STAR HEALTH POSTS RS 3.16-CR PROFIT IN FIRST YEAR

Chennai: Star Health and Allied Insurance has turned in a net profit of Rs 3.16 crore for the year 2007-08, its first full year of operations. The company’s Chairman and Managing Director, Mr V. Jagannathan, termed the achievement as unprecedented in the industry.

The company collected premium of Rs 168 crore, compared with Rs 22 crore in 2006-07, in which year, the company operated only ten months. Mr Jagannathan said that Star Health had fixed for itself a target of Rs 400 crore of premium for the current year. Half this amount has already been achieved, he said.

The company has been chosen by the Andhra Pradesh Government as the insurer for covering 6.55 crore of ‘below poverty line’ people in the State. The company received premium of about Rs 70 crore from the Andhra Pradesh Government.

In 2007-08, Star Health had made an investment profit of Rs 9.2 crore. The company did not make any underwriting profit. However, Mr Jagannathan expects the company to make profits on both investments as well as underwriting operations in the current year.

At a press conference here today, Mr Jagannathan estimated that investment profit for the current year would be about Rs 14 crore.

Outpatient care
Star Health introduced in Tamil Nadu a policy which would pay doctors’ fees on behalf of the policyholders. It sold about 3,200 policies — the only one of its kind in the country — and the claims are less than half the premium.

The company intends to extend the policy across the country. The premium is different for different cities. In Tamil Nadu, it is Rs 350 per family — the policy floats on all the members of the family. In Delhi, it would be Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 in Bangalore.

The company has also introduced a ‘super surplus’ policy, which covers hospitalisation expenses of more than Rs 3 lakh. For example, if a policyholder spends Rs 4 lakh, Star Health will bear Rs 1 lakh. The premium is Rs 3,000 for coverage of Rs 7 lakh over Rs 3 lakh and Rs 4,000 for Rs 10 lakh over Rs 3 lakh.

Source: The Hindu Business Line