Health Insurance Industry Trends

Indian Health Insurance Industry is growing rapidly for the past few years. In 2020, COVID-19 created an enormous impact on healthcare and thus, health insurance industry. The health insurance industry has changed in terms of offering new products and is growing day by day in terms of generating revenue. Working from home and client interaction on video conferencing has become the new normal for an industry that relies on face-to-face interaction before the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are a few trends that are expected to impact the health insurance industry in 2022.

1. Introducing New Insurance Policies

   Ever since the pandemic, awareness around the need for health insurance has increased. Health insurance has become necessary with more and more people starting to invest in health insurance. Insurance companies have launched several new health insurance policies in the past 1 year as per the needs and requirements of the customers. For instance, Corona Rakshak Plan is one of the newly launched products in recent times by keeping an eye on the coronavirus situation. It is available for 3.5 months to 9.5 months at an affordable price of 100/month.

2. Digitalization

   During the Covid-19 pandemic, health insurance companies are realizing that selling insurance products through digital platforms has become a necessity as the customer is no longer available in person. Hence, they have adopted telemedical process to sell health insurance products. These companies also promote e-KYC process for the verification of the customer so that they can buy health insurance products from the comfort of their homes. Digital channels make the buying process easy and provide customers with a wide range of options for choosing the best Health Insurance Plans as per their needs and requirements.

3. Value-Added Services

   At present, the health insurance sector is transforming day by day and the major insurance companies are adopting a 360-degree approach to get the maximum customers. While they are quickly expanding their network of hospitals. Additionally, insurance companies are also expanding their bandwidth of services with various value-added options like lifelong renewability, maternity cover, day-care treatment, regular health checkups, 24x7 customer care service.

4. Coverage for Makeshift Hospital setups

   The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) announced that makeshift or temporary hospitals should be treated as network hospitals to settle claims by insurers. Makeshifts are the temporary medical facility setups created by the government for the urgent treatment of patients during the unavailability of beds & other medical amenities in hospitals. With this new inclusion in the insurance given for the COVID19, the coverage of makeshift hospitals is likely to be a part of underwritings in the future as well as the treatment for any other natural disaster will be considered valid by the insurance companies. This move will create a positive impact on the Health Insurance Industry and will create awareness of health insurance amongst the people.

5. Cost Transparency and Artificial Intelligence

   As we know that the cost of health insurance can vary based on the insurance provider, location, and many more things, customers are subject to know about this valuable information. This gap can be filled with the help of a tool that will help the customers in searching for a suitable plan for them. Hence the use of Artificial Intelligence has increased in the health insurance industry where the insurance companies suggest the best-suited plans depending upon your personal information so that you can make the right selection. The insurance companies have introduced a cost estimator tool that provides the cost information and helps customers in comparing prices and plans.

6. Telemedicine Coverage

   Insurance companies began covering telemedicine consultation from Oct 2020. Telemedicine is a convenient and affordable option for customers to reduce the cost and time associated with traveling. This also prevents the customers from being infected by COVID-19. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has instructed the insurance companies to settle the claims related to telemedicine.

Latest Developments

Some of the latest developments in the health insurance industry are:

• Max Bupa Health Insurance was renamed as Niva Bupa Health Insurance.
• HDFC LTD. bought a 50.80% stake of Apollo Munich Health Insurance and now Apollo Munich Health Insurance was renamed as HDFC Ergo Health.
• Religare Health Insurance rebranded itself into Care Health Insurance.
• Bharti AXA General Insurance has merged with ICICI Lombard General Insurance.
• Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has announced a set of notifications with regards to the underwriting of health insurance.
• NivaBupa launched a comprehensive cancer plan at just 5 Rs/day.

As it is well established that, taking care of customers’ health is the priority of health insurance companies, these trends will help them to remove the obstacles and provide simple, inexpensive, and high-quality care.