In insurance, moment of truth comes at the time of settling claims

BHARGAV DASGUPTA MD | ICICI Lombard 

Career | Began with erstwhile ICICI in 1992; has held key leadership positions in diverse business areas; set up ICICI Bank's international ops; took over his current role in May 2009 
Achievements | Made ICICI Lombard a key player in govt's universal health insurance programme 
    The general 
insurance 
business 
m ay b e 
rocky but 
it's alsoon a roll.Even after 10 years, few companies are making money 
in itbutthathasn'tstopped 
the industry from growing 
at a very health 30%.Not bad 
since most sectors are currently facing a slowdown. Despite that growth, the general or non-life business is only a tenth of the life insurance industry. Also,unlikelife,it never got good valuations because it was felt that you could only lose money in a business where the biggestdrivers—health and motor—were still unprofitable. 
    So when we met up with the ICICI Lombard head honcho Bhargav Dasgupta, referred to as BDG, the comparisons were bound to capture a good part of the initial conversation. In keeping with ICICI group's philosophy, the current size of the industry is never seen as a constraint, and so naturally Dasgupta is quite gung-ho about his business.Theoptimism perhaps is also driven in equal measure by its position as the market leader – it's the largest non-life and health insurer. With health insurance portability around the corner, it is well placed to draw customers from PSU insurers,butDasgupta is non-committal abouthisstrategy.Hedoes talk about another strategy though. He is not that focused on increasing topline or increasing profits as he is on growing the industry itself. Besides, he also feels that by bargaining down prices with healthcare providers, thehealth insurance business can become profitable. 
    Dasgupta, a sports enthusiast (plays tennis to keep fit), opens up quickly enough, much like the open-space architecture of his newly purchased office in CentralMumbai'sPrabhadevi—now the company's headquarters.Butitcouldbe a bittooopen for some people as we notice executives facing job interviews and prying eyes within that architectural theme. 
    The 45-year-old banker, who has been with the ICICI group from the start, suggests that the non-life industry is still in its early stages. "Although the industry was opened up 10 years ago, liberalization happened only three years back when companies were granted the freedom to design and price products. This has resulted in competition and innovation," he says. He forecasts a 20% growth for the Rs 40,000-crore non-life industry. 
But is the business feeling the slowdown heat? He replies in the affirmative and describes how he got to see it coming much before it became a reality when the engineering insurance slowed down—a sign that new projects were not taking off. Slowdown in car sales could also be a bit of a dampener, but he also feels that it's unlikely that people are going to take less health insurance. His theory being people seldom ignore education of their children and the family health. 
An optimist, he feels insurance will gain popularity when customers see companies paying on time. "The moment of truthiswhen itcomestoclaims," he says. Dasgupta is a big believer in universal health insurance where he sees technology as a tool to provide cover to the poor. As part of that belief, ICICI Lombard has come up with a portable device for issuing biometric smartcards. The device enables the company to issue group policyholders cards which not only provides a photo identity but also stores information about the policyholders. Naturally,when thebusiness revolves around service, an executive's success is also bound to be measured in terms of the difference they make to the life of a consumer. So one of Dasgupta's earliest successes came when he was heading international business in ICICI Bank where the bank managed to improve efficiency by offshoring most of its operations to India. Thisenabledthebankto provide a better return to depositors. He believes speed and accuracy of claim payment along with employeeengagementwouldbethe determinant of growth of an insurance company.

Better late than never- Plan for Health Insurance Policies for your parents, if you have not already

Mediclaim policies are not a luxury anymore; it has become a necessity in today's world.  With inflation more than 9% in India, middle class Indians are finding it very difficult to make both ends meet. And the cherry on the cake is the rising medical expenditure, which has increased more than 10% in the last 4 years. And now with 5% service tax on health care introduced in finance minister Pranab Mukherjee's Budget, the burden of medication and treatment will toll heavily especially on the middle class.

The average Indian spends about Rs 117-Rs 120 per month on medicines etc. It might seem to be a small amount of money to us, but for a person from the lower middle class family, this amount may become a huge burden, especially if it tends to rise. It might constitute about 20-30% of his income. Then invariably, the health care is sacrificed and proper treatment and care is not taken. 

Thus, to ensure proper treatment and a healthy lifestyle, a comprehensive health policy needs to be taken. Most of us either has a health insurance policy from our company or is contemplating purchasing one. But have you thought about your parents? They are the ones who would need maximum health care and has highest chances of hospitalization. Hence caring about them is of utmost importance.

Thankfully there are some insurance companies who have thought about them and have designed special health insurance policies for the Senior Citizen.

There is National Insurance Varistha Mediclaim for Senior Citizen. This plan is a very good plan for the senior citizen from 60 to 80 years of age and it takes care of all hospitalization expenses till an extended age of 90 years. This is a specially designed plan for Senior Citizen and hence it covers for pre-existing diseases just after one year of claim free renewal. You need not wait for 3-4 years for it to be covered like in normal health insurance policies. Pre-existing diseases like Hypertension and Diabetes will be covered from the inception on payment of additional premium. There are other benefits in this plan as well like Cumulative Bonus and cost of Health Check-up is also available on claim free years. This plan also covers Critical Illnesses.

Another popular Senior Citizen Health Insurance Policy is Star Health Senior Citizen Red Carpet Plan for 60 to 69 years of age but can be continued forever. This plan also covers pre-existing diseases from the second year of operation and it also covers major surgeries and other treatments. Some diseases are however covered from second and third year of operation and there is no requirement for pre-medical tests in this plan.

There are other plans like Max Bupa Heartbeat Health Insurance Plan which can be availed for your parents as well and it has no age limit. In this plan, both your parents can be covered together under a family floater and can be taken at any time and can be continued till death. In fact, you can avail Max Bupa Heartbeat Family First Health Insurance Policy for each and every member of your family irrespective of their age under the same plan. In this plan, even your parents-in-laws can be included.

Thus, like it is never too late to plan for your house, car or umpteenth honeymoon, it is never too late to plan for your health insurance policy as well. Since health is wealth; its proper care is of extreme importance. And now, it is in your control to en sure that you take the best efforts to take care of the people who matter to you, especially since your parents have done their best to take care of your health; it's your turn to pay them back by doing your bit the best!

INDIA MEDICLAIM: Insurers must reveal non-PPN hosps

Mumbai: All public sector health insurance companies will have to disclose the names of hospitals that are not part of the Preferred Provider Network (PPN)—introduced in July 2010—for cashless services and they will also have to cite the reasons for taking them off the old list.     The Central Information Commission passed such an order recently, saying under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, insurance firms will have to reveal all hospital names as people might have bought a mediclaim policy before the PPN system was introduced and going by the list provided by the insurance company at that time, they might still hope to avail of the cashless facility in places 
that have since been deleted. 
    Four public sector insurance firms, New Indian Assurance Company, Oriental Insurance Company, United Indian Insurance and National Insurance Company, started the Preferred Provider Network system on July 1 last year. Under it, the companies offer a fixed rate for 42 kinds of treatments covered under the cashless mediclaim policy. A hospital under PPN will have to offer treatment to a policy holder according to rates fixed by the companies. The new system was implemented to prevent over-billing by hospitals, which the insurance companies claim, was a major reason behind huge losses suffered by them on health insurance portfolio. 'It's appellant's right to know all hosp names' 
Mumbai: Citing the reason behind asking public sector health insurance firms to divulge the names of hospitals which are not part of the Preferred Provider Network (PPN) for cashless services, information commissioner Deepak Sandhu said the firms' obligation could not be restricted to merely specifying the premium amount required to be collected from a policy-holder. Insurance companies, working in a non-transparent fashion, do not divulge all the facilities available to a policy holder by deleting some of the names from their old list of hospitals providing cashless facility. "But it is the appellant's right to know the names of all the hospitals available to them as well as the reason for deleting some of them from the cashless facility list," Sandhu added. 
    RTI activist Chetan Kothari, whose plea brought about the order on July 27, said, "A year ago, I filed an application at the public information office of the New Indian Assurance Company's Tardeo branch, asking why hospital names were not published and the reason behind excluding certain clinics from the facility. Instead of replying, the PIO transferred my application to the first appellate authority and that too, after 30 days. The appellate authority directed the PIO to provide me with the information, but he did not conduct any hearing as prescribed under the RTI Act. Finally, when the data was given out, it was incomplete." 
    Kothari than filed a second appeal before the CIC. "The public sector insurance company had not even provided names and addresses of the chief PIO and the appellate authority on the notice board in its office. Taking strong exception, the CIC ordered the firm to take corrective measures."