How technology is playing a crucial role in leveraging health insurance for SMEs corporates

Health insurance has been a continuous part of benefits provided by large corporates. This usually covers hospitalization costs of employees as well as family members, including parents or parents-in-law, up to a defined limit. But, COVID-19 brought this coverage to centre stage and reiterated the importance of shielding employees against unexpected medical expenses. Thus, the Indian government once again emphasized its need and, post the nationwide lockdown in 2020, made it obligatory for all employers to provide comprehensive health insurance to their employees regardless of their business size. Indeed a positive move for the working class.

However, for businesses, specifically Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups that were facing a challenging time, with some even battling cash-crunch, this meant an extra expense.

Hence, the smaller-sized companies that were earlier wary of adopting technology became forthcoming in adopting the latest technologies to streamline the health coverage process into their system. So, to support these growth drivers of the economy, many InsurTech start-ups came to the rescue as they created tailor-made or on-demand insurance plans for them. This resulted in a tech-enabled partnership to provide sustainable growth.

InsurTech, in a nutshell, are technology-driven companies that act as an intermediary between organizations and insurance companies to facilitate smooth and efficient operations. Furthermore, they leverage technology to reduce cost by enabling insurers to unlock the possibility of analytics or minimize manual intervention. They also enhance backend processes, improve customer experience, and save the insurance company money.

Process of technology helping in selecting a proper health insurance plan for businesses, start-ups, or SMEs

Once the InsurTech company is onboard, they perform the critical role of assessing and investigating information basis financial data, health data, and other risk factors to form personalized insurance plans as per requirements using tools like Artificial Intelligence and API (Application Programming Interface). They then devise a Group Health Insurance Policy that enables companies to provide equal benefits for all employees and their family members at a reduced cost. In addition, the employer also receives many advantages such as-
100% tax benefits from the Income Tax Department as the premium gets accounted for as a business expense.
The organization also gets the freedom to select the premium payment frequency-from monthly, quarterly, to yearly.
With limited admin, IT, and HR teams, InsurTech companies offer software that does most of the workload, thereby lowering overhead expenses.

The other value provided by the tech firms includes assisting establishments in improving existing products, services and processes, and enabling new business models. InsurTech companies also create a unified platform that makes it uncomplicated for concerned departments to access employee information on one portal rather than switch between different outlets.

A Group Medical Cover policy has been deemed a positive move by workers of small businesses as having medical insurance that covers expenses such as hospitalization, pharmacy bills, etc., made them feel more secure and productive. Also, the employers take charge of the premium and as well as the renewal process. Moreover, having a unified platform facilitated straightforward access to check their policy, claim and coverage. It also smoothened the process of locking in their claims and using cashless benefits, all by simply logging in without involving any other department.

Nevertheless, before purchasing any coverage, the SMEs need to address budget allocations, determine the benefits offered, such as critical illness, accidental cover, specific disease coverage, etc., before opting for a plan. After all, this form of expense also results in employee loyalty.

To recapitulate, a healthy employee is a productive employee. Thus, the Group Health Insurance policy works aptly for both the companies and their workers, especially SMEs and startups. Therefore, technology is helping leverage health insurance for SMBs and corporates, especially with InsurTech taking charge and playing the role of a mediator across the value chain in the insurance industry.
In addition, it has enriched the overall experience by eliminating the various touchpoints- from buying to claim management and settlement of the workers. Thus, insurance technology is here to stay. It has a dual function of making the process easy for both employees and employers by better managing processes, fraud and risk detection, settling claims, etc. Not to forget, it also inculcates a sense of belonging within the workforce, which acts as a major motivation, especially for smaller firms.