Insurance Claim Settlement Time in India: Full IRDAI Ranking

A family filing a life insurance claim after losing its primary earning member is not interested in an insurer’s advertising campaign. A patient waiting at a hospital billing counter is not thinking about the company’s premium collection figures. At that moment, only two questions matter: Will the insurer pay the claim, and how long will it take?

The latest data provides two different answers.

On paper, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), has prescribed comparatively tight claim settlement timelines—ranging from one hour for a cashless health insurance pre-authorisation to 15 days for a routine life insurance death claim.

In actual industry data, however, performance is measured differently. Life insurers are compared on the percentage of paid individual death claims completed within 30 days, while general and health insurers are compared on claims paid within three months.

The latest available official dataset is IRDAI’s Handbook on Indian Insurance Statistics 2024-25, published on February 3, 2026. The latest IRDAI annual report available is also for FY 2024-25.

IRDAI Insurance Claim Settlement Timelines in India

The life insurance timelines come from IRDAI’s 2024 Master Circular on Protection of Policyholders’ Interests. A normal death claim must be settled within 15 days, while a claim requiring investigation must be completed within 45 days. Delayed settlement attracts interest at the applicable bank rate plus two percentage points, payable automatically with the claim amount.

For health insurance, insurers must decide a cashless pre-authorisation request within one hour. Final authorisation at discharge must be given within three hours, and non-cashless or reimbursement claims must be settled within 15 days of claim submission. Where discharge approval is delayed beyond three hours, additional hospital charges caused by the delay must be borne by the insurer from its shareholders’ funds.

For eligible retail general insurance claims, including many motor and property claims, the surveyor must be allocated within 24 hours and submit the report within 15 days. The insurer must decide the claim within seven days of receiving that report, or after 15 days from surveyor allocation, whichever is earlier. A surveyor delaying the report beyond 15 days may be liable to pay the claimant ₹500 for every day of delay.

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Claim settlement ratio and turnaround time are not the same

The expression “claim settlement ratio” is frequently used to describe several different numbers. This can make insurer comparisons misleading.

1. Claims-paid ratio

This measures how many claims were paid out of the total claims recorded during the period. It gives an indication of approval and payment performance.

2. Turnaround-time ratio

This measures how many of the claims that were paid were completed within a specific period—30 days for life insurers and three months for general and health insurers in the latest handbook tables.

3. Incurred claim ratio

The incurred claim ratio, or ICR, compares the value of claims incurred with the premium earned. It does not show how many claims were accepted or how quickly individual customers were paid.

This distinction is crucial. An insurer reporting that 100% of its paid claims were processed within three months is not necessarily saying that it approved every claim it received. It is only reporting the speed of the claims that reached the paid stage.

What happened to life insurance claims in FY 2024-25?

India’s life insurers recorded 10,34,455 individual death claims during FY 2024-25. Of these, 10,11,880 claims were paid, producing an overall claims-paid ratio of 97.82% by number.

The industry paid approximately ₹33,697 crore against total individual death claims of approximately ₹34,995 crore. The claims-paid ratio by value was therefore 96.29%.

By number, 1.01% of claims were repudiated, 0.66% were rejected and 0.48% remained pending at the end of the financial year.

Separately, IRDAI’s turnaround-time data shows that 9,82,619 of the 10,11,880 paid individual death claims were paid within 30 days. That represents an industry-wide 30-day settlement rate of approximately 97.11%.

Life Insurance Companies Ranked by Claims Paid Within 30 Days

The table below ranks every life insurer reported in the FY 2024-25 handbook according to the percentage of its paid individual death claims completed within 30 days.

Industry total: 10,11,880 claims paid; 9,82,619 paid within 30 days; 30-day rate of 97.11%. Data follows the insurer names and reporting methodology used in the IRDAI Handbook on Indian Insurance Statistics 2024-25.

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What stands out in the life insurance ranking?

Shriram Life was the only life insurer in the table to report 100% of its paid individual death claims within 30 days. Aditya Birla Sun Life, HDFC Life and PNB MetLife followed at 99.98%.

LIC’s 97.08% rate appears lower than the leaders in percentage terms, but its scale is in a different league. LIC paid more than 8.48 lakh individual death claims, compared with fewer than 45,000 at any single private insurer in the table.

This is why a percentage should never be read without the underlying claim volume. Processing 99% of a few hundred claims and processing 97% of more than eight lakh claims involve very different operational loads.

There is also a methodology warning. IndiaFirst Life said its own IRDAI-mandated Form L-39 disclosure showed that 3,639 of 3,640 claims—or 99.97%—were settled within 30 days of receiving the last requirement. The handbook-based figure of 86.98% uses claim intimation as the starting point. The difference illustrates how changing the starting date can dramatically alter the reported turnaround time.

Life Insurers Ranked by Benefit Amount Paid Within 30 Days

Claim count gives every case equal weight. A ₹50,000 claim and a ₹1 crore claim both count as one claim. Looking at the percentage of benefit amount paid within 30 days can therefore reveal a different picture.

Across the industry, ₹28,374.14 crore—or 84.20% of the ₹33,696.84 crore in benefits paid—was disbursed within 30 days. Private insurers collectively paid 91.40% of their benefit amount within that period.

The gap between the count-based and amount-based figures deserves attention. An insurer may quickly process a high percentage of small claims while taking longer on larger or more complex claims. Term insurance buyers considering high-value coverage should therefore examine claim performance by both number and amount.

General Insurance Companies Ranked by Claims Paid Within Three Months

IRDAI uses a broader three-month performance window for general insurers. The following ranking includes public-sector, private-sector and specialised insurers with numerical data for FY 2024-25.

The percentage reflects the share of paid claims completed in less than three months. It is a speed metric—not a guarantee that the insurer approved every claim it received.

General-insurer industry total: 94.03% of paid claims were completed in less than three months. Bharti AXA General Insurance did not have a comparable figure in the table because its general insurance business had been demerged into ICICI Lombard.

Acko led the general insurance ranking at 99.98%, followed by Reliance General at 99.32%. Kshema General’s 26.88% was significantly below the rest of the market.

Kshema’s number should still be interpreted carefully. Newer or specialised insurers can have different product mixes, claim patterns and operational bases from diversified companies handling large volumes of motor, health, property and commercial claims.

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The bigger health insurance picture: 87.5% of claims were paid

During FY 2024-25, general and health insurers settled 3.26 crore health insurance claims and paid approximately ₹94,248 crore. The average payment was about ₹28,910 per claim.

Around 69% of claims by number were handled through third-party administrators and 31% through insurers’ in-house mechanisms. Cashless settlements represented approximately 58% of claims by number and 66.35% of the total amount paid.

Looking at all health claims in insurers’ books:

• 87.50% were paid by number
• 7.92% were repudiated
• 4.58% remained outstanding at the end of the year

By claim amount, insurers paid 71.14% of the total amount recorded, while 8.61% was repudiated and 6.27% remained outstanding. A further 13.98% of the amount was shown as disallowed under policy terms and conditions.

This explains why a standalone health insurer can report that almost 100% of its paid claims were completed within three months, while the industry-wide health claims-paid ratio remains 87.5%.

One number measures speed after payment approval. The other measures how many claims reached the paid stage.

Standalone Health Insurers Ranked by Claims Paid Within Three Months

The health insurance industry’s incurred claim ratio declined from 88.15% in FY 2023-24 to 86.98% in FY 2024-25.

The sector-wise ratios were:

The public-sector ratio above 100% indicates that incurred claims exceeded the corresponding premium base before accounting for operating and other expenses. The standalone health insurer ratio of 68.73% is substantially lower, but it should not automatically be labelled good or bad without examining product mix, pricing, reserves and the maturity of the insurer’s portfolio.

Which insurer settles claims fastest in India?

There is no single scientifically fair “fastest insurer in India” because IRDAI uses different reporting windows for different types of insurance.

Based on the latest category-specific data:

• Shriram Life ranked first among life insurers, with 100% of paid individual death claims completed within 30 days.
• Acko General Insurance led general insurers, with 99.98% of paid claims completed in less than three months.
• Aditya Birla Health, Galaxy Health, Narayana Health and Niva Bupa each reported 100% of their paid claims within three months.

These figures should not be merged into one league table. A life insurance death claim, a hospital cashless request, a motor damage claim and a commercial property loss involve different documents, investigations and settlement processes.

How consumers should compare insurance companies

A claim settlement ratio is useful, but it should not be the only basis for buying a policy.

Compare at least three financial years

A single year can be distorted by a small number of claims, a new product portfolio, a merger or an unusually large event.

Check both count and amount

For life insurance, compare the percentage of claims paid as well as the value of benefits paid. A high count ratio with a much lower amount ratio deserves closer examination.

Look at the insurer’s claim volume

A 100% ratio based on a few hundred claims is not operationally equivalent to a 97% ratio based on several lakh claims.

Examine policy wording

Waiting periods, permanent exclusions, room-rent limits, deductibles, co-payments and disease-specific sub-limits affect the amount that will actually be paid.

Review hospital and garage networks

For health and motor insurance, the strength of the cashless network in the policyholder’s city can matter more during an emergency than a difference of a few decimal points in the national ratio.

Study grievance and repudiation data

Speed matters only when combined with fair acceptance, adequate payment and effective grievance redressal.

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What to do when an insurer delays a claim

First, obtain the claim reference number and keep a written record of every document submitted. Ask the insurer to state whether the claim is pending because of documentation, investigation, medical review, survey or internal approval.

Where the prescribed turnaround time has expired, request the applicable delay interest in writing. IRDAI’s master circular provides for interest at the bank rate plus two percentage points where a claim is not settled within the specified timeline.

A complaint should then be filed with the insurer’s grievance redressal officer. Insurers are required to acknowledge complaints immediately and provide a resolution within 14 days, with specific reasons where the complaint is not accepted. Unresolved or partially resolved complaints can be escalated through IRDAI’s Bima Bharosa portal and, for eligible disputes involving claims up to ₹50 lakh, to the Insurance Ombudsman.

The Bottom Line

Indian insurers are processing most paid claims within the performance windows tracked by IRDAI. More than 97% of paid individual life insurance death claims were completed within 30 days, while 94.03% of general insurance claims and 99.93% of standalone health insurance claims were paid within three months.

But those figures tell only half the story.

For life insurance, the overall individual death claims-paid ratio was 97.82% by number. For health insurance, 87.50% of claims in insurers’ books were paid by number, while the rest were repudiated, disallowed or pending.

A policyholder should therefore ask three separate questions:

How many claims does the insurer pay? How much of the claimed amount does it pay? And how quickly does it make the payment?

Only when all three answers are read together does an insurance claim settlement ratio become genuinely useful.

Sources: IRDAI Annual Report 2024-25; IRDAI Handbook on Indian Insurance Statistics 2024-25; IRDAI Master Circular on Protection of Policyholders’ Interests, 2024; Ministry of Finance health insurance claim-settlement disclosures.