The Chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) on Tuesday said that low consumer awareness and insufficient healthcare infrastructure are the major hindrances to widen the reach of healthcare insurance in India.

“Even if there is a marginal increase in the type of healthcare insurance services, we will find our physical capacities insufficient. Therefore, there is an urgent need to build alternative systems to take care of the deficit in healthcare infrastructure,” stressed J. Hari Narayan, Chairman, and IRDA, at the Health Insurance Summit 2008 organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here.

Mr. Narayan emphasized on building up investment in infrastructure and adequate training along with focus on improving the traditional systems of government and public hospitals.

“In order to cover larger proportion of the Indian population, it is requisite that we encourage the public private partnership mode,” advocated the IRDA Chairman. Mr. Narayan also stressed the importance of developing new and simple insurance products, where majority of the policy could be on the Internet and further recommended that insurance policies be also explained in vernacular languages to reach the masses.

“Requiring the third-party administrators (TPAs) to build their IT systems and infrastructure for speedier claim processes, encouraging insurers to make their systems robust and embarking on wide consumer awareness programmes are the various measures undertaken by IRDA towards the growth of the health insurance in India,” said Mr. Narayan.

“It is time to take major steps in bringing good health to all people,” said Prathap C. Reddy Chairman, CII National Healthcare Council & Chairman Apollo Hospitals Group, through video conferencing at the CII Summit. While commending the model followed by the Andhra Pradesh Government in making healthcare reach the masses, he said measures should be taken to make such a model sustainable with appropriate contribution by consumers, providers and insurers.

Regarding consumer awareness as a major challenge for the healthcare insurance in India, Dr. Reddy stressed on the importance of making health insurance a way of life by spreading consumer awareness rather than through the use of compulsive methods.
The CII-KPMG report on ‘Health Insurance Inc. — the road ahead’ was released at the summit. The report gives an outlook of the healthcare insurance industry with emphasis on the challenges and growth enablers.

The US health insurance companies are tying up with Indian corporate hospitals for flying down patients to the country for treatment in order to cut costs. Wellpoint, the largest health insurance company in the US, and Bluecross Blueshield have joined hands with Apollo Hospitals to treat the US citizens.

Wellpoint and Apollo Hospitals are set to start a pilot project next month to treat the US insurer’s members in Apollo’s hospitals in Delhi and Bangalore, which was approved by the Joint Commission International (JCI), the US-based hospital certifying agency.

Apollo Hospitals president (corporate development) Anil Mani said: “The pilot project will run for 6-12 months.” The Wellpoint’s website says it has around 35 million members. In other words, one in every nine Americans is affiliated with the company.

Apollo, the country’s largest hospital chain, was in discussions with Wellpoint for around two years. Mr Mani said that it has also tied up with another health insurance firm, Companion Healthcare, the South Carolina subsidiary of another leading US insurance company BlueCross Blueshield.

Similarly, Wockhardt Hospital, which tied up with Companion Healthcare last month, hopes to ink similar deals with the other US health insures to treat the insured citizens. Wockhardt Hospitals CEO Vishal Bali said, “Wellpoint has already completed assessment of Wockhardt Hospitals. We are also in talks with few other health insurance companies and exploring the possibility of expanding our tie-up with Bluecross Blueshield to other US states.”