India has always leapfrogged technology. For instance, we leapt from no internet to 4G mobiles. Moved from a poor payment network to world class developed in-house UPI and digital payments. Similarly, in healthcare, we will leapfrog from poor primary and secondary healthcare systems to the best Virtual Care and use of wearables, big data and AI will transform the healthcare sector. Customers are engaging massively with health apps and this trend is only becoming bigger and bigger in India.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital disruption has been even more rapid as consumer demand for digitised services has shot up. The digital adoption during COVID improved with apps such as Arogya Setu and Cowin App set up for vaccination booking and for certificates unlike developed countries that were on paper and manual procedures.

The pandemic also changed the course of healthcare to a more technology-driven approach. People with better health survived COVID. Clearly the pandemic taught us the importance of telemedicine and that health is more important along with wealth.

Massive hospital bills during COVID made people understand the importance of health insurance cover. This has led to health insurance becoming more vital today than before. Through technology enablement, the complexity of communication and interactions among different stakeholders, namely patients, healthcare providers, payers (insurance companies) and the government (central and state), has been significantly simplified.

This rise in demand for insurance can be certainly attributed to the new-age insurance players who are transforming the industry. These companies add simplicity, transparency, and easy-to-use channels to expand insurance accessibility. This has led the overall industry to adapt to the changing times with disruptive technologies to stay competitive. The digitalization in insurance has spread through all the processes in the system namely policy pricing, claims management and customer service to underwriting and even risk analysis, technology has disrupted many key functions.

There are some key technologies that insurance companies are using to be able to provide their customers the best in class service.

Big Data Analytics for Outcome based Insurance: Big Data for instance is now one of the most valuable tools that is being used by every insurance company. Technology which makes data and analysis available to insurers is helping them to know their customers better. This in turn helps them to price and underwrite more accurately, and better identify fraudulent claims. Many insurers are also tying with preventive healthcare or wearable companies to track data. By activating and collecting the right data – from IoTs such as activity trackers (wearable) – they’re able to better understand consumer needs and offer customised advice, coverage, and tailored pricing.

This shift indicates that insurers are now viewing consumers as individuals, rather than customer segments. Usage-based insurance policies, for instance, tap into customer data in order to charge users according to their specific needs and behaviours, putting the consumer in charge of their own fees. Based on how healthy a person is, insurance companies can offer differential and dynamic pricing and a plan to every user which can further be customised based on improvement in health. Big data helps health insurers (i) store enormous amounts of data,(ii) Speed up responses to customers, (iii) Maximise renewals by customers, (iv) Remote accessibility of data and (v) Access historical as well as real-time data.

Use of AI for better customer service & claims processing:

AI, machine learning, and robotic process automation are some of the most disruptive technologies in the insurance industry. Earlier under the traditional model of claims processing, insurance companies found it difficult to manage and speed up the process of huge volumes of daily claims. In the claims data, it’s challenging to discern specific patterns that require closer inspection by humans. However, with artificial intelligence, identifying specific claim patterns at random or at scale takes only minutes and deft programming. Moreover, all of this can be achieved without greatly increasing operational expenses or taking up excessive amounts of time.

Mobility Solutions for Support Service:

Mobility issues combined with health insurance services can help insurance companies to provide their consumers with convenient and easily accessible services via customer-facing insurance apps. Besides, highly mobile-ready solutions are more likely to benefit insurance companies, policyholders and potential consumers in many ways, including: (i) Making policy payments and changes, (ii) Getting anytime, anywhere online consultation, (iii) Submitting claims via mobile insurance apps, (iv) Checking the status of an insurance claim, (iv) Automating the process of claim settlement (v) Delivering prescription information to pharmacies in real-time.

Metaverse will also give a boost to health insurance in the future. It is not unrealistic to believe that healthcare companies will soon venture in to create new business models aligned with patient health insurance, reimbursements and prescriptions in this new virtual world. Monitoring of patient activity in the metaverse means factors such as compliance and behaviour could be tracked more easily, which would further assist in customising health Insurance plans for the consumer. Metaverse is well poised to benefit consumers across the spectrum of healthcare requirements including insurance.. Technology such as the adoption of blockchain infrastructure and sophisticated software tools to analyse data will go a long way in helping Insurance companies to minimise the burden of unnecessary costs and also help in revamped efficacy and render smoother and faster services to their customers.

This disruption through technology in the health insurance space is only going to get better. Currently, it’s slow and steady but companies have already started and put in place many of these processes.

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