Encouraged by the rising use of the Internet for health-related queries, private health insurer Max Bupa launched its online sales platform around a week ago.

The company, an year-old joint venture between healthcare and insurance firm Max India and UK-based Bupa, expects the new model to boost health insurance sales, especially policy renewals — which most are comfortable doing online. Max Bupa focuses on internet-savvy customers, tuned to their products that are priced 25-30 per cent higher than competitors.

“We just had a soft launch for online sales last week. The traffic on our Web site is about a lakh a month, so we hope that much of it may translate into business. This (online sales) can be really big for renewals,” Ms Shefali Chhachhi, Director (Marketing), Max Bupa told Business Line . The company may also pass on savings made through this low-cost distribution model to the customer, she said. However, this will happen only after this sales channel becomes popular, since many customers are still not very comfortable buying policies online.

Ms Chhachhi said the company will also look to increasingly use the Internet for marketing, with a focus on health-related Web sites, which potential customers frequent. The company has four products on sale — two individual, one for group and the other for rural micro-health insurance for self-help groups. A fifth individual product for rural areas awaits the regulator's approval.

“We'll add value through interactive health management. The top Web searches currently are on yoga, weight loss, diabetes or gym … we're looking to build content based on this data,” she said.

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