faster for clear-cut rejections.
8. Attend the hearing in person, or via video conferencing if the Ombudsman office permits. Carry originals of every document for inspection.
9. The Ombudsman passes an Award. It is binding on the insurer. You may accept or reject within 30 days.
10. If you accept the Award, the insurer must comply within 30 days. If you reject, you can move the Consumer Commission or the Civil Court.

The whole process is designed to finish within 3 months from full papers. Many offices close routine health claims even faster, sometimes in 6 to 8 weeks.

The Ombudsman is fast and free, but it has limits. Pick the Consumer Commission instead in these situations:

• The disputed amount is above Rs 50 lakh, the cap of the Ombudsman.
• The insurer is in NCLT or under Insolvency Resolution Process. Ombudsman Awards cannot be enforced against an insurer in moratorium.
• You want compensation for mental harassment and punitive damages, the Ombudsman can grant ex-gratia up to Rs 1 lakh but not full punitive relief.
• You need an interim injunction, for example to stop a cashless cancellation mid-treatment. Ombudsman cannot grant interim orders.
• The hospital is also a respondent. The Ombudsman has jurisdiction only over insurers, not hospitals.
• The grievance is a class issue, where the same deduction is being applied to hundreds of patients. Consumer Commission can hear a class complaint.
• The insurer has rejected an earlier Ombudsman Award and the matter needs civil enforcement.

For the full route, see our Consumer court health insurance complaint guide.

Pick the Ombudsman when:

• The dispute is at or below Rs 50 lakh.
• You need speed. Three months at the Ombudsman beats two to four years in a Consumer Commission.
• You cannot pay court fees or hire counsel.
• A family member is unwell and a court schedule is not feasible.
• The dispute is a technical insurance question, such as room-rent capping, PED waiting period, or non-disclosure. Ombudsmen are specialists in insurance law.
• You need a binding decision from a neutral body, but want to retain the option to go to court later if the Award is unfavourable.

For most household health insurance disputes under Rs 10 lakh, the Ombudsman is the right first step.

• Filing without first exhausting the insurer's 30-day window. The Ombudsman will return the file.
• Filing more than 1 year after the insurer's reply. Limitation is strict.
• Filing in the wrong territorial office. The file gets transferred and you lose weeks.
• Filing while a court or commission case on the same cause is already pending. This is an absolute bar.
• Forgetting to attach the grievance officer reply, or proof of 30-day silence. This is the proof your complaint is ripe.
• Citing only fairness instead of policy clause + IRDAI circular. The Ombudsman wants legal grounds, not sentiment.
• Sending an unsigned complaint. The complaint must be signed by the policyholder or the authorised heir.
• Not keeping originals safe. The Ombudsman may ask for inspection at the hearing.
• Skipping the Annexure VI-A form and sending only the covering letter. The form is mandatory.
• Asking for relief in vague terms. Spell out the exact Rs amount, with breakup.

Yes. The Insurance Ombudsman is fully free for the complainant. There is no filing fee, no court stamp, no advocate fee. The office is funded by the insurance industry through the Council for Insurance Ombudsmen and the regulator IRDAI.

Any policyholder or claimant under a personal-line insurance policy (life, health, motor, fire, marine), a group health policyholder, or a legal heir / nominee in death-claim cases. Corporate policyholders cannot file. A senior citizen may file through an authorised family member with a written authority.

The complaint must reach the Ombudsman within 1 year of the insurer's final reply, OR 1 year plus 30 days if the insurer was silent. This is computed from the date of the cause of action. The Ombudsman can condone delay only on satisfactory cause, do not rely on that discretion.

Yes. The Ombudsman passes a written Award. Once the complainant accepts the Award (within 30 days of receipt), the insurer is bound to comply within 30 days. If the insurer fails to comply, the complainant can move the Consumer Commission for enforcement.

Yes. If the Ombudsman dismisses your complaint or passes an Award you do not accept, you may file a fresh complaint in the Consumer Commission. The limitation in consumer law is 2 years from the cause of action, so file quickly.

The Ombudsman can decide cases where the insured amount or the disputed amount is up to Rs 50 lakh. This cap was raised from Rs 30 lakh in 2021 and stands at Rs 50 lakh under the 2024 amendments. If your claim is higher, you must go directly to the Consumer Commission or Civil Court.

No. The Ombudsman process is designed to be citizen-friendly. You can present the case yourself or take a family member or a trusted friend along. Many policyholders successfully argue their own cases. If you wish to engage a lawyer, you may, but you will bear the fee.

The target is 3 months from receipt of full papers. In practice, most health insurance complaints are decided within 6 to 12 weeks. Cashless cancellation matters can be listed for hearing within 2 to 4 weeks if the office sees urgency.

For Kolhapur, the jurisdictional office is Pune. The Pune Ombudsman covers all of Maharashtra except the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (which goes to Mumbai). The full list is on cioins.co.in / Ombudsman directory.

The insurer cannot appeal a Recommendation, since a Recommendation is not binding unless the complainant accepts it. The insurer cannot appeal an Award either, the Award is final and binding on the insurer once the complainant accepts. The complainant retains the right to reject the Award and move a court.

You can reject the Award within 30 days of receipt. After rejection you may approach the State Consumer Commission, the National Consumer Commission (NCDRC), or the Civil Court, depending on the amount in dispute. Time spent at the Ombudsman is excluded for limitation under Section 14 of the Limitation Act.

• Council for Insurance Ombudsmen, official site
• Online complaint portal, Annexure VI-A form download
• Procedure under the Redressal of Public Grievances Rules 2017
• Office directory of all 17 Ombudsmen
• IRDAI grievance redressal mechanism
• IRDAI Bima Bharosa portal
• IRDAI Policyholder portal, complaint channels
• IRDAI Master Circular on Health Insurance Business dated 29 May 2024
• IRDAI toll-free helpline 155255 or 1800-4254-732

• Pillar: Full rejection guide
• Hub: Health Insurance Claim Help India
• Bima Bharosa complaint guide
• Cashless denied at hospital
• TPA denied your cashless claim
• Claim delayed beyond 30 days
• Claim partly paid, deductions
• PED rejection reply
• Non-disclosure rejection
• Late intimation rejection
• Consumer court route

Part of the Health Insurance Claim Recovery Series by RightToInformation.Wiki.

Last reviewed by RTI Wiki editorial team on 2026-05-16.