ITIC APAC 2024 | Tech in travel and healthcare – the next steps
In the final report from ITIC APAC, David Burns from First Assistance and Adrit Raha from CoverGo look at digital hospitals and the use of telemedicine, and examine what the rate of engagement is with users, and how satisfied they are with current platforms
The ITIJ team share their reports from ITIC APAC 2024 in Bangkok (16–18 June). Read all reports
David Burns, Chief Executive Officer at First Assistance, opened with an overview of the latest tech solutions available to assistance companies. These include: virtual consultations; artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning with chatbots and decision support; optical character recognition (OCR) for extracting text; mobile apps; robotic process automation (RPA); virtual payment cards with enhanced data; e-prescriptions, and much more. However, he said that assistance companies were slow to adopt change. Roadblocks were problems with retrofitting to legacy systems, the lack of a startup mentality with insurer clients, and legal and compliance bottle necks.
Burns said despite the clear benefits of tech solutions, there was a need to create a balance between digital and human care in assistance. He said it was important to identify the processes that were suitable for automation and those that still required the human touch.
Burns also touched on the use of telemedicine in assistance, noting that although there was growth among primary healthcare providers, there was low adoption with international travellers. He added that despite large investments over the past decade, many systems failed to get to the market. He said that typically assistance companies were using telemedicine for inbound students and visitors, and for medical monitoring by assistance medical teams.
He added that there was some engagement with local telemedicine providers in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand. He identified roadblocks as a lack of corporate or enterprise telemedicine solutions, difficulties with access to medical records, different standards of care and approaches to drugs and treatment, and malpractice and liability insurance cover.
Adrit Raha, Managing Director for APAC at CoverGo, was the final speaker. He opened by stating that the insurance industry is a huge market with a growing technology spend being driven by software as a service (SaaS). This represented a great opportunity. However, he cautioned thatwhile customers’ expectations and behaviours have changed, insurance companies have not transformed to address operating efficiency to the same extent as other industries.
Raha said that most insurance companies run on legacy systems, and this would need to change. To illustrate the point, he said that online processing of policies and claims from start to finish is now the customer’s top consideration when selecting an insurer. Further, he said that 75% of customers are willing to switch insurers if seamless policy servicing is not available. He noted that Covid-19 accelerated digital customer interactions by three to four years, with consumers moving to online channels.
Benefits for insurers who implement new technologically advanced systems include predictive analytics that can predict travel risks and anticipate potential disruptions. Raha also said that virtual assistance and guidance can be used to assist travellers during emergencies. Regarding claims, he said that introducing a digital claims portal would allow the client to file insurance claims instantly, upload supporting documents, and track claim status in real time.
Raha finished by stating that research had shown that for an individual insurer, introducing technology for distribution could increase revenues by 15–20% while also reducing costs by 5–15%.