Max Bupa Health Insurance (MBHI) will look to triple its gross written premium (GWP) to nearly ₹3,500 crore by 2023-24 from the current level of over ₹1,250 crore, a top official said.

This company, among the fastest-growing five-year-plus mature standalone health insurers in the country, expects to close the current fiscal with GWP of over ₹1,250 crore, higher than the ₹947 crore GWP recorded in 2018-19, Ashish Mehrotra, Managing Director & CEO, told BusinessLine .

This fiscal, the company has already crossed the ₹1,000-crore GWP mark. Till January this fiscal, the new business premium had recorded 65 per cent growth, compared to 38 per cent growth in FY18-19.

In its journey from FY2010-11 to FY18-19, MBHI has recorded a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 57 per cent.

“In the next two to three years, we will look to expand our footprint to 100 cities (from 58 cities now), while driving our outreach and expansion program to Tier 2 and 3 markets. We will drive penetration and profitability across all channels — banca, digital and agency,” he said.

There is massive potential for growth across the board, he said. Now that True North has become the controlling shareholder, MBHI will look to fast-track its investment and growth. “We will look to widen penetration in Tier 2 and 3 markets. We will get access to growth capital and that will help us leapfrog. We are aiming for 3x growth in number of lives in next three to four years and we are confident of getting doing that. We have about 30 lakh customers,” he said.

It may be recalled that Max India had, in February last year, sold its entire 51 per cent stake in Max Bupa Health Insurance to private equity firm True North Fund VI LLP for over ₹510.5 crore.

This transaction, which received IRDAI approval in December last year, was an all-cash deal, which valued Max Bupa at an enterprise value of ₹1,001 crore. Bupa continues to retain 49 per cent stake in the joint venture.

Friends assurance

One of the three regulatory sandbox-approved products that Max Bupa intends to roll out in the next few days is ‘Friends Assurance’. This is a sort of group insurance — like your morning walkers group or your batchmates or people who go to the gym together can form a group. “These are individual policies but bundled under a group. We will launch it next week with a generic name and at some point brand it. As the group score improves, you will get a discount on the premium,” he said.

The next sandbox-approved product would be an extension of an Internet-of-Things (IOT)-device that measures one’s activity levels and coaching services.

Digital transformation

Over the last few years, as part of the massive digital transformation of the business, Max Bupa had set up a digital centre of excellence to fast-track its journey. In this digital era, a major part of the strategy was to make the company completely digital-enabled.

“We are still going to operate in the physical world but we now have a complete digital ecosystem in place. We are going to have all the digital tools that will make the customer engagement seamless and deliver a significantly superior experience, for providing instant fulfilment. We have done that at the time of customer on-boarding. Now we are moving it to claim settlement through AI and machine learning. We will now be looking to process 40 per cent of claims (at accuracy levels of 99.5 per cent) through AI and ML and cut the process time by almost 90 per cent. That is a significant benefit for our customers as both in cashless and reimbursement they will get significantly improved turnaround. We will aim to get it to 40 per cent and take it to the next level,” he said.

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