leaders speak
Technology that
Secures
With innovations and developments in the technology, we have smooth electronic data flow from insured to insurer
H
Bishwajit Nayak Head of Health Claims and Networking, Future Generali www.futuregenerali.in
38
january / 2012 www.ehealthonline.org
ealth Insurance is one of the fastest growing business line in general insurance. This business involves various stake holders and voluminous data capture and transfer takes place between the stake holders. This includes the client, intermediary, the insurance company, the TPA (if involved), the hospital, doctors, diagnostic centers, etc. All the stake holders require excellent IT infrastructure in terms of hardware as well as software. The process of reimbursement presently takes around 20 days and we plan to shorten it up to 3-4 days to hold the customers’ interest.� The company focuses on web insurance of policies, web enrolment of members in corporate, eCards and eEnrolment of members and dependents. Customers can access their policy coverage information online as well as seek information online. Future Generali has 18 percent of share in the health insurance sector. The role of technology in insurance is used for distribution of health insurance, customer service and data flow and capture. For the rural population, they have incorporated web enabled common kiosks which are a single window concept for financial products. Future Generali is a joint venture between the India-based Future Group and the Italy-based Generali
Group. Future Generali is present in India in both the Life and Non-Life businesses as Future Generali India Life Insurance Co. Ltd. and Future Generali India Insurance Co. Ltd. The capabilities of each of the stake holder in capturing data effectively and transferring the data across are very important. Health Insurance involves personalised services and the efficiencies required are of a much higher level. Extensive quality data, analysis and inference are very vital for a viable health insurance portfolio. Health insurance underwriting as well as claims processing system capabilities play a pivotal role. The extent and quality of data captured by an insurance company helps in more efficient product designing and pricing. Fraud detection is another important area in health insurance where IT has a major role to play. New regulatory initiatives such as portability require quick retrieval and exchange of data within insurers and would require the insurance companies to have excellent IT systems. With innovations and developments in the technology, we will have smooth electronic data flow from insured to insurer, diagnostic centre to insurer, hospital to TPA/ Insurer and insurer to insured. It will help better fraud detection as well as fraud management.