PeopleHealth is among the few firms that provide such preventive services. The Bangalore-based start-up has developed a tool that takes into account an array of information related to employees’ health, habits and lifestyle to assess the company’s health, and design an adapted preventive healthcare policy.  Based on the results, PeopleHealth generates a health calendar for the company that may include assistance programmes, induction sessions, stress management courses and health plan utilisation incentives. The company caters to fifteen companies that rank among the world’s most popular IT, Internet and BPO firms. “Preventive health care programmes contribute to day-to-day efficiency and have positively impacted employees’ moral and motivation,” says Vikram Karayi, senior vice-president, Human Resources, Xansa India. The information technology firm has implemented an annual mandatory full health check up at the hospital for all its employees who are above 40 years old, along with regular health camps.  “While studying our employees health, we found that many of our employees suffered from chronic cardiovascular illness, diabetes, blood pressure, and earlier detection can effectively reduce incidence of these diseases,” says Richard Lobo, head of employee relations at Infosys. The company, which is the country’s second-biggest software exporter, conducts a host of activities ranging from health check up camps, awareness sessions, counseling support, ergonomics counseling, on-line tools, stress audits, vaccination camps, to specialist consultations.  Preventive health care can provide an answer to rising health insurance premiums. “We offer a hospitalization policy to all employees, their spouse, children and parents. This is critical for us as when our employees go off shore, we should not have to fly them back home in case of a relative has to be hospitalized,” says Lalit Kandpal, manager, compensation and benefits, Transocean, the world’s largest offshore drilling contractor.  However, while the mindset is slowly changing, most Indian companies still look at preventive health care as a cost, rather than an investment, says Mr Mehdi. “Companies’ approach to health care should become more scientific,” agrees Mr Dutta. “Things may not change overnight, but it is a culture that corporates are slowly building in India,” he adds.    

Britain’s largest private health insurer British United Provident Association (BUPA) is set to enter India to cash in on the booming healthcare services demand, driven by rapidly rising population and growing affluence.

The UK healthcare giant is said to have teamed up with Max New York Life for its foray into the country, and plans to plough some of the £1.44 billion rose from the sale of 25 of its UK hospitals last year, sources said.

BUPA is already present in 190 countries and has over eight million members in Hong Kong, Thailand, Australia. It recently opened an office in China. Last year the company earned revenues of £3.8 billion from insurance in the UK alone and £2.3 billion from international insurance. BUPA has bases in three continents and operates over 300 care homes spread across the United Kingdom. India is thought to be an attractive market for international medical insurance players, with the market growing at a steady 35% year-on-year.

Many firms are keen to expand footprint in the country, either through tie-ups with Indian players or through solo shows. With changes seen in affordability of healthcare, domestic players too have got more aggressive in tapping the huge pool of patients.
“Companies are realising that despite FDI limitations and concerns regarding management control, India offers tremendous opportunities and many are beginning to believe the India story,” says A Parekh of global financial services firm Ernst & Young.

Both BUPA and officials at Max New York Life refused to comment on the deal.

Sources said BUPA is also seeking to expand its profile in the UK by winning contracts under the commissioning of the national health services and by offering new services to British corporate customers, beyond standard employee medical insurance.

To this end, BUPA had teamed up with Mumbai-based Wockhardt Hospitals over five years ago. Wockhardt is on BUPA’s emergency international network of participating hospitals.

This means UK tourists with BUPA insurance have access to medical facilities in India through Wockhardt Hospitals.

“We are entitled to treat them on a cashless basis and we recover the cost from BUPA,” says Vishal Bali, chief executive officer at Wockhardt hospitals.

“Many global players want to participate in healthcare delivery space. And as that market evolves, it has a huge spin-off effect on medical insurance,” Bali said.

With less than 10% of the population covered by medical insurance, the Indian government has taken up the noble cause to provide the same to the country’s 300 million poor, most of whom work in the unorganized sector and are thus deprived of quality healthcare.

The leading private life insurance company – Max New York Life Insurance Company Ltd. has launched ‘lifeline’ – a health insurance product on Wednesday, 5th March 2008, across India. Now, the company can boast of offering complete health and life insurance products across ll regions in India.

This newly launched health insurance product of Max New York Life Insurance Company offers three groups of heath insurance solutions.

The Director Marketing Product Management and Corporate Affairs of Max New York Life Insurance said that these three distinct heath insurance products are meant to cover eventualities like hospitalization, surgery and critical illness of the insured.

He points out that these plans have been structured with features like

• Coverage for a wide range of ailments,
• No claim discount on revised premium for a healthy life,
• A fixed premium for a five-year term,
• Free second opinion from the best health care institutions of India on detection of illness.
• Further, it also has provision for a free telephonic medical help line across India.

The hospitalization – is covered by “Medicash plan”, which is meant to provide a fixed amount of cash benefit on a day-to-day basis during the entire period of hospitalization of the insured.

The Medicash plan would also cover expenses for admission in ICU, lump sum benefits against an unlimited number of surgeries and recuperation benefits.

The second plan of the newly launched health insurance of Max New York Life Insurance, is the “Wellness Plan”, which is a more attractive one and covers ‘critical illness’ like cancer, alzheimers, heart ailments, liver disease, deafness, permanent disability, etc. The Wellness plan covers thirty eight critical illnesses, which is the highest number of illness covered under one insurance plan in India by any insurance company.

The third health insurance policy of Max New York Life Insurance is a term plus health protection plan known as “Safety Net”.

This provides coverage to the insured person for any losses incurred by him/her in eventualities like critical illness, accident, disability and death.

With 21 lakh life insurance policies and with an assured sum of Rs 62,000 crores in its kitty Max Life Insurance wishes to achieve business at least five percent higher than it did in the last financial year.

Chennai has over 40,000 homeless poor (pavement dwellers), scattered across the city in clusters. They have no identity (ration card/voters id), least access to healthcare, sanitation, education, shelter, nutritious diet etc.

They are often the most vulnerable and abused community in the city.

For the past couple of years,the Social Action Track of CTN (Chennai Transformation Network) has been raising awareness on the needs of the pavement dwellers and seeking to facilitate and empower local churches to work with the pavement dwellers in their neighbourhood. One of the communities targetted has been the pavement dwellers along the EVK Sampath Road in Vepery. CTN has facilitated a coalition of Christian NGOs and local churches to work together strategically in this area. Aruwe, World Vision, Cross Wire, Powerhouse Church, Oasis etc have been involved closely in this effort, each focussing on particular needs such as Child protection & rights, education, vocational training, healthcare, santiation etc.

To specifically meet the healthcare needs of the pavement dwellers, a Medical Insurance Scheme that offers cashless hospitalisation benefit upto Rs.25,000/- per family in Vepery is being launched today,ie Thursday, 24th of April at 7pm.

The beneficiaries (around 200 individuals from the community), and representatives of the scheme’s partners – CTN, Cross Wire, Powerhouse Church, Andhra Bank & United India Insurance Company will be present to launch the scheme and handover the Mediclaim identity cards to all those being covered by the scheme.

This is a model pioneering project and if successful could be implemented across all the pavement dwelling communities in Chennai.

Looking for a comprehensive low cost health insurance is almost similar to looking for a gold mine hidden in a secret cave. The rising health insurance costs is becoming such a big problem today. Every person has the right to be assured of proper medical attention. In effect, everybody definitely needs health insurance coverage. But then again, providers are always faced with the constant battle of giving quality coverage against the ever-increasing medical care, hospitalization, and health maintenance costs.

Why Is Health Care Insurance So Expensive?

Health care insurance is so expensive nowadays because for one, there have been big gains on medical science over the past few years. And these new researches translate to a much better medical technology. Unfortunately though, these breakthroughs don’t come cheap. The invention of advanced medical testing tools such as MRI’s, CAT scanners, and similar tools comes with a very high price tag.

In a growing economy like India the government should play a vital role in health care. The government subsidizes a big part of health services through community services.

The Different Types of Health Insurance

Employer based health insurance

Private health insurance is a health plan that is provided by a person’s employer or the labor union he or she belongs to. This type of insurance is purchased from a private health insurance company by the company they work for.

Direct purchase health plans.

These are the health insurance coverage plans that are bought personally from a private health insurance provider. Direct purchase health insurance plans come in different levels of coverage. And right now, a lot of health insurance providers offering low cost individual health insurance for people with relatively low income. But of course, these company’s flagship plans are the comprehensive policy that comes with high monthly premiums.

Government health insurance

The Indian government funds health insurance in state levels. There is different coverage under the government sponsored insurance. The Medi claim policies are the most popular in India among the working professionals. The people who qualify under these plans are better off to be ensure with them.

State-specific plans

These are state sponsored health insurance plans. This type is a form of a special coverage given by the state office to its constituents and it may be called by different names across different states. Examples of these are low cost family health insurance and low cost health insurance for child that the local office provides, among others.

This is an exciting time: The Indian insurance industry and its regulators are currently undertaking a number of actions to further India’s goal of developing a strong health insurance market, which would improve the general health status of Indians, ease the government burden of public care, help families avoid catastrophic financial losses, and improve the overall quality of healthcare in India.

Here are some of the special issues ahead for two big stakeholders—Indian consumers and Indian regulators.

Consumers

Indian culture traditionally emphasizes a philosophy of building personal financial security, placing particular importance on the well being of one’s family. Indian consumers want “well-designed” health insurance plans with reasonably comprehensive coverage—and without unnecessary or counterproductive gaps. Indian Mediclaim policies typically cover only medical services rendered in an inpatient hospital setting. Given today’s changing world of medical delivery, Indian health insurers would be well served to cover a broader set of services that encourage preventive “well” care and healthy behaviors as well as avoid inappropriate financial incentives. When only inpatient hospital services are covered, insured individuals have an incentive to seek inpatient hospital care, when lower cost treatment settings (e.g., a physician’s office) may be more appropriate. Additionally programs aimed at changing unhealthy behaviors could be considered. Programs such as smoking cessation and weight control have been shown to have some success in lowering a person’s future risks in some markets.

For consumers to purchase health insurance, several things need to exist:

Financial incentives–While the desire to protect savings by itself is a strong motivator, India may well consider proposing enhanced tax treatment of insurance costs for individuals (some of which exists.) Another path not currently present in India is structuring financing alternatives such as medical savings accounts, which combine higher-deductible insurance coverage with money set aside in tax-favored accounts for future health costs.

Competitively priced products with choice–To make prudent purchases, consumers should be able to choose among hospitals and other healthcare providers, along with coverage scope and insurers. Not every family situation is the same, nor does every person need or want the same coverage. Likewise, providing for non-inpatient services encourages smarter buying: Fairly priced, affordable products will ensure accessibility to the greatest number of people.

Understandable information–Educating consumers about health insurance, in general, will be extremely important. Beyond awareness of insurance coverage, information on disease, cost of treatments, alternative treatment options, and the quality of the treatments provided must be available to consumers to make informed choices.

Employer-sponsored programs–Financing of health insurance through employer-sponsored programs is likely to improve access to insurance for some. Employers would have to be motivated to provide such coverage; again, more favorable tax treatment might be a motivating force.

While it is important that health insurance provide sufficient protection to make it attractive to the buying public, care must be taken to design coverage’s that sufficiently involve the consumer in the cost of care, so that individuals are encouraged to behave in a cost-conscious way. A health insurance policy that provides 100% coverage for all services removes the patient entirely from the economic consequences of his course or place of treatment. The patient, then, has no incentive to pursue cost-effective treatment options.

SKS Microfinance Pvt. Ltd., the new generation microfinance company is all set to roll out its health insurance product “Swayam Shakti” for the poor in semi urban and rural areas.

SKS Microfinance will cover its members in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Orissa by March 08 under the health insurance program. SKS Microfinance has tied up with ICICI Lombard General Insurance for this initiative.

Having already disbursed around Rs 1920 crores, SKS Microfinance is targeting to reach four million poor women members in semi-urban and rural India by the year 2009. In the last year alone, SKS Microfinance has achieved nearly 170 % CAGR, with a 99% on-time repayment rate.

“Swayam Shakti” is a tailor made health insurance product, which covers the SKS member, member’s spouse and two children against pre-existing illnesses, maternity, more than 24-hour hospitalization and personal accident for a period of one year. The low-cost insurance cover offers both cashless and reimbursement options.

The roll out announcement follows a three-month successful pilot wherein it covered 50,000 members and 1.75 lac lives in the semi-urban and rural areas in six districts of North Karnataka.

SKS Microfinance aims to cover its 500 branches across the country by March 2009 and over 3 million of its members and their families covering 10 million lives by March 2010 under the Swayam Shakti health insurance product. Currently, SKS Microfinance has about 1.7 million members with 653 branches across 15 states in India.

Max New York Life Insurance, one of the top Fortune-100 companies in the US, has launched a range of superior health insurance plans under the ”Lifeline” scheme .

It covers critical illnesses besides long term insurance coverage for hospitalisation, surgeries under three distinct groups of solutions-medicash, wellness and safety-net plans, according to the company’s Regional Manager Sanjay Sabharwal.

Explaining salient features of the scheme, Mr Sabharwal told mediapersons that it provides the customer with protection against medical expenses related to hospitalization besides recuperation benefits.

Max New York Life Insurance has made its foray into health insurance sector and launched ‘lifeline’ consisting of three distinct groups of solutions.

The lifeline brings long term insurance coverage for hospitalisation surgeries and critical illness, Max New York Director Marketing Product Management and Corporate affairs Debashis Sarkar told the media.

The medicash plans were hospital cash plans that provided the customer a fixed per day benefit for hospitalisation, ICU admission, recuperation benefit and a lumpsum benefit against an unlimited number of surgeries, he said.

The wellness plans were critical illness covered against 38 critical conditions from Alzheimers to liver disease, deafness to permanent disability, cancer to heart ailments, a range offered by no other insurer in India under one plan, Sarkar claimed.

The third one,safety net was a comprehensive term plus health protection plan offering the policy holder protection from any losses arising from critical illness, accident disability and death.

The company, which has 21 lakh life insurance policies with Rs 62,000 crore sum assured, was targeting a business of at least five per cent of last year’s business of Rs 1,700 crore in the initial year, he said.

The company would expand its activities and branch offices in Tamil Nadu in the coming months, he said.

Comparing the benefits of health insurance policy to gambling, key Islamic organisations have termed the policies as “illegal” and directed Muslims to keep away from them.

At a seminar to deliberate whether insuring health was permissible under Islamic law Shariat, the Islamic Fiqh Academy (India) decided that availing such policies was illegal.

Representatives from around 300 Madrasas, including Darul Uloom Deoband, Jamiat Islami participated in the three-day meet, where they reached a conclusion that seeking insurance cover was only another form of gambling.

Health insurance schemes have turned a noble service in to a business activity, hence under Islam it is not permitted, they said.

The Academy, however said, if a person had insured himself under some legal constraints, then it was a matter that could be thought over as the amount of the claim he receives from the company could be used for treatment of the poor which would be of some form of service to Allah.

Health insurance is an important option, which needs to be considered by the policy makers and planners. The government’s health insurance policy to cover around 300 million poor unorganised sector workers comes into effect from April 1 2008. The government earmarked Rs.2.5 billion for the policy in its 2008-09 budget.

The national health policy scheme will be implemented in phases. In the current fiscal, the policy will cover 12 million workers from 120 districts in various states. A family of five members living below the poverty line (BPL) will be entitled to health care worth Rs.30,000 per annum.

‘Every year, the scheme will be extended to 120 more districts. In this way, the policy will cover all the 604 districts in five years,’ an official in the ministry of labour and employment, the nodal agency for the scheme, said Tuesday.

‘The beneficiaries in Rajasthan and Haryana are being issued the smart cards with their respective identification numbers to mark the implementation of the scheme,’ the official added.

Under the scheme, the central government will bear 75 percent of the total insurance amount disbursed to the beneficiaries, while 25 percent will come from the states. There will be no contribution from the policyholders.

The beneficiaries will be provided with cashless health cards to avail the facility in both private and public hospital, the official said.

The health insurance for the unorganised sector workers is an important feature of the Unorganised Sector Workers Social Security Bill 2007, which provides legislative backing to all the social security schemes.

After introducing the bill in the Rajya Sabha Sept 10 last year, Minister for Labour and Employment Oscar Fernandes told reporters that the health insurance scheme would cover 60 million BPL families in five years.

‘In all, over 300 million workers will be benefited from the scheme. During the first year, an expenditure of about Rs.7 billion is estimated. Rs.35 billion will be the cumulative expenditure at the end of five years when all the 60 million BPL families will be covered,’ the minister had said.

Medical or Health tourism covers a wide spectrum of medical services and is the most popular form of vacationing today. Wellness and healthcare is blended with leisure, fun and relaxation through medical tourism. Medical tourism provides a ‘cost effective’ solution to off shore patients needing surgery and other specialized treatment. Medical tourism is being made accessible by the corporate sector involved in medical care as well as the tourism industry. The idea of a healthy holiday is to offer you an opportunity to get away from your daily mundane routine and get into a relaxing ambience. Medical tourism provides an avenue to enjoy the beach and the mountains and also improve your quality of life in terms of health and general well being. It is like rejuvenation on all levels – physical, mental and emotional. Let us now get into a specific area, which is in great demand in India!

Dental Care in India

There are several Dental Care packages available. However, solutions will be based on the requirements of the person and his holiday needs. There is a huge difference between the pricing (about 7/8 times when we speak of Top-end dentists in US and India for the same dental treatment procedures. Some of the facilities offered by the dental clinics are:

• Dental Scanning – Intra mouth
• Whitening of teeth
• Surgical Intervention under general anesthesia
• Prosthesis on the implant
• Vertical and horizontal bone grafting
• Ceramic caps without gold under microscopic control
• Palatal orthodontics
• Fluoride treatment for children
• Gum Grafting
• Over denture
• Combined prostheses with milling
• Maxillary surgery

(to be continued)