What Would Be the Best Reason for a Late Submission of Insurance Claim?

When it comes to claim reporting, it is better late than never. How long your submission of insurance claim takes depends on your insurer’s terms.

While it’s okay to have a genuine reason for the late submission of your health insurance claim, what’s most important is to say the whole truth and nothing but the truth why you submitted your claim request late.

Before settling for any insurance company near you, do yourself a favour to read their terms and conditions to know if they have a time limit beyond which your claim becomes invalid.

Although there’s hardly an insurance firm that would completely deny a claim on the premise of late submission, however, there’s a high chance that your claim will be delayed if you are late.

This delay in paying for a claim could be because your insurer is struggling to find enough evidence that supports the one you presented or they need more time to assess the losses.

What is the Best Time to Inform Your Insurance Company About a Damage?

The most appropriate time to inform your insurer about a car theft or accident for a car insurance policy, health breakdown and hospitalization for a health insurance policy or home damage or burglary for content and home insurance policy is immediately the loss happens.

Even if it will take extra days or weeks to completely assess the losses, it’s always important to inform your insurer immediately so that they can as well have enough documents to investigate your claim. If your car needs to be replaced with a new one, it will take time to find the actual cash value of your car.

If an insurance firm stated clearly that their submission of insurance claim period should be 72 hours before admission in case of planned hospitalization and not later than 48 hours or before discharge in case of emergency hospitalization, your claim will be considered delayed. Technically, they can on this ground of delay in submission of claim reject it.

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Why Your Insurance Claim Could Be Rejected

For many reasons, your insurance provider can decide to reject your request for an insurance claim notwithstanding the degree of damage you experienced if you make any of these mistakes:

• Failure to give accurate information: A mistake as simple as failing to give accurate information about your property or business when you were purchasing an insurance policy can make your insurer reject your claim.
• Carelessness on the part of the insured: Leaving your car door open or driving under the influence of alcohol when you are not covered for that results in car theft or accident could make your insurance firm reject your claim.

A woman intentionally crashed her car against a tree then went ahead to inflict more damage on the car so that she could make a claim but unknown to her, someone was filming her. She was reported with evidence. Instead of getting a claim, she was sued for insurance fraud. Making a claim over a staged accident was what made 5 people to be indicted in Louisiana for an insurance fraud scheme.

• Failure to answer all the questions in the claim form accurately and truthfully: Do not fill your claim form when you are still tensed or overwhelmed by the damage for which you are making an insurance claim. 

Any mistake you make is enough for your insurance company to reject your claim. If you bought your policy through a reliable independent insurance agency (or broker) reach out to them to know if claim submission is already covered in their service. Most commercial insurance brokerage companies already have this covered. 

See other reasons why you should consider buying insurance through independent insurance agents.

According to Kelley Shewmaker, the only sensible reason for late submission of an insurance claim should be when there’s hidden damage after your insurance company had already paid for the initial claim.

Why Do Insurance Carriers Require Timely Notice of a Claim?

The primary reason for a provision of notice and proof of loss is to enable the insurance company to evaluate its rights and liabilities, to afford it an opportunity to make a timely investigation, and to prevent fraud and imposition upon it. Once a claim is found to be false, the policyholder will be sued and jailed.