ICICI Lombard Looks To Tap OPD Health Insurance Industry With Practo

ICICI Lombard General Insurance has launched a health insurance app — ‘IL TakeCare’ in collaboration with healthtech startup Practo. The app aims to meet the key customer requirements with respect to their primary healthcare needs.

The ‘IL TakeCare’ application works in sync with Practo’s ‘Trinity’ technology which will help patients get a paperless and cashless experience for everyday healthcare needs such as doctor visits, medicine purchase, online consultations as well as diagnostic tests.

Practo Founder and CEO, Shashank ND said, “Practo has been working towards simplifying the healthcare experience for consumers. Today we are launching our Trinity technology to help patients and doctors get a seamless experience at both ends. Trinity is an important step in our efforts to build a connected healthcare platform.”

How Trinity’s Practo Integration Will Boost Up ‘IL TakeCare’ App

With Trinity’s integration into IL TakeCare, customers can visit ICICI Lombard empaneled clinics on Practo’s provider network by booking appointments through the app or just walking into a clinic. The system will recognise them automatically and verify the transaction to improve transparency.

Trinity enables seamless transfer of structured digital prescriptions from the doctors to help ICICI Lombard identify prescribed tests, treatments and medicines which facilitates real-time adjudication of claims and would ensure periodic settlement for doctors.

With Trinity, doctors and clinics across the country can also accept ICICI Lombard Insurance via Practo’s software platform.

What’s There In The ICICI Lombard’s Healthcare Insurance App?

The app features hassle-free, real-time claim authentication of expenses such as doctor consultation, medical tests, pharmacy spends etc. It also empowers the user to access a cashless network comprising of specialised doctors.

“The app thus addresses a key problem of customers wherein they were hitherto required to pay for OPD expenses from their own pocket,” claims the company in an official statement.

The IL TakeCare app also allows users to book a network diagnostics centre for medical tests and receive the results on the app, which automatically becomes an online repository of medical records. They can also buy medicines at discounted rates and pick them from a medical store or get delivery at their home.

The app further facilitates real-time view of personal health records (PHRs) as well as benefits, billings and transactions for service providers. It comes with a one-time password (OTP) for all transactions via mobile or email and provides multiple access points for family members. The solution will be made available to customers with due consent of the regulator.

ICICI Lombard General Insurance, MD and CEO, Bhargav Dasgupta said, “At ICICI Lombard, we are focussed on introducing innovative solutions that make life easy for our customers. Our ‘IL TakeCare’ app is a step forward in this direction and caters to a large and currently neglected aspect of healthcare – outpatient expenses towards consultation, diagnostics and medicines.”

As mentioned in the official press release shared by ICICI Lombard, the Indian health insurance industry, is poised to reach $7.86 Bn (INR 500 Bn) by 2021 at a CAGR of 20%. Having said this, lack of outpatient coverage is a major inhibiting factor for growth, with around two-third of medical expenses classified as out of pocket.

As per estimates, standalone outpatient care in terms of size would be 6 times of the current health insurance market. Drugs, diagnostics, consultations and tests primarily constitute out-of-pocket-expenses.

In India, outpatient expenses are met through personal income and savings, raising the issue of the ability of OPD patients to pay for various medical services. In fact, as per experts, about 3.5% of the population is below the poverty line because of out-of-pocket expenses, which can decline to 0.5% if out-of-pocket payments for outpatient care are excluded.

For many years, insurance sector has been limited to traditional practices. However, the companies are now adopting new technologies and are also partnering with growing tech startups to meet the common goals. The partnership between Practo and ICICI Lombard is an example of the same. In long run, how both the insurance and healthcare sector will evolve with this kind of fusion, will be interesting to watch.