A Himachal Pradesh consumer forum has ordered a health insurance provider to pay Rs 2.65 lakh to a woman after it allegedly rejected her claim for ovarian cyst surgery citing a ‘waiting period’. The dispute arose after the insurer treated the woman’s ovarian cyst as a pre-existing disease and invoked a 36-month ‘waiting period’. Her earlier open hysterectomy surgery had taken place in 2020, when she was covered under her initial Star Health policy. It further held that any 36-month waiting period for pre-existing conditions had already expired before the treatment in August 2024. The forum also directed the opposite parties to pay the woman Rs 20,000 as compensation for mental agony, trauma and harassment.