Insurers, including ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co Ltd and Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, are tying up with yoga centres, gyms and spas to provide policy holders an opportunity to improve their health - and looking for avenues to sell more heath covers. Some of the other insurers are also exploring collaborations with these centres.Membership in a fitness club reduces the chances of claims from a customer, insurers said. "All this is done to incentivise people to become conscious about their health," said Sanjay Datta, the head of health at ICICI Lombard. "This is more of a preventive measure than curative."
Insurance executives said this would also add value to health products. "In order to extend the benefit of health insurance beyond claims, we have started incentivising claims...if there is no claim in a particular year then people start losing interest in insurance," said an insurance company executive.
One major incentive for insurance companies is lower claims in this area. Since the industry is facing huge underwriting losses, there are very few segments which are profitable for them.
"We can pass on the benefit of these initiatives if policyholders start taking preventive measures," said Datta. "Globally, the benefits are transferred to policyholders in terms of discount in premium. It may happen in another two years in India also."
Insurers also aim to compensate policy holders who spend on their health but
don't claim from the companies.
"Several customers do not make a claim yet avail some services in the healthcare sector like pathological test, consultation with specialist, dentist, and eye care centre. In order to provide value to these customers we have tied up with gymnasium and fitness centres to pass on discounts and other attractive offers to them," said T R Ramalingam, head of underwriting, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance.
Insurers are also providing free health check coupons. Apollo Munich, for example offers free health check-ups for every no-claim year.
"We encourage people to go for health check-ups during a no-claim year," said Antony Jacob, managing director and CEO, Apollo Munich Health Insurance Co. "We are examining the usefulness of a tie-up with yoga centres."
Insurance experts anticipate the health insurance sector to grow by 30-35 per cent during this financial year. Last year, the industry collected Rs 8,000 crore (Rs 80 billion) from health insurance, including group and retail portfolios. This is around 25 per cent of the premium collected by all non-life insurers in 2009-10. Of this, retail health was around Rs 3,500 crore (Rs 35 billion).
Insurers are emphasising more on retail health since the claim loss is below 100 per cent. Group mediclaim on the other hand has become an unprofitable business for insurers post de-tariffing.
Before January 2007, group mediclaim policies were cross- subsidised with fire and engineering covers. Now, insurers have become more selective in writing group health policies as the claim ratio has gone up to 140 per cent. As a result of high claims, insurers had devised various methods like an increase in premium, co-payment, sub-limits and a cap on certain diseases depending on their claim experiences.
