About the Health Insurance Industry –
While the current market sees more than 15 non-life players in the private space and 5 exclusive private players in the health insurance space trying to capture a sizable market share, the nationalised service provider (6) remains a strong competitor. In addition to this the business dynamics are such that the overall market on an annual basis which is to the tune of roughly 10,000 Crs sees close to 85 % of the business renewing with the existing service provider itself. This narrows down the opportunity of the fresh business actually being seriously fought in the market to approximately 1500 odd Crs. With the SME and the start-ups being the driving force of Indian economy, the opportunity to cater to these segments is immense and is increasing manifold year on year. The challenge here therefore remains as to how we capture a larger share of the opportunity by developing specific solutions to cater each segment of the business. Also by creating an inexpensive and standardized solution to increase the reach into the pockets of channel partners across the country to harness on their captive business and explore new opportunities with them.
Market Opportunities – With the advent of medical advancements, lifestyle changes, change in Indian socio-economic scenario and Indian healthcare space, and the insurers are facing challenges to cater to the needs of this diverse clientele. Increasingly Indian customers have started considering health insurance partners as ententions of health advisers. In this scenario it becomes extremely important to understand their psyche and then provide tailored solutions with wellness benefits which would help them meet their end objectives and bring in profitable revenue source for the company.
About the Aditya Birla Health Insurance –
Aditya Birla Health Insurance Co. Limited (ABHICL) was incorporated in 2015 as a 51:49 joint venture between Aditya Birla Capital Limited (ABCL) and MMI Strategic Investments (Pty) Ltd. ABHICL commenced its operations in October 2016.
ABHICL has entered the competitive health insurance market with an aim to expand the category to wider customer segments, beyond the ones that health insurance companies traditionally have marketed to. As the 6th entrant in a category with well-established players, ABHICL is creating differentiation and equity for itself though the unique business proposition of “Health Insurance for All”, a one of a kind proposition in India at the moment. This is a philosophy that is being built through every single consumer touch point and into every single backend process of the company to ensure a customer’s experience of our proposition is continuous and seamless.
ABHI’s unique offering to market includes proposition includes -
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A Comprehensive Incentivized Wellness Program that will attract the young and health conscious and will motivate, guide and reward them to stay healthy
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A Chronic Care Management Program to cater to the unmet needs of a growing Indian population of those suffering from chronic lifestyle conditions like Diabetes, Asthma, High Cholesterol and Hypertension from Day 1
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ABHICL serves as an enabler and influencer of health and healthcare choices that customers make, in addition to being a payer of healthcare expenses. Thus, ABHICL would act like a much needed catalyst to grow the prevalent health insurance landscape in India through product innovations and a wider choice of consumer relevant products.
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ABHICL’s vision has always been digital. The company has been successful in adopting paper-less approach right from identifying to on-boarding to delivering seamless experience of its customers & employees.
Key Challenges for the role –
Business Challenges: The strategy adopted by the market participants in order to actively and aggressively source business has a key impact on the market dynamics. While there have been service providers who have remained consistently focussed on the risk business, there have been other players who have adopted a very aggressive. Hence how we fare in the market also gets influenced by what strategy these participants pursue.-
Soft Insurance Market: Considering the soft insurance market in India, offering solutions to price sensitive clients may turn risky. Such clients may negotiate hard on the unique solution offered which eats away the cos profitability and may opt to place the business with other manufacturers. It is extremely important to design and customize the right solution for the right set of clients.
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Lack of historical data: Data based analytics is possible for players having historical data and in business for years. At the onset opportunity identification needs to be done basis feedback from partners, clients and experience. The decision to pursue an opportunity might not always be backed by data.
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Inter departmental challenges: Offering and structuring a deal often involves working with various departments like operations, claims, actuarial etc to see what best can be offered. There may be instances that actuarial may not be comfortable offering a particular price that has been made available to the customer and hence working with them to see how best can things be modulated is often a tough ask. Also getting various stakeholders and constituents to the process like operations to understand the sensitivities of the various partners involved and seeing the creation of a process which meets our objective without offending either the partner concerned or the internal norms gets to be a challenge that has to be fought on a daily basis.
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Partners: Given that close to 90 percent of the activity in terms of the deals coming in the market to be fought are from our partners, working with them in terms of structuring their payouts gets to be a challenge. There are peers in the market who adopt aggressive payout strategies whether it be a new business or it be a renewal and have a faster turn-around process for the same to be remitted. Besides this, they keep doing off-sites at local levels for the team players and hence that gets them a marginal head start. Hence these factors have to be taken into account and managed accordingly. How we build a scenario with partners where they start to look at us as a longer duration partnership and work in progress and not just as a transaction basis remains a key. Similarly building a relationship with partners to constantly seek insights on what the competition is upto and also what are some of the new thoughts that can be pursued is a key challenge that needs to be pursued.
