Weekly Insurance Round-up Tuesday, November 30, 2021

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We're back with the next edition of Beshak's Weekly News Round-up - an analysis of all Insurance News & Updates, straight from our research desk! 

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✴️Insurtech start-up Artivatic introduces AUSIS, an AI-driven underwriting platform 💻

✴️ 59% of employees in India report feeling stressed in everyday life 😥

✴️ Health premium income increases by 29% post Covid19 📈

✴️ Vital and MI join hands to offer healthcare, fitness solutions to customers 🤝🏻

✴️ ₹125 Cr. raised through bonds by Star Union Dai-ichi Life 💰

✴️ Venture Catalysts & 9Unicorns invest undisclosed amount in Samadhan in pre-series A round 🤑

• Artivatic, an insurtech startup, has introduced AUSIS, an AI-driven underwriting platform that will help insurers analyse frauds, risks, keep medical records, KYC, and application forms. 
• AUSIS will also help in identifying individual health risks, speed up the decision-making and make underwriting suggestions in less than 60 seconds.
• Underwriting involves conducting research and assessing the degree of risk each applicant brings to the table. It helps in setting appropriate premiums to adequately cover the true cost of insuring the policyholders. 
• This is done by an underwriter who evaluates the risk and decides the policy premium. If the risk is deemed to be too high, an underwriter might refuse cover.
• AUSIS will create customer profiles based on eligibility criteria like financial status, geographical location, previous medical and financial history, and government data through AI. It will then evaluate whether an individual will be able to pay a premium for a particular insurance product.
• With the insurance sector changing rapidly, companies are investing in modernising and evolving claims as well as processing platforms. 
• As underwriting is one of the most crucial parts of insurance, it is gaining attraction from businesses, too. 
• Artivatic’s AUSIS will allow businesses to - 
  • Procure real-time customer information and analyze the risk accordingly.
  • Conduct facial analysis to estimate smoking, gender, BMI, and other information for better risk scoring.
  • Automated risk assessment across 1200+ parameters like financial, social, KYC, health, etc.
• AUSIS will also help businesses reduce TAT, enable data intelligence, improve efficiency, reduce cost and risk, personalise risk profiling, etc., and all these will help in improving the customer experience.

Source: CIOL Bureau

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• As per Health on Demand-2021 survey by Marsh India, it was found that 59% of employees in India feel stressed almost every day.
• With a sample size of 14,000 employees across the globe and over 1,000 employees in India, the survey was conducted to see the impact the employers made on their employees.
• It was found that - 
  • 3 out of every 5 employees reported that were under somewhat stress every day. 
  • 40% of them said that they are less likely to quit their jobs as they were provided with mental health benefits through their employers. 
  • 29% of the employees who did not get this privilege said otherwise. 
• The report also states that high earners have better access to medical coverage, income protection, and mental health counseling than low earners - which is why low earners feel less confident about being able to access the healthcare needed by them or their families.
• 8 out of 10 respondents use digital well-being solutions like video chat to interact with their doctors, healthcare apps to track their health and find healthcare support.
• The pandemic had a less negative impact on employees who felt supported by their employers (21%) than those who did not feel supported (44%).
• Marsh has also provided a few solutions to reduce the stress level for employees and improve employee loyalty. According to them, employers should - 
  • Enhance physical, social, financial, and emotional well-being support to increase employee engagement.
  • Offer more diverse risk protection, like providing employees with critical illness covers and more wellbeing resources, like a healthy work environment or providing gym benefits.
  • Provide virtual care benefit plans that will allow employees to virtually meet the doctor if they are unable to connect via telemedicine services, clinic visits, etc.
  • Offer mental health support to boost emotional health and reduce everyday stress levels.
  • Ensure that every employee can access the healthcare services they need. 
• Beshak Take: Pandemic has challenged everyone - both mentally and physically. The work from home started by most offices in the pandemic has led to increased working hours, no work-life balance, and stress among the employees. A survey conducted by ICICI Lombard in August also showed that the work stress level among employees has increased since the pandemic.
• Employers should ensure that they take good measures to help their employees stay mentally and physically fit by providing proper health insurance coverage, encouraging employees to practice stress relief activities like yoga, meditation, etc.

Source: Financial Express

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• While the pandemic created havoc for most insurers, it became a boon for health insurers as more and more people have started purchasing health insurance now.
• The health insurance industry premium income (income earned by insurers from premium) increased by 29.81% in 2021 till October (from ₹32,796.19 Cr. for up to October in 2020 to ₹42,571.75 Cr. for up to October 2021).
• The premium income for October 2021 was ₹5,463.67 Cr. which is 34.07% more than the premium income of ₹4,075.27 Cr. for October 2020.
• The premium income for private insurers up to October 2021 was ₹62,170.20 Cr. which was 12.47% more than the premium income of ₹55,274.00 Cr. up to October 2020. 
• For October 2021, the premium collected by private insurers was ₹9,744.53 Cr. which was 9.52% more than the premium income for the same month in 2020.
• Even standalone health insurers saw a growth of 38.01% in the premium income up to the month of October 2021, which increased to ₹10,941.37 Cr from ₹7,927.83 Cr. for the same period in 2020.
• Standalone health insurers witnessed a growth of 30.49% in October 2021 where the premium income increased to ₹1,609.36 Cr. from ₹1,233.32 Cr. in October 2020.
• The health segment has become the key growth driver of the non-life insurance industry since the pandemic.
• The initial stage of the pandemic did impact health insurers' profitability due to the increased number of claims. However, insurers believe that as Covid cases decrease, the health insurance business will recover quickly, and once again become a profitable segment.

Sources: The Indian Express | Segmentwise Report-October 2021

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• Vital and MI have come together to provide complete health covers to their customers.
• Vital is a one-stop healthcare insurtech platform that provides its customers with customized, comprehensive, and pocket-friendly health plans.
• MI is a fitness band offered by the company Xiaomi with features like tracking one's steps, heart rate, calories burnt, and more.
• Vital and MI will offer health insurance coverage of up to ₹50 lakh along with covid-19 treatment, full-body health check-ups, pharmacy benefits with a flat 25% discount on medicines, unlimited teleconsultations, nutrition consultations, and fitness classes at a monthly subscription that starts from ₹299.
• Vital’s new policyholders will get these offers on the purchase of the MI fitness band. The MI band users will be able to use the fitness and wellness benefits provided by Vital as well. 
• Vital also provides health points in the form of rewards that can be used to pay the subscription fees.
• Vital claims they are offering pocket-friendly plans that are easy to manage and have an extremely smooth claims process. They will also be assigning a dedicated care manager to each and every member for assistance in claim-related queries.

Source: Live Mint

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• Star Union Dai-ichi Life raised ₹125 Cr via its maiden bonds offering. 
• They will use these funds to enhance the growth of their business.
• Founded in 2009, Star Union Dai-ichi Life is a joint venture between two government-run banks and a Japanese life insurance company where Bank of India holds a 28.96% stake, Union Bank of India holds a 25.01% stake, and Dai-ichi International Holdings owns a 45.94% stake.

Source: Times of India

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• Insurance Samadhan, an online platform that deals with resolving insurance-related complaints, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from India’s largest start-up incubator Venture Catalysts and 9Unicorns in a Pre-Series A fund round.
• With the help of these funds, Insurance Samadhan will strengthen its technology, which can be a win-win situation for both the insurance company and the policyholder.
• Insurance Samadhan allows users to file a complaint about issues such as mis-selling, lapsed policy, policy rejection, fraud, or claim rejection in life, health, and general insurance. 
• It then filters the complaints on certain parameters and connects with respective insurance companies, regulators, ombudsmen, and consumer courts as required.

Source: BW Disrupt

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