How digital health can work for insurance companies

Digital healthcare is one of the most promising sectors for insurers. It has a high potential of building customer loyalty and engaging those who are not satisfied with run-of-the-mill health service.

Take telemonitoring and its time and cost savings. “We are talking about medical devices that can communicate directly with a cloud platform, sending patient data to be further analyzed and managed”, suggests Simone Agazzi, Business Development Manager for eHealth and Telemonitoring at Comarch Italy. “For chronic or post-critical patients – he adds – telemedicine helps maintain a balanced state of health and reduces the risk of critical events”.

As Mr. Agazzi points out, digital services bring substantial value to individual health policies, which is why the services can – and should – be integrated with the existing products to strengthen the customer-insurer relationship by offering relevant up- and cross-selling opportunities.

MEETING NEEDS

Today, 22% of customers are not satisfied with a digital offer rendered by their insurance companies. “One of the main causes of underinsurance is the gap between customers’ perceived value of the policy and their willingness to pay for it” says Umberto Tocci, Business Solutions Manager Insurance at Comarch Italy, who identifies IoT as the technology that can draw companies closer to their customers.

Thanks to this technology, insurers gather all information about the insured in one hub, filter the information and share it locally with agents, enabling them to build a perfectly tailored offer for their customers. Insurance agents are the key players here since they maintain personal contact with the customers and are able to identify their needs.

THE RACE CONTINUES

With Fintech at their heels, big insurance companies have either started to digitize their processes in full or integrate their existing products with digital services. The caveat, however, is that the incumbents offer longer time-to-market and less flexibility compared to newcomers.

Still, insurance companies have one big advantage with respect to startups and insurtechs. The advantage is customer base.

According to Gartner, IoT, AI and Data Analytics will have the greatest impact in insurance in the coming years, with a market penetration between 5 and 20%. This is 4 times higher compared to blockchain and augmented reality combined. Until 2020 the IoT market is expected to grow by 33%, with 20,4 billion connected devices used worldwide.

 

Maria Moro, Insurance Connect

Umberto Tocci, Business Solution Manager Insurance at Comarch Italy

Simone Agazzi, Business Development Manager for eHealth and Telemonitoring at Comarch Healthcare Italy

 

Source: Insurance Connect
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