Nova Benefits rolls out same-sex corporate health insurance cover for companies – Economic Times

Nova Benefits, an employee wellness platform centred on corporate health insurance, has announced the roll-out of LGBTQIA+ or same-sex corporate health insurance cover for companies, said a statement issued today.

The firm aims to provide companies with equal and inclusive high-quality employee wellness benefits. It is currently providing LGBTQIA+ corporate health insurance to several companies, including Snapdeal, SplashLearn, FlexiLoans Technologies, and Dev Synthesis.

Organisations have the responsibility to ensure employee wellness, along with taking charge of diversity and inclusion needs in the working environment. Similarly, when it comes to healthcare, employees and their families must be provided equal access, with no discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity. However, standard health insurance plans do not consider relationships beyond heterosexual couples, making equal access to healthcare benefits a challenge.

“Our mission is to build happier and healthier workplaces for everyone. We’re doing so by working with companies to make health benefits inclusive and accessible to all employees and their families without any discrimination. While we have always provided gender-independent health covers for our employees, a conversation with Snapdeal helped us understand that companies are also actively working towards having policies that bring more inclusivity to the workplace,” said Saransh Garg, CEO and co-founder of Nova Benefits.

In addition to all-inclusive covers, the firm is also seeing companies approaching it exclusively for LGBTQIA+ covers as a standalone offering, over and above the standard health insurance cover, said Garg.

As a part of the LGBTQIA+ corporate health insurance cover offered via Nova Benefits, an employee can enroll their same-sex partner as a dependant, along with other immediate family members. Breaking prevalent stereotypes, the policy allows dependants to be included irrespective of their sexual orientation and gender identity. There is also an option to increase the cover for LGBTQIA+ employees and provide maternity, paternity, and childcare benefits. These personalised policies are diverse and inclusive, with no differentiation in claim or cover.

As of now, 250+ companies are insured with Nova Benefits, with 100,000+ members covered, and 3000+ claims processed.

In February this year, the company became the first Indian investment of the Naval Ravikant-backed AngelList Early-Stage Quant Fund.