A recent press report said that most of the insured were dissatisfied with the settlement of claims of medical insurance. This has made the health insurers to re – look their model of settling the claims. Earlier the Health insurers would outsource their claim settlements to Third Party Administrators (TPAs) in order to save costs as well as time and it would also help the insurance company to concentrate on their core business. But the TPAs performance was unsatisfactory in terms of customer service which seems to be the main activity of insurance companies. Hence the Health insurers decided to do these things on their own which is termed as in – house claim settlement.
According to Mr. T.A. Ramalingam, Head-Underwriting of Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, Customer Service seems to be the most sensitive and core activity of the insurance companies and it essentially should not be outsourced. Besides, the in – house claim settlements provide end – to – end solutions for health insurance policies.
This opinion has been agreed by most of the higher officials of other insurance companies such as ICICI Lombard General insurance, Future Generali insurance and so on. The insurance companies might incur heavy administrative costs but in the long run it would help to reduce the premiums.
Nowadays most of the banks have started selling insurance products along with their loan products. Some banks offer free insurance along with car loans.