In an interview with Outlook Money, G. Srinivasan, CMD, The New India Assurance shares his views on the common third party association and more. Excerpts:
x What has been the development on the digital front that New India has undertaken?
Our company is more technology- driven, leading to reduction in cost and better service levels. Digital technology is going to be more and more advanced and we are making use of it. While the digitising of our offices and backend systems has been in place for a while, through our website you can get details and experience the whole general insurance process and product features. There are several other facilities available through our website which one can explore.
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x There is scope for further enhancement within the health insurance space, especially plans for senior citizens. What is holding you back from offering these?
The market for products suited for senior citizens exists. However, we have limitations on freely pricing such policies. While we would like every senior citizen to have a policy that is useful for them, the fact is the costs for such policies go up by way of premiums, which consumers find steep and stay off. We are looking to make such policies viable for us and also the consumer.
x What is happening on the common third party administrator (TPA) floated by the four state owned general insurers?
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The test phase is on and a soft launch is round the corner and it should be fully operational from April 1, 2016. However, we will continue to have other TPAs working with us as well. Yes, the common TPA created by us will help streamline claim settlement process and reduce the claims ratio, and we are eagerly waiting for it to get operational in full flow. The job of TPA includes member enrolment, managing call centres, customer service and grievance management, pre-authorisation and claims processing. It will also be involved in providing network empanelment, verification and investigation, pre-policy health check-up and facilitate customer awareness and wellness programmes. In that sense, there is a lot going with this TPA.
x What is the kind of uptake with home insurance?
It’s good you have brought this up on back of the recent Chennai floods. While people have motor insurance because it is mandatory, there are very few who have their homes insured. In fact, so many people have lost their belongings and their homes need major repairs. All this could have been covered by householder’s policy. We have simplified the householder policy, with very limited details sought for the contents of the house. These have limited cover available from Rs.1 lakh onwards and are straightforward with what they offer. Due to lack of understanding of the importance of general insurance other than health, such policies are not taken by many. We are making efforts to propagate such plans and would want more people to have these instead of losing their household belongings to natural disasters.
