HEALTH CLAIMS: NON-LIFE INSURERS PLAN THIRD PARTY ADMINISTRATOR

Mumbai: The four public sector non-life insurers – New India Assurance, Oriental Insurance, United India Insurance, and National Insurance – are mulling floating a third party administrator (TPA) company to take advantage of the healthy volumes in the health insurance segment. “There is a case for the four public sector non-life insurers to come together to set up a third party administrator for health insurance due to good volumes in the segment,” said Mr M. Ramadoss, Chairman and Managing Director, Oriental Insurance Company.

An insurance company takes the help of TPA to manage its claims processing and hospital networks. Delhi-headquartered Oriental Insurance Company is planning to set up separate offices to cater exclusively to the needs of brokers, large corporate accounts, retail accounts, bancassurance and dealer tie-ups. The existing offices are being re-designated depending on which business is more dominant in that office. “We are focussing our attention on various segments of the market. Brokers are an important distribution channel and we have set up separate offices to cater to this segment. By March, we should have at least 10 offices catering to the broker segment,” Mr Ramadoss said. The company has also started its first centralised claims service centre in Chennai to service motor-own damage claims.

During the nine months ended December 31, 2008, Oriental’s gross premium has grown by 2.7 per cent to Rs 2,978 crore. It is focusing on reducing its underwriting losses, especially in health insurance claims and motor third-party claims. “We aim to reduce our third party claims in health and motor by 10 per cent and 5 per cent respectively by March-end 2009,” he said. The company is hoping to collect gross premium of Rs 4,000 crore by March 31, 2008.

Source: The Hindu Business Line