Mayank Bathwal: Health Insurance 2.0
By Sandhya Mishra
Mayank Bathwal shares a high-level, holistic healthcare vision for year 2020.
Mayank is known for his positive energy personified, empathetic and above all, extremely motivating nature. “He never fails to impress his team and the professional environment with his scholastic and intellectual outlook and talk,” recalls one of his former colleague.
Some leaders aren’t the way they are because it’s the latest fad in a long line of gewgaw leadership hype. They do it because they can’t help it.
Mayank Bathwal, CEO, Aditya Birla Health Insurance Co. Limited, is one such leader.
In early 90’s, not long after qualifying as Chartered Accountant (ICAI) and Companies Secretary (ICSI), he joined an Indian multinational conglomerate, Aditya Birla Group. There has been no looking back since. He worked closely in various units and projects of the group including fertilizer and copper smelting units, financial services business and power projects. He has a record of entering new market and turning them around on a growth trajectory.
He quickly rose through the ranks and was chosen for setting up the latest venture for Aditya Birla Group in the health insurance space. Mayank ended his stint as the Deputy CEO of Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance and became the CEO of Aditya Birla Health Insurance, a first of its kind truly digital health insurance company in India, in August 2015.
ABHI, today with its unique value proposition of incentivized wellness, a differentiated business model and an efficient multi-channel distribution system has become one of the fastest growing standalone health insurer in FY19.
Sandhya Mishra speaks to Mayank Bathwal, CEO, Aditya Birla Health Insurance, to share his vision 2020 about healthcare sector.
Mayank says, “It is imperative to make products that are more relevant for the whole population in a way that a larger pie can access and afford it.”
“Breakthrough of medical science bringing in robotic tech and AI-driven tech for modern treatments, predictive/preventive risk models to offer convenient buying, the evolution of delivery channels such as digital, and using it for personalized treatments will improve treatment efficacy and health outcome.”
He also agrees that diagnosis done basis AI will also improve health outcome. “It is important to make health inclusive, affordable and accessible, throughout consumer life cycle. Digital-based customer acquisition, BOT and smartphones will enable us to achieve that. By leveraging the above, health insurance is funding the delivery of healthcare – by creating an eco-system to make the whole customer journey robust.”
Major Innovation Trends Transforming Healthcare Business
We’ve seen two dimensions of innovation emerge in the healthcare business in India. On one front, while the health care funding as percentage of GDP is still low as compared to similar countries including China, yet the framework for catering to different economic segments of the customer pyramid is in place now.
For low Income category - Ayushman Bharat Scheme by the government (which in itself is innovative as the largest scheme in the world),
Mid income category - Arogya Sanjeevani Policy from the regulator with emphasis on standard product by insurers;
Mid to High income category – Wide range of products by existing players in the GI/ SAHI space.
On the other front i.e., the health insurance solution part for customers, we are at the forefront of innovation. Presently the health insurance companies are focusing on:
Creating newer products that include and offer wellness, disease-specific, existing chronic or lifestyle-related diseases;
Leveraging new age technology in servicing customers, to ease customer experience. For instance, the use of AI/ Bots in the claims management process
Expanding Relevance of the offering by increasing strategic partnerships with health tech or insurtech players for acquiring, engaging, servicing and retaining more customers.
What's India’s place in the world healthcare map?
“In my view we see two sides of this in India. At one end we have a large medical tourism interest/opportunity in the country and on the other end there is a large gap to fill up in terms of healthcare needs of the Indian population. For eg: India is the diabetic capital of the world. We are still struggling with mitigation of communicable diseases as our share with reference to mortality from non-communicable diseases on an average is higher than our share of population globally. Also, nearly 65% of the healthcare expenditure is still out of pocket as compared to that of developed economies.
Mayank strongly advocates the need of better healthcare facilities. “While we are swiftly moving ahead in this journey, there is still a long way to go. We have a severe shortage on the supply side in terms of number of beds, general physicians/ specialists and nurses as compared to that of the population. Hence, we need to focus more on health infra and delivery needs which can be achieved by strategic public-private partnerships. At the same time, I do feel government needs to up its budgetary allocation towards health sector from the very low 1.5 %,” he adds.
The Future
Innovation in health is making healthcare more affordable and relevant in India. “Today, people are seeking the best medical facilities. The government has created awareness regarding the need for health insurance at the secondary and tertiary levels with Ayushman Bharat. Similarly, the regulator is contributing to shaping the future of healthcare with the introduction of Aarogya Sanjeevani (standardization of products) and several other initiatives. Even the General Insurance Council launched a campaign ‘Faayde Ki Baat’ to raise awareness about insurance and its benefits. Stakeholders are in support of universal healthcare, therefore, the right mechanism of funding involving state, population and the insurer is the need of the hour. All these indicators are positive for health insurance growth in India. In my view, the Indian health insurance sector is at the cusp of accelerating growth and will continue to be so,” he concludes.