Religare Health Insurance Advocates Comprehensive Health Coverage as COVID-19 Drives Greater Consumer Awareness

Covid 19 Coverage 

* Standalone Health Insurance sector in India registers 40% YoY hike

* Comprehensive health cover is imperative in India since retail health insurance penetration is only 3% and out-of-pocket healthcare spending stands at ~65%

With COVID-19 acting as a catalyst of change and increasingly nudging people to explore diverse health coverage options, Religare Health Insurance (RHI) is endorsing the need for comprehensive health insurance policies. Emphasizing the soaring significance of health insurance amid an unprecedented global health crisis, the Standalone Health Insurance sector registered a 40% YoY rise. This growth will ensure further impetus for health insurance penetration, where India records one of the world’s highest out-of-pocket spending rates in healthcare.      

Highlighting the rising numbers of other potentially-fatal lifestyle ailments such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular diseases, among others, RHI endorses comprehensive health insurance coverage. Furthermore, the increasing cost of quality healthcare services even for infectious diseases underscores the need for comprehensive health insurance.

Accordingly, Religare Health Insurance offers a comprehensive bouquet of services ranging from basic hospitalization (Care); high sum insured options (Care Advantage); insurance for PED, including insulin-dependent diabetics (Care Freedom); post-cardiac event/intervention insurance (Care Heart) and many others, backed by all-encompassing wellness and insurance benefits.

Elaborating on the latest institutional developments, an RHI spokesperson said, “The coronavirus pandemic has come as a thought-provoking black swan event for people disdainful of health insurance. As morbidity and mortality rates rise directly due to COVID-19 and indirectly from the neglect of other equally life-threatening conditions, there is a pronounced and inescapable realization about the need for health insurance. Besides managing COVID-19-related treatments, health cover is indispensable in safeguarding individuals and their families from other chronic conditions that lead to unexpected and unaffordable medical expenses, driving millions of uninsured people into debt, devastating lives permanently. Fortunately, a broad bouquet of health insurance solutions happens to be available today, customized for almost every consumer segment. Therefore, we urge consumers to opt for a suitable coverage plan as per their specific healthcare requirements. This is vital in our country, where retail health insurance penetration is only 3% and out-of-pocket healthcare spending stands at around 65%.”

RHI’s endorsement of comprehensive insurance coverage comes in the wake of increased awareness about health insurance products after the COVID-19 outbreak. Given the importance of health insurance in promoting better healthcare outcomes across India, the Company believes it is important to leverage this trend by apprising people about the far-reaching benefits of comprehensive health policies. Moreover, against the backdrop of pandemic-induced income losses for a significant employed segment, the role of health insurance can be paramount in saving lives in the event of any healthcare crisis.

About Religare Health Insurance (RHI)

Religare Health Insurance (RHI) is a specialized health insurer offering health insurance services to employees of corporates, individual customers and for financial inclusion as well. With its operating philosophy being based on the principal tenet of ‘consumer-centricity’, the company has consistently invested in the effective application of technology to deliver excellence in customer servicing, product innovation and value-for-money services.

RHI currently offers products in the retail segment for Health Insurance, Critical Illness, Personal Accident, Top-up Coverage, International Travel Insurance and Maternity along with Group Health Insurance and Group Personal Accident Insurance for corporates.

Religare Health Insurance has been adjudged the ‘Best Health Insurance Company’ once at the ABP News-BFSI Awards 2015 and again at the Emerging Asia Insurance Awards, 2019 & ‘Best Claims Service Provider of the Year’ – Insurance India Summit & Awards 2018. RHI has also received the ‘Editor’s Choice Award for Best Product Innovation’ at Finnoviti in 2013 and was conferred the ‘Best Medical/Health Insurance Product Award’ at the FICCI Healthcare Excellence Awards in 2015, 2018 and 2019.

Satyam Continues To Lose Major Customers

Satyam Computer Services is on a 'losing spree', having so far lost outsourcing contracts from large customers to rivals such as IBM Corp., TCS, Infosys Technologies and Wipro Ltd. Now, a US property and casualty insurer is seeking to replace its outsourcing contract with Satyam.

US based Selective Insurance Co., which has reportedly outsourced about a quarter of its IT staffing requirements to Satyam, is said to be looking for alternate arrangement in light of Satyam latest woes.

In papers filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month, Selective is quoted to have said: "We believe we would be able to manage an efficient transition to a new vendor and not experience a significant negative impact to our operations in the event that we no longer retain Satyam in their current capacity due to the financial issues they are currently experiencing."

Satyam chairman Ramalinga Raju on January 7 admitted falsifying the company's cash position by as much as $1 billion while overstating quarterly earnings and revenue by up to 28%. Sources indicate that Satyam may also have faked employee numbers and other data.
Since then increasingly nervous Satyam customers are looking for alternatives in case the scandal-scarred outsourcer is unable to restore internal stability or find a buyer with pockets deep enough to see the Indian company through its current crisis.

Many customers have either completely exited, or are in the process of moving their outsourcing contracts from Satyam to rival tech firms such as IBM, TCS, Wipro, Infosys and Accenture.

Some of the customers, including Telstra, Emerson, Nissan, State Farm Insurance, Applied Materials, Kansas State Bank, and Sony, have either moved out their projects completely, or are in the process of migrating current Satyam work to other outsourcing vendors.

iGATE, which was keenly bidding for the 51% stake of Satyam, has now pulled out from the bidding process mainly due to the loss of Satyam customers. Phaneesh Murthy, CEO of iGATE Corp, said, "We know that there are customer exits happening at Satyam. While the value erosion and the extent of liabilities were a concern, it was the totality of concerns that influenced our decision."

However, some large Indian players like BK Modi's Spice Telecom, Tech Mahindra, and L&T are among the companies to move to the second stage of bidding for the fraud-ridden IT outsourcer.

CXOtoday