Star Health Insurance goes direct

From Sify.com

Star Health & Allied Insurance, one of the two standalone health insurance companies in the country, has adopted a new model of managed healthcare that does not need the intervention of third party administrators (TPAs), which otherwise is an integral system of mediclaim services.


"Star Health has a direct tie-up with over 3000 hospitals across the country and the list is growing everyday. The customer gets an end-to-end service from Star Health without having to depend on a third party and the hospitals are also happy to deal directly with an insurance company. This has been a major boon for us", Anand Roy, assistant vice-president, marketing, Star Health, said.

Chennai-based Star Health, the first operative health insurance company in the country - Apollo, DKV Insurance is the other player in the space - is aiming at Rs 200 crore premium income this fiscal and is lining up a long-term, high-end health policy.

"Being the first off the block has given us a headstart. We plan to increase out network to 125 branches by this year-end. Having acquired approximately Rs 100 crore of premium income in the first five months, we are now looking at Rs 200 crore in 2007-08", Roy said.

Although health insurance, at Rs 3,500 crore premium, is set to emerge as the second biggest portfolio in general insurance (after motor insurance), it has been a relatively small business segment characterised by low profit margins and high volume losses.

Individual health companies are yet to hold stage as the bulk of health insurance is driven by mediclaim from nationalised companies.

Two of the company's fastest moving products include the family floater and senior citizens policies. It recently launched an insurance policy targeted at HIV+ persons and has a pipeline of "exciting" products.
Asked whether the company has witnessed switches from other companies, Roy said, "We have a mix of both new customers as well as policyholders from other insurance companies. We ensure that if any person moves to us, they continue to enjoy all benefits as per their existing policy".