Claim rejected after porting your policy? Your waiting-period credit came with you.
Porting a health policy is not buying a new one. The waiting periods you already served travel with you — and a rejection that re-runs them from zero contradicts the portability rules. Here's how to enforce your continuity credit.
Reviewed by the BimaHaq Insurance Grievance Desk — BimaHaq's in-house insurance-grievance team — specialists in IRDAI grievance redressal, the Insurance Ombudsman process, and policyholder rights in India. · Last reviewed 2026-07-11
Portability exists precisely so that switching insurers does not cost you the credit you have earned. Under IRDAI's portability rules, the new insurer must carry forward the waiting-period and pre-existing-disease credit accrued under the previous policy — to the extent of the previous sum insured — and cannot restart those clocks from the porting date. A rejection that treats your ported policy as a brand-new one, re-running a waiting period you already served, contradicts the very rules under which the insurer accepted the port.
Why insurers reject on this ground
After a port, the new insurer rejects a claim citing an unexpired waiting period or a pre-existing condition — counting the period from the port date as if the years served under the previous insurer never happened.
When you can challenge it
Reconstruct your continuous-coverage timeline: each policy year, each renewal, and the port, backed by the previous policy schedules and renewal receipts. Credit applies to the extent of the earlier cover — the sum insured you carried, plus accrued bonus, on the terms the rules provide — so compute what portion of the claim the credit protects. The new insurer accepted your proposal knowing the porting history (the portability process hands it your claims and cover record); it cannot now disown the continuity that came with the port. If the insurer instead alleges non-disclosure at porting, hold it to what the portability data actually showed — the transfer of your history between insurers is part of the process itself.
How to fight this rejection
Assemble the unbroken coverage record
Previous policy schedules, renewal receipts, and the porting acknowledgement. The timeline showing continuous cover — and the waiting periods already served — is the whole case.
Compute the credit that applies
Continuity credit runs to the extent of the previous sum insured plus accrued bonus. Work out which waiting periods were fully served under the earlier cover and say so, period by period, in your grievance.
Hold the insurer to what it accepted
The insurer took the port with your records in hand. Cite IRDAI's portability rules, state that the waiting-period clock cannot be restarted, and ask the insurer to identify any period genuinely not covered by the credit.
Raise a written grievance with the insurer's GRO
Send a dated grievance to the insurer's Grievance Redressal Officer setting out why the rejection is wrong. The insurer must acknowledge it immediately and resolve it within 14 days.
Escalate to IRDAI on Bima Bharosa
If it isn't resolved in time or the reply is unsatisfactory, register the complaint on IRDAI's Bima Bharosa portal.
Take it to the Insurance Ombudsman
Free, binding on the insurer, and open to claims up to ₹50 lakh — file within one year of the insurer's rejection or final reply.
Common questions
Do waiting periods restart when I port my health insurance?
No. Under IRDAI's portability rules the new insurer must give you credit for the waiting periods and pre-existing-disease periods already served under the previous policy, to the extent of the previous sum insured plus accrued bonus. Only an enhanced portion of cover — a higher sum insured taken at porting — serves fresh waiting periods.
Can the new insurer reject my claim for a pre-existing disease I declared while porting?
Not by re-running the PED waiting period you already served. If your combined continuous cover meets the waiting period, the credit carries it. And a condition disclosed in the porting process was known to the insurer when it accepted you — it cannot later be recast as concealment.
What documents prove my continuity credit?
The previous insurer's policy schedules for each year, renewal receipts showing no break, and the porting acknowledgement. The portability process itself transfers your claims and cover history between insurers, so the new insurer already holds this record — your copies keep it honest.
See the full escalation ladder for a rejected claim, or use a free complaint-letter template.
This guide is general information about the insurance-grievance process in India, not legal advice, and figures (timelines, monetary limits, jurisdiction) can change — verify against the official sources linked above before you rely on them.