Oriental Insurance to launch medical insurance for senior citizens

Senior citizens can now look forward to check out medical insurance policy scheme from Oriental Insurance. The insurance company is to soon launch the health insurance product designed for the age group of 60 to 85, and is expected to cover a wide range of specific ailments.

M Ramadoss, chariman and managing director of Oriental Insurance chairman and managing director M Ramadoss said that the company has approached insurance regulator IRDA for approval, while speaking to the media on the sidelines of an insurance seminar organised by the Indian Merchants’ Chamber in Mumbai on Friday.

Catering specifically for the demographic group of senior citizens, health insurance product `Varishta Bima scheme’ is also available from National Insurance, which was launched last year.

Oriental Insurance proposes to include some pre-existing ailments after two to three years in its scheme, according to Mr Ramadoss. One could be insured up to Rs 2 lakh with a flat premium across all age groups, with no geographic restrictions. But the exact details on premium were not available.

Mr Ramadoss said that though the industry has made a smooth transition to the detariffing regime, revenue growth may be impacted as premiums for certain segments have been hit.Premium income on medical insurance has been impacted because of elimination of cross subsidies while tariff on fire and motor insurance has also been impacted. Oriental has lost revenues to the tune of Rs 70 crore owing to the discontinuation of some group mediclaim insurance policies.

Detariffing is expected to slowdown the revenue growth of many insurance companies. Speaking on the issue, ICICI Lombard General Insurance MD; CEO Sandeep Bakshi said there has to be a trade-off between topline growth and profitability and between market share and the profit and loss account in a detariffed scenario.

Microsoft unveils Web-based health portal

Microsoft has launched a free, ad-supported Web-based health portal called HealthVault, a resource that allows people to upload their medical records online and share their information with doctors.

It is reported that other companies, such as Google and Steve Case's Revolution Health, as well as the federal government (USA) have been working on similar projects.

Although some are concerned that such sites could make users sensitive to hackers, Microsoft says it has consulted with experts to ensure that HealthVault will keep personal information private.

While it is estimated that such an electronic medical-record network would save more than $500 billion in medical costs over 15 years, it is reported that doctors are slow to adopt technology that has been around for more than a decade.

Source: ProWEB Wire

General Insurance Council will review Health Insurance norms

General Insurance Council, the forum of all general insurers under IRDA is working to review the health insurance norms followed by Insurance companies, said B D Banerjee, former CMD of Oriental Insurance company and National Insurance Company, and a member of committee for senior citizens insurance at IRDA.

He was speaking at a seminar organised by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Various points would come under the review including indiscriminate non-disclosure fees charged, guidelines for conducting medical tests, and pre-existing illness definition for medical claims.

Speaking on the occasion Suresh Mathur, joint director of IRDA, said that ambiguous policy terms had to be avoided for making the business more transparent. Also, health insurance has to be promoted to ensure proper coverage of the weaker sections of the society and senior citizens.

Bannerjee, further added, In case a person has any symptoms of a disease, the entry load should be increased to adjust the cost. However, in that case, the insurance cover should not commence after two years of buying the policy, but right from the day of purchasing it.

He also said if a person has had a medical treatment for more than 12 months, the entry load should be increased but the benefits of mediclaim should not be denied to the subject.

He felt as cardio- vascular disease was one of the commonest ailments these days, the entry load of an insurance scheme should be adjusted according to the glucose, lipid and hypertension levels of the insured.These steps would help in standardistion of medical costs, he said.

Apart from this, Banerjee also felt that the increase the premium on health insurance by 200 per cent for people above the age of 60, as illogical.

“IRDA has made it clear that the increase should not be more than 50-70 per cent, but the cap is mostly violated by companies,” he confessed.

Also, insurance companies should come up with regional tariff plans as done by the National Insurance Company. He claimed that accreditation of health care institutions would bring down the cost of medical insurance. People who could not afford medical insurance should be offered a product like Medisafe, where employee and employer jointly contributed to a fund that covered all employers.

“Accreditation of hospitals would go a long way in identifying providers which will provide qualitative and cost effective health care,” said Mathur.

Hyderabad to host CII health conclave on Oct 9

The CII healthcare conclave coming up in Hyderabad next week will highlight the need for quality and affordability of medicare in the country as the sector continues to boom.

The conclave to be held by Confederation of Indian Insustries (CII) on October 9, 2007 will also press for industry status for the sector. “For a long time healthcare has been considered an unorganised industry with doctors turning entrepreneurs. The industry today is the largest employer and demands an industry status,” said Mr Vishal Bali, conference Chairman & CEO, Wockhardt Hospitals Group.

“As a fast growing economy we need to focus on the healthcare sector. Today, the healthcare expenditure in the country is 5.2 per cent of the GDP and only 0.9 per cent of its gross expenditure, which is the lowest in the world. There is a huge need for investments to improve access to basic healthcare and fill the shortfall of approximately 8,00,000 beds in the country,” he added

The conclave will focus on improving gaps in bed strength, medical and paramedical staff, news technologies, investment and financing models.

The fifth in the CII’s annual national service sector conclave series is titled `Healthcare services: next practices and mantras for survival’.

The Andhra Pradesh Minister for Medical Education and Health Insurance, Ms Aruna Kumari Galla, is to participate, Key players across the industry will include Apollo Hospitals, Wockhardt Hospitals, Satyam Computer Services Ltd, Arvind Eye Hospital, Max Healthcare, P.G. Hinduja National Hospital, Yashoda Hospitals, insurance regulator IRDA, Star Health, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Citibank, Johnson & Johnson Medical, Philips Medical Systems, GE Healthcare Technologies.

Health insurance importance, tariff and reach emphasized at Health Insurance Summit organized by CII

Is Tariff really a critical factor in the growth of Health Insurance. Do people do not take health insurance because of tariff or due to a lack of awareness. Setting any kind of boundaries does affect a market, and probably that is what C. S. Rao, Chairman, Insurance Regulatory and Devleopment Authority meant to say.

"The healthcare industry has two concerns: insurance and removal of tariffs. Once tariffs are removed, insurance will get a boost, said C.S. Rao, while speaking at the Health Insurance Summit organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Oct 5, 2007 in Mumbai.

Also it has been noted that senior citizens are unhappy with the existing health insurance schemes and an issue which needs to be addressed, said Mr. Rao.

Health insurance in India forms a small part of insurance. With 75 percent of the Indians residing in the rural areas, more doctors need to be posted in these regions. Also, the poor have still to be taken care of by the government since it is only a miniscule number of people from the society that can pay for health insurance.

By next decade the health insurance scenario in India would look different undergoing a transformation due to efforts from Government, added Mr. G. C. Chaturvedi, Joint. Secretary and Mission Director, National Rural Health Mission, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. With an addition of 0.11 beds per annum and 100 million Indians covered by self-funded government schemes, most public private partnerships will reduce high out of pocket health insurance. Regulatory mechanisms would also be enforced to have a proper system in place. Proper policies needs to be in place, for the catering to the health requirement of the poor.

Dr Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, CII National Healthcare Council and Chairman, Apollo Hospitals, emphasized that while the health industry contributed to over five percent to the national income, still it remains one of the most neglected industry. The reasons are mainly lack of awareness and disinterest among the masses on the whole.

The statistics for health services are not so encouraging with one Primary Health Centre for every 30,000 people and only six maternity beds. The rural sector which forms 75 percent of Indian population has access to only 31 percent of hospitals, 18 percent of beds and only 25 percent of qualified allopathic doctors.

In addition to that the light escalating prices for medicines, treatment and to avail medical facilities is slipping out of one's reach.

Although there are a host of insurance policies available today to choose from mandatory, public, private, employer based to community based schemes, the hindrances has been due to the fact that 24 percent of the population are poverty line and 35 percent are illiterate.

As per the study undertaken by the WHO, the insurance in India is mainly financed from out of pocket expenditure in comparison to all other countries involve in the study including China, Sri Lanka, Vietnam to mention a few.

India has a huge population base; there is immense potential for the industry to grow in future. While the government is working on the regulatory issues on one hand, the private sector is looking at insurance expertise and product design.

"Unlike Life Insurance, in case of health insurance, there are multiple stakeholders involved and it is important for all of them to work together to make a success of this. This Summit has tried to assemble a confluence of industry players on a common platform to explore and arrive at a consensus on key directions," said A Vaidheesh, Summit Chairman and Managing Director, Johnson and Johnson Medical.

An aging population and an increase in lifestyle diseases will push the demand for hospitalization. It is important to recognize health as continuum and not as a point of reference. "The Summit will prove constructive for the vast array of issues affecting growth of this industry and the economy as a whole." Calling for a broader view of healthcare costs and an improved healthcare infrastructure, he said that by 2015, health insurance will cover 20 percent of the Indian population.

Providing an insight into the insurer's mind, Mr D D Singh, Executive Director, Health Insurance, Life Insurance Corporation of India, stated that an insurer faces difficulties while choosing a product. Cost, quality and access decide the success of health insurance. The insurance companies need to talk about the mindset of the customer.

According to Jean-Michel Chatagny, MD, Client Market Asia, Swiss Re, in 2004 the world spent 4.1 trillion dollars on health. India has very less expenditure on health. Private insurance is very low and has the lowest percentage of government spending among the BRIC countries. The Swiss government encourages purchase of health insurance. India has potential for private insurers. Also, the care delivery infrastructure needs to be overhauled and the government has an important role to play, he said.

In his welcome address, Banmali Agrawala, Deputy Chairman, CII Western Region and MD Wartsila India Ltd said that the first ever health insurance summit in India is an attempt to remind people of the importance of 'forgotten' health and health insurance to keep up with the fast track life. An indirect advantage of health insurance is that it keeps medical costs and practices under check. With the opening of the Insurance Industry to FDI, large amounts of funds have been flowing in.

More options in Health Insurance, with LIC to submit its proposed Health Insurance product to IRDA

Life Insurance Corporation of India would submit its proposed health insurance product to the insurance regulator IRDA this month said Mr D.D. Singh, Executive Director (Health), LIC, at a health seminar organised by CII.

Speaking more, he said the health insurance product will be a long-term policy and along with the hospitalization benefits will also factor in savings as one of the element.

The main features of the product be would be hospital cash, family-floater and unit-linked components. The premium for the product will increase progressively on an annual basis as the customer’s age increases.

Mr Singh said that the objective has been to keep the costs low.

A key difference in the health insurance policy from the existing tradional policies is that the premium rates would increase with age. The premium in the tradional policies remain constant throughout the term.

The other difference is expencted that the utilisation of the claim benefits will be decided bythe insured. LIC will release the funds to the policyholder through its banking partners.

The Health Insurance division of LIC is based in Hyderabad. The outfit will contain a team of 30 people managing the division. The division will have a centralised data repository. LIC has empanelled eight third party administrators (TPA's) for servicing the claims from Health Insurance. The payment of claims will, however, be made by banks, selected by LIC. “We haveselected Syndicate Bank, Axis Bank and Bank of America for the payment of claims,” said Mr Singh

The Health Insurance product will be marketed and distributed by LIC through its 10 lakh plus strong agency network.

The Health Insurance segment is mainly catered by Non-Life insurance companies with products like Mediclaim, Medicare and etc. Beginning a year ago, Life insurance companies have been allowed to market standalone health insurance products to increase the increase the penetration of health insurance in the country.

Among life insurance companies after Bajaj Allianz Life and ICICI Pru, LIC would be the third to launch a health insurance product.

Star Health and Allied Insurance is another company which focuses exclusively in Health Insurance segment with plans like Medi Classic, Medi Premier, Family Optima among its product range. Few more health insurance products are expected from other companies.