Transforming Health Insurance Technology: 6 Opportunities for Innovation

Amidst an era characterized by health crises, foremost among them the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s a lot of pressure for health insurance companies to step up.

No longer is it enough for health insurance businesses to rely on the legacy infrastructure of yesteryears. The approach should be towards innovating, meeting customers’ evolving demands, and responding to the pace of changes within the industry.

Luckily for the health insurance sector, there are countless opportunities for health insurance innovation. The sooner that companies upgrade their current health insurance technologies, the faster they will be rewarded with returns on their investment.

Innovative approaches will also prepare health insurance businesses to lead their industry through crises like COVID-19.

If your mind is on growing your health insurance company—and not merely keeping it alive—innovating its core processes and operations is the answer.  

Among the benefits of adopting a new health insurance solution for your own company are the following:

• Greater ease in releasing new insurance products to new markets;
• The chance to increase your overall rates of enrollment and retention;
• Readiness to scale up your company using your new health insurance platform; and
• The opportunity to distinguish your brand from your competitor brands as a future-ready and forward-thinking insurance enterprise.

Here are six opportunities that lie in wait for health insurance companies pursuing further innovation. These should be reason enough for you to consider upgrading your business’s current lineup of health insurance technology.

1. All-Inclusive Digitization for Health Insurance Companies

The first big opportunity that lies ahead for health insurance companies is the all-inclusive digital transformation of their businesses.

Most steps in the traditional insurance process, like filling out enrollment forms and consultations, can be done online. These steps can be re-engineered for customer completion on computer screens or mobile screens, done on increasingly flexible schedules.

Employees of health insurance companies benefit from this added flexibility, too. If the business shifts to a digital platform, employees are no longer limited to doing their best work exclusively on the premises.

Increased digital operations will allow delivery of insurance services in hybrid environments, combining work done from business headquarters and work done remotely. 

2. A Streamlined Approach to Health Insurance Policies and Products

The second opportunity pertains to simplifying and streamlining your health insurance company’s current offerings.

Note that less of the spotlight will be allotted to bundled, catch-all health insurance products, which were once the aspiration of older members of the workforce.

Today, the focus is on smaller, simplified products that easily appeal to younger markets, like that of millennials and Gen Z.

Take the opportunity to simplify your policies and products—as well as the steps to enroll in your insurance program—and you’ll be rewarded. You’ll likely see a difference in the rate of new enrollments and retentions, which are essential for keeping your business relevant.

3. Cost Optimization and Cost Flexibility Through the Cloud

Running a new cloud-based health insurance solution can be much more forgiving on your administrative costs. The cost of ownership for a new cloud-based tech stack may end up being lower than an exclusively on-premise solution.

Thanks to your tech, your business can build its savings by using fewer internal resources to complete its processes. You can also stand to earn more from improved business efficiency and responsiveness to your customers.

4. Mastery Over Claims Management

Claims management is one of the make-or-break aspects of healthcare insurance. An excellent claims management strategy mutually benefits clients and carriers and bolsters trust between the two parties.

On the flip side, if claims management capabilities are weak, carriers will lose money as well as their clients’ trust.

Thus, claims management is a part of the insurance process that deserves to be on the receiving end of innovation. The opportunity to master claims management is one that your health insurance business should take without hesitation.

Businesses can garner considerable savings just from digitizing claim status inquiry, which is one of the most expensive transactions for carriers and their partners to conduct.

5. Enhanced Stakeholder Engagement Through Digitization

The fifth opportunity that presents itself when health insurance companies innovate is that of improved stakeholder engagement.

A digital transformation may result in better customer service and improved enrollment and billing processes, thanks to automation technologies.

Digitization may also lead health insurance executives to make more customer-centric decisions. Using data analytics will reveal which insurance products are most in demand and which demographic seems most promising for new enrollments.

Digitizing the system will make it easier to customize insurance products and tailor-fit them even more closely to your customers’ needs and life stages. This is yet another way to get your customers more involved and cultivate their trust in your insurance programs.

6. Improved Compliance for Health Insurance Businesses

Health insurance businesses are also due to undertake new challenges in compliance. Among other factors for compliance, regulatory bodies for insurance are paying attention to customer data management and best practices in data exchange. As such, improving their systems is the sixth big opportunity that health insurance companies should take.

Digitizing will help health insurance businesses complete the tedious task of compliance and earn the good faith of regulators.

An upgraded health insurance solution will keep a company on track when it comes to complying with industry standards, both in the current time and in the future.