MAM
Cashless For Celebrities, Chaos For The Rest: What Saif Ali Khan’s Case Reveals About India’s Insurance Divide
A high-profile hospital visit can make cashless treatment look effortless. The reality for most people, however, is far messier, especially when navigating policy wording, network rules, and on-the-spot documentation. This article looks at why the experience feels unequal and how to approach health insurance with clear-eyed expectations.
The Cashless Spotlight and the Everyday Reality
Celebrity admissions tend to run on rails: fast authorisations, dedicated liaison teams, and seamless discharge. For regular households, the same pathway may involve multiple checks and a longer approval loop.
That perception gap fuels frustration. Understanding why it exists helps you choose and operate a plan more confidently.
How Cashless Actually Works Behind the Scenes
Cashless is a contract between the insurer, the hospital network, and you. Pre-authorisation rests on your policy terms, the hospital’s tie-up, and how precisely the treatment maps to the wording.
When any one of those pieces is shaky, unclear documents, a non-network facility, or a mismatch in definitions, cashless can stall or convert to reimbursement.
Where the Divide Shows up Most Clearly
Inequity isn’t only about fame; it’s about familiarity with the system and the resources available at admission.
● Policy Wording Versus Reality: Clauses on room eligibility, sub-limits, and day-care can trim admissible bills.
● Network Negotiations: Hospitals may prioritise known coordinators or established channels that move faster.
● Document Readiness: Missing prescriptions, IDs, or reports can delay authorisation, even when the treatment itself is straightforward.
● Communication Gaps: Jargon-heavy updates confuse families, leading to avoidable escalations at the billing desk.
The Role of Networks, Rooms, and Rates
Network choice shapes whether cashless is even possible. Within a network, room category rules influence how much of each line item is admissible under the mediclaim policy.
If the chosen room exceeds what the policy allows, proportionate deductions may follow, turning a “cashless” expectation into a part-cash, part-out-of-pocket reality.
Documentation, Pre-Authorisation, and Timelines
Hospitals usually submit a treatment estimate, past records, and a proposed plan. The authorisation team checks eligibility under your medical insurance, seeks clarifications, and issues approvals with conditions.
Tidy paperwork speeds this cycle. Sloppy paperwork slows it. Celebrities often have handlers who keep files pristine; most families don’t.
Why Senior Citizens Face a Steeper Slope
Older members can have longer medical histories, multiple prescriptions, and prior procedures. That raises the paperwork burden and the number of queries during cashless approval.
When exploring health insurance for senior citizens look closely at pre-existing disease terms, waiting periods, co-pay language, and the clarity of day-care and OPD provisions.
Digital Convenience is Real, But not a Magic Wand
It’s easier than ever to compare, propose, verify, and receive an e-policy. Yet the hospital floor still runs on documents, definitions, and processes.
If you plan to buy health insurance online, use the digital journey to prepare your claim kit in advance, not just to finish payment.
What to Look for in a Workable Policy
A workable policy is one you can run without panic on a busy day. Read the wording slowly and focus on operability, not hype.
● Network Fit: Facilities you will actually use, across specialities you rely on.
● Room Eligibility: Clear rules that won’t surprise you at discharge.
● Cost Sharing: Co-pay or deductibles you can handle without stress.
● Definitions and Limits: Disease-wise clauses that mirror real care patterns.
● Claims Pathway: Step-by-step instructions for cashless and reimbursement, with contact points you can reach.
Navigating The “Best” Label Without Getting Misled
Lists of the best health insurance often ignore how families really seek care. A plan that shines on paper may wobble at the admission desk if its rules don’t match your hospital choices.
Treat rankings as conversation starters. The real test is whether your preferred hospitals are in-network and whether the policy language fits your routine healthcare usage.
Preparing Your Paperwork Like a Pro
What feels like “celebrity privilege” is often disciplined preparation. You can replicate the method, if not the entourage.
● Keep ID proofs, past reports, prescriptions, and scans in a single, backed-up folder.
● Store the e-policy, endorsements, and premium receipts with clear file names.
● Maintain a one-page claim checklist, pre-authorisation steps, helplines, and the documents each step requires.
● After every health event, update your folder so nothing is missing at the next admission.
Mind The Fine Print on Add-Ons and Exclusions
Add-ons can be helpful, but not all are worth keeping year after year. Choose riders you’ll genuinely use and avoid stacking features that complicate authorisations.
Exclusions and sub-limits deserve a slow read. They decide whether cashless is smooth, partial, or denied at the window.
Conclusion
A star’s smooth cashless experience may spotlight what the system can do at its best. For everyone else, the same result depends on wording, networks, documents, and discipline. Read slowly, prepare thoroughly, and choose a health insurance plan you can operate without second-guessing. When you finally buy health insurance or buy medical insurance, let fit and clarity, not headlines, decide the winner.
MAM
Nielsen launches co-viewing pilot to sharpen TV measurement
Super Bowl pilot to refine how shared TV audiences are counted
MUMBAI: Nielsen is taking a fresh stab at one of television’s oldest blind spots: how many people are actually watching the same screen. The audience-measurement giant on February 4 unveiled a co-viewing pilot that uses wearable devices to better capture shared viewing, starting with America’s biggest broadcast stage.
The trial begins with Super Bowl LX on NBC on February 8, 2026, before extending to other high-profile live sports and entertainment events in the first half of the year. The goal is simple but commercially potent: count viewers more accurately, especially during live spectacles that pull families and friends to one screen.
The new approach leans on Nielsen’s proprietary wearable meters, wrist-worn devices that resemble smartwatches. These passively capture audio signatures from TV content, logging exposure to shows, films and live events without requiring viewers to sign in or self-report. In theory, fewer clicks, fewer lapses, better data.
Karthik Rao, Nielsen’s ceo, cast the move as part of a broader measurement push. He said the company’s task is to keep pushing accuracy as clients invest heavily in live programming that draws mass audiences. The co-viewing pilot, he added, builds on upgrades such as Big Data + Panel measurement, out-of-home expansion, live-streaming metrics and wearable-based tracking.
Co-viewing is not new territory for Nielsen, which has long tried to estimate how many people sit before a single set. What is new is the heavier integration of wearables and passive detection to reduce reliance on active inputs from panel homes.
For now, the pilot comes with caveats. Co-viewing estimates from the trial will not be folded into Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel ratings, which remain the industry’s trading currency. Instead, pilot findings will be shared with clients a few weeks after final Big Data + Panel ratings are delivered. Clients may disclose those findings publicly.
More impact data will follow later this year. Full integration into Nielsen’s marketing-intelligence suite is slated as a longer-term play, with a target of bringing co-viewing into currency measurement for the 2026–2027 season. This is only phase one, with further co-viewing enhancements planned beyond 2026 and additional timelines to be announced.
The push fits a wider pattern. Nielsen has in recent years expanded big-data integration, adopted first-party data for live-streaming measurement and broadened out-of-home tracking. It also positions itself as the reference point for streaming metrics through products such as The Gauge and the Nielsen Streaming Top 10.
In a market where billions of ad dollars hinge on decimal points, counting who is in the room matters. If Nielsen can pin down shared viewing, the humble sofa could become prime measurement real estate. The race to count every eyeball just found a new wrist to watch.
Brands
Delhivery chairman Deepak Kapoor, independent director Saugata Gupta quit board
Gurugram: Delhivery’s boardroom is being reset. Deepak Kapoor, chairman and independent director, has resigned with effect from April 1 as part of a planned board reconstitution, the logistics company said in an exchange filing. Saugata Gupta, managing director and chief executive of FMCG major Marico and an independent director on Delhivery’s board, has also stepped down.
Kapoor exits after an eight-year stint that included steering the company through its 2022 stock-market debut, a period that saw Delhivery transform from a venture-backed upstart into one of India’s most visible logistics platforms. Gupta, who joined the board in 2021, departs alongside him, marking a simultaneous clearing of two senior independent seats.
“Deepak and Saugata have been instrumental in our process of recognising the need for and enabling the reconstitution of the board of directors in line with our ambitious next phase of growth,” said Sahil Barua, managing director and chief executive, Delhivery. The statement frames the exits less as departures and more as deliberate succession, a boardroom shuffle timed to the company’s evolving scale and strategy.
The resignations arrive amid broader governance recalibration. In 2025, Delhivery appointed Emcure Pharmaceuticals whole-time director Namita Thapar, PB Fintech founder and chairman Yashish Dahiya, and IIM Bangalore faculty member Padmini Srinivasan as independent directors, signalling a tilt towards consumer, fintech and academic expertise at the board level.
Kapoor’s tenure spanned Delhivery’s most defining years, rapid network expansion, public listing and the push towards profitability in a bruising logistics market. Gupta’s presence brought FMCG and brand-scale perspective during a period when ecommerce volumes and last-mile delivery economics were being rewritten.
The twin exits, effective from the new financial year, underscore a familiar corporate rhythm: founders consolidate, veterans rotate out, and fresh voices are ushered in to script the next chapter. In India’s hyper-competitive logistics race, even the boardroom does not stand still.
MAM
Meta appoints Anuvrat Rao as APAC head of commerce partnerships
At Locofy.ai, Rao helped convert a three-year free beta into a paid engine, clocking 1,000 subscribers and 15 enterprise clients within ten days of launch in September 2024. The low-code startup, backed by Accel and top tech founders, is famed for turning designs into production-ready code using proprietary large design models.
Before that, Rao founded generative AI venture 1Bstories, which was acquired by creative AI platform Laetro in mid-2024, where he briefly served as managing director for APAC. Alongside operating roles, he has been an active investor and advisor since 2020, backing startups such as BotMD, Muxy, Creator plus, Intellect, Sealed and CricFlex through a creator-economy-led thesis.
Rao spent over eight years at Google, holding senior partnership roles across search, assistant, chrome, web and YouTube in APAC, and earlier cut his teeth in strategy consulting at OC&C in London and investment finance at W. P. Carey in Europe and the US.
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