Insurance Technology
Article | July 19, 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the pressures on emergency medical services and healthcare professionals as well as insurance platforms. Insurtech has proved to be a robust area of technology that needs further investments to ensure that we are able to leverage it even in times when there’s little global turmoil.
The Efma-Accenture Innovations in Insurance award winners have validated the exponential expansion of insurtech. Here are three insurtech innovations driving emergency prevention in healthcare.
1 bAIby – Interpreting Baby Cries
bAIby is a next-gen baby monitoring device powered by AI. Labelled as a “cry translator,” the BabyT device uses AI to interpret what a baby’s cries mean. The bAIby solution is based on the understanding that the first six months of a baby’s cries universally communicate the following:
sleepiness
hunger
discomfort
stomach issues
The developer of the BabyT AI, Zoundream, collaborated with insurance company Generali to enroll young parents and test BabyT. This allowed Zoundream to collect the massive amounts of data sets required to train the AI. The AI is able to detect pathologies like hyperthyroidism, autism and even hearing impairment.
Furthermore, it will enable Generali to provide new parents with assistance, prevention, and insurance services, thus providing the peace of mind that insurance services should provide. This innovation won the gold in the Efma-Accenture Innovations in Insurance award.
2 Air Doctor – Finding a Doctor Overseas
Silver winner Air Doctor is a cutting edge solution to help individuals find general practitioners in unfamiliar places. The solution is aimed at travellers and expatriates whose first instinct when sick overseas may be to visit a hospital, leading to high medical costs and burdening the local healthcare system.
The Air Doctor platform provides access to a network of physicians in six continents and 70 countries. The information includes the doctor’s location, specialization, as well as online appointment booking and virtual care options. Insurance providers can integrate with the platform to connect with their customers by offering a digital link for quick verification and approval. The platform has made managing basic medical attention easier for both consumers and insurance providers.
3 bolttech – Boosting Insurance Penetration
Bronze winner bolttech was recognized for its smart insurance exchange ecosystem that enables non-insurers to integrate insurance solutions into their purchase journey. For instance, smartphone vendors can use bolttech to provide insurance as an option during the purchase of a new phone, leveraging the most effective purchase touchpoints to provide coverage. This is especially crucial in markets that have a low penetration of insurance. bolttech’s platform has medical plans with self-declared underwriting, delivering instant cover and reducing the onboarding time to just 90 seconds.
4 The Way Forward
Digitalization of insurance is the future of the industry. The above solutions have proven use cases that enable both consumers and providers to leverage digital network to create secure and stress-free access to insurance.
Read More
Claims
Article | July 15, 2022
The worldwide marketplace is undergoing a host of structural changes and insurance companies are consistently working to capitalize on them. The past few years posed a number of new challenges. For an industry whose primary promise is to “be there when customers need us,” delivering top-notch timely services is not only crucial for business continuity but the most urgent goal. Inspiring trust through every process of the policy lifecycle is a significant factor for insurers to be able to maintain goodwill in the market. Recent pressures proved that the industry needs a systemic metamorphosis and digital solutions may be able to provide them.
This is also why many industries are jumping on the bandwagon of digital transformation and insurance is no different. With a barrage of new technologies, solutions and software, it has become easier to automate processes and eliminate inefficiencies that hamper day-to-day-operations. One such area of transformation is insurance policy management. Forward-looking insurers today, can start by rethinking their policy management framework.
The Importance of Automated Policy Management
Simplifying all internal processes is a priority for many insurance providers worldwide. Much of the insurer’s business outcome hinges on streamlined workflows, seamless document management and effective use of different tools. In policy management, mitigating risk is another significant aspect that impacts the bottom line. Today, insurers are heavily investing in new technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, robotic process automation, data analytics and much more.
Policy management entails the comprehensive process of administering policies. From pre-sale to renewal to claims, at every stage of the policy lifecycle, insurers must ensure a smooth process at every stage. Some of the stages of policy management that can be enhanced by using automated policy management tools which include:
Member services
Loss mitigation
Risk assessment
Claims processing
Policy issuance
Policy renewal
Policy cancellation
Compliance
It’s clear that insurance policy administration system (pas) encompasses all the main business processes of an insurance company and the importance of policy management is enough to invest in high-quality solutions that span the policy lifecycle.
The Must-Haves of Policy Management Software
A smart insurance policy management simplifies the process for both the insurer and the insured. For insurers, it should be able to optimize resources and save time in administering policies. For example, life insurance policy management system can help a provider scale their operation, introduce flexibility and administrative simplicity. Here are the components of a policy management solution that is a must-have for every insurance provider. For the insured, the solution can help organizations not only provide a smooth experience
Policy Issuance, Update and Cancellation
The most significant must have that an effective policy management solution should have, is the ability to digitalize every aspect of policy administration. This includes being able to generate documentation, centralize records and oversee all operations across the policy lifecycle.
For instance, everything should be synced so that any updates are made universally across all documents. This eliminates doing manual changes to all the records. In addition, with technologies like robotic process automation (RPA), repetitive tasks can be automated and reduce the time it takes to process documentation.
Underwriting
Underwriting is a process where individuals or firms take financial risk for a fee. In insurance, underwriters are responsible for evaluating the degree of risk to the insurer’s business. It is in essence a manual process that comprises extensive research and assessment of the prospective policy holder. For instance, medical underwriting consisted of ascertaining the charges to levy or even whether to provider coverage to them based on an applicant’s health condition.
Even though underwriting is a time-consuming process, it doesn’t have to be tedious. Underwriters need to access data that is spread across a range of different platforms and sources. Automated policy management enables organizations to accelerate the process of data collection and collation. This is why, automation in underwriting functionalities is one of the most important features of a policy management software that is a must-have.
Estimates and Quotes
Holistic policy management tools are incomplete without quote estimate capabilities. Quoting allows insurers to generate leads. With automated quoting features, insurers can provide estimates without having to directly contact customers, saving time and money in cold calling. In addition, it helps insurers to gather the information they need to then target their leads and tailor solutions that meet consumer expectations.
Quality policy management systems include these capabilities. They work by letting customer input their information and receive a quote estimate based on it. For insurers, in addition to providing leads, it lets them engage customers from the start itself.
Policy Renewal
Renewals is a critical stage in the policy lifecycle. Overseeing renewals and reducing customer churn is something every insurer must prioritize. Renewals handling amplifies the importance of policy management software that offer renewals management tools.
Renewals management features allow insurers to alert policy holders about the ending of their coverage and provides a timely reminder to renew it. Since renewals management tools offer ready information for insurers to access, customers need to update fewer fields. It not only reduces customer churn but contributes to an easy, fast, and customer-friendly process.
Claims Processing
Claims processing is when an insurer reviews a claim process to verify and authenticate the claim made by the policy holder. As a core business process, claims management and processing needs intelligent systemization. Insurance policy management tools that integrate claims processing will enable insurers to automate the settlement process.
Modern policy management tools sync different systems so insurers have a centralized database and can simplify tasks like assigning claims, detecting fraud, record payments issued and automatically generate reports.
Regulations and Compliance
Insurance is a heavily regulated industry and insurers must keep up with the many compliance and location-specific regulations to avoid hefty fines. Regulatory policies are also subject to change and can often realign processes to protect consumers. This may sometimes cause insurers financially. However, complying with new regulations is a business necessity and policy compliance management solutions help immensely.
Insurers must be able to monitor any changes in global and local policies or keep an eye out for announcements regarding the change in rates or regulations. Many insurers have a team to do this but maintaining a team is costly and causes operational complexities.
Modern policy management tools offer the automation capabilities that eliminate the need for extensive overhaul or insurers to keep up with new regulations. These policy compliance management tools help in detecting breach and minimizing it. They also enable better resource allocation as teams no longer need to monitor new and upcoming regulations and plan for implementing the change.
Customer Support
Customer support is one of the most critical aspects of policy management. Beyond software and applications, being able to meet your customers’ demands, address their concerns throughout the customer lifecycle is vital in order to meet business objectives on time.
With digitalization transcending platforms and devices, policy management tools today need to be able to keep up to meet customer demands. This is why mobile-ready policy management solutions are a must. They allow insurers to respond to customers quickly and keep channels of communication open and flowing. In addition, features like quoting estimates and claims processing that accelerate policy administration and management in a streamlined manner are bound to keep customers happy and reduce churn.
Some policy management tools come with marketing automation capabilities as well as a CRM that lets insurers deliver a great experience right from buying decision to ongoing support.
Conclusion
There is no denying that digitalization is the future and insurers need to be ready to adapt to new challenges and evolving demands from consumers. Policy management tools not only enable insurers to overhaul their core process but simplify it and eliminate operational inefficiencies.
The importance of policy management cannot be understated. Age-old challenges and bottlenecks of managing millions of policies can be mitigated with comprehensive policy management solutions. The above components are the most critical process your organization should look to simplify. These essential features ensure you are able to optimize resources, improve operational efficiencies, streamline processes and translate all these into enhanced customer experiences.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does insurance policy management differ from other policy management tools?
Insurance policy management is a specialized solution that caters to insurance companies and enables them to manage renewals, claims, underwriting and all other processes associated with managing an insurance policy for their customers. Other policy management tools help organizations frame policies and management internal policy documents.
What is an insurance policy lifecycle?
An insurance policy lifecycle starts with generating a quote for the customer, onboarding the customer’s application, and finally setting the payment of premiums and renewals. When a policyholder claims insurance, the insurer has to process the claim, verify its authenticity then accept the claim fully or partially or reject it.
What are the ways the insured can choose to pay for the insurance policy?
The insured can either pay a lump sum amount or choose to pay monthly, yearly or quarterly. These payments are called premiums and are calculated based on certain condition set by the insurer.
Read More
Insurance Technology
Article | July 13, 2022
Since we have launched the COVID-19 Insurance Plan on ETMONEY, our users have been insuring themselves against COVID-19 in huge numbers. And there is a good reason for that. While we are all taking precautions it is a smart idea to be prepared for any eventuality.
But if you are someone who is still thinking whether you should get amazing one of its kind insurance, there are 10 reasons you should be getting it right now.
Read More
Insurance Technology
Article | March 29, 2022
As AI becomes more deeply integrated into the industry, carriers must position themselves to respond to the changing business landscape. Insurance executives are expected to understand the factors driving this shift and how AI in insurance will impact claims, distribution, underwriting, and pricing. They can start to learn the skills and talent they need, embrace new technology in the insurance industry, and build the culture and perspective they need to be successful in the future insurance market with this grip.
While there are four types of levers that might help with productivity efforts—functional excellence, structural simplification, business transformation, and enterprise agility—insurers typically focus on the first two. Those levers are the foundation of efficient and effective operations, it isn't easy to leapfrog them. Traditional industry barriers are dissolving while technology advances and customer expectations vary dramatically. Ecosystems, which are groups of services that work together in a single integrated experience, are becoming more common across industries. Platforms that connect offerings from different industries are also becoming more common.
In an interview with Media 7, Darcy Shapiro, COO of Americas at Cover Genius, talked about the changing expectations of consumers in the insurance industry.
“Consumers expect brands to provide the same high-quality day-to-day experiences directly within the digital platforms they use most. Insurance should be no different.”
Darcy Shapiro, COO of Americas at Cover Genius
The Increasing Acceptance of Parametric Insurance
In contrast to traditional policies, which are paid based on actual loss incurrence, metric insurance has been around for a while, providing payouts when a specific event exceeds an agreed-upon threshold. Previously being used specifically for natural disaster coverage and supplied to countries and large corporations, parametric insurance is making a comeback today. Advancements in sensor technology, data analytics, and Artificial Intelligence (AI in insurance) create broader information indexes on various levels, which opens up parametric risk applications in novel ways.
A reinsurance company recently introduced a parametric water-level insurance product to shield businesses from the financial consequences of high or low river water levels. The program considers measured water levels at specific river gauges and agrees to pay a fixed amount for each day that the index remains below a predetermined threshold value. Other new-generation parametric solutions include terrorism protection for cities and airports, protection for retailers when transit strikes cut down on pedestrian traffic, and help for hotels when there are outbreaks.
The advantages of parametric insurance include faster delivery and avoiding lengthy claims investigations. Furthermore, since parametric products have less uncertainty than traditional insurance, premiums can be significantly lower. In terms of technology, parametric insurance is best suited to blockchain technology, with smart contracts that pay out automatically when certain parameters are met.
A Flood of Data from Connected Devices
Fitness bands, home assistants, smartwatches, and other smart devices are rapidly becoming a part of our daily lives. In addition, smart clothing and medical devices will soon join the fray.
Sensor-equipped equipment has long been common in industrial settings, but the number of connected consumer products is expected to skyrocket in the coming years. Existing gadgets (such as automobiles, fitness trackers, home assistants, smartphones, and smartwatches) will continue to grow. In contrast, new and expanding categories (such as clothing, eyewear, home appliances, medical devices, and shoes) will join them. According to analysts, interconnected devices will reach one trillion by 2025.
The data generated by these devices will result in a flood of new data that carriers can use to understand their customers better, resulting in new product categories, more customized pricing, and an increase in real-time service delivery.
The insurance industry can mine the data generated by these smart devices to better understand their customers’ preferences. This information can also assist insurers in developing new and more personalized product categories.
The Rise of the Insurance Ecosystem
According to McKinsey, insurance ecosystems will generate 30% of global revenue by 2025.
With an expanding array of data sources and a data-driven culture, many insurers will soon be able to plug into and exploit data from complementing firms. These agreements are evolving to involve traditional insurers as well as technology companies. For example, an insurance firm in Europe teamed up with a smart-home technology vendor to improve its home insurance. The latter's technology can detect smoke and carbon monoxide, preventing losses. In addition, a global initiative of a major reinsurance company is developing an ecosystem for InsurTech start-ups and digital distributors. Recent McKinsey research also shows that the insurance business has been having a hard time making efficiency gains for a long time.
Moreover, the operating expense disparity between the best and worst performers in P & C and life has widened over the last decade. Functional excellence, structural simplicity, business transformation, and enterprise agility are four productivity levers that insurers often focus on. Those levers are essential to efficient and productive operations. Ecosystems, which are groups of services that work together, are formed across industries and platforms that connect offerings from different sectors.
Insurers may use ecosystems to integrate their products into seamless client experiences. Ecosystems are essential in today's interconnected world, whether you want to build direct relationships with customers or work with companies that act as the customer interface.
Advancements in Cognitive Technology
Cognition is a critical component of AI in insurance. AI cognitive technologies mimic how the human brain functions. In addition, new technology may make it easier to process huge amounts of data, especially from active insurance products that are linked to specific people.
Carriers can constantly learn and adapt to the world thanks to cognitive technologies. As a result, it can enable insurance companies to introduce new product categories and engagement techniques and respond in real-time to changing underlying risks. In addition, convolutional neural networks and other deep learning technologies, which are currently used primarily for image, audio, and unstructured text processing, will be used in various applications in the future of insurance industry.
Read More