BENGALURU: In February this year, Yogita Patni underwent a female-to-male sex reassignment surgery (SRS), after which life has been more relaxed. Any fears that the data analyst harboured about her identity, job prospects or security, were put to rest when her company, Cognizant, included SRS in their insurance benefits programme recently. “I now don’t have to hide my identity,” says Patni.
Cognizant is one such company to join the bandwagon of firms that are taking measures to create an inclusive workforce, including reimbursing the cost of SRS (which costs between `3 lakh and `5 lakh), and extending health insurance benefits to same sex partners of employees.
Post the Supreme Court judgment about Section 377 being ‘irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary’, some companies introduced policy changes to create a safe space for their employees.
For example, Intuit started reimbursing SRS in August 2018, but didn’t mention the move publicly till March this year. It took the company six months of negotiation with their insurance vendor before they considered switching vendors. “It didn’t come to that though. Eventually, the insurance company came on board,” says Manoshi M Ghosh, Total Rewards Partner – Global Delivery Centers. Intuit also allows employees to choose same sex partners as their beneficiaries for health and life insurance covers.
There but not yet there
For Cynthia (name changed), an HR professional who paid for her own procedure, the hormonal therapy and monthly injections alone cost `4,000 per month, which she had to undergo for three years before her surgery. Intuit’s cover, however, provides for a reimbursement of `75,000. “This was the first time we incorporated such benefits and initially, we couldn’t even talk about this. So, there was only so much bargaining power we had with our vendors. When our next renewal process comes up, we plan to extend this upto `5 lakh, and want to reimburse the procedure on actual costs,” says Ghosh, adding that no one has availed the cover so far.
Corporate learning and development manager Richa Singh faced a problem with The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group’s insurance company, since the latter considered SRS to be a cosmetic surgery, which insurance companies don’t provide for. “It took us a year to convince them that SRS has more to do with a person’s identity,” says Singh, adding that three employees have shown an interest in the benefit.
The insurance was rolled out a couple of months ago prior to which Keshav Suri, executive director of The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group, personally funded the surgeries of four employees. “We provide for a cover of `5-6 lakh, where the employee only bears 10 per cent of the total cost incurred,” explains Suri.
While Cynthia’s company provides a medical insurance cover, she feels a SRS cover might benefit her too. “There were some post-surgery complications and in November, my doctor told me it would cost another `3 lakh to correct those surgically, which is a big expense for me to bear,” she says.
According to Arhan Gotadke, practice lead, Employee Benefit, at JLT Independent Insurance, about 20 per cent of corporates pan-India have shown an interest in inclusive insurance policies, post the SC’s verdict. “Incorporating SRS cover might take some time to get popular. Since insurance companies are governed by IRDAI, we have to wait for official guidelines from them,” says Gotadke.