Video
From digital attackers to the trend of focused products, several forces are disrupting the health insurance business model. Vikram Kapur, who leads Bain's Healthcare practice in Asia-Pacific, discusses how insurers can embrace a disruptive mindset to emerge as future winners.
Read the transcript below.
VIKRAM KAPUR: The health insurance opportunity is really large and compelling. As health insurers look to capture the opportunities [coming] from increasing awareness and increasing affordability, while at the same time navigating a lot of the cost challenges in front of them, their business model's being disrupted. And what we see is really three disruptive forces at play.
First, it's these digital attackers—these small insurgent companies that are looking to bring digital solutions to address the pain points in the patient journey. Secondly, we see a move towards more focused, more-tailored products. And then thirdly, it is really a move towards integration across the healthcare value chain.
So as we look to the future, what we believe will really separate the winners from the losers in the health insurance space is the players who embrace this disruptive mindset. What does that mean? Firstly, it means being very, very clear around the role of digital in your strategy. How does it strengthen your core, while at the same time, how does it help you go after some of these more adjacent growth opportunities?
Secondly, it is a move towards much more focused, tailored, targeted products: disease-specific; modular. And finally, embracing this partnership mindset. On one end, looking at working with delivery systems to improve the patient experience. Looking to contain costs through gatekeeping models. Working with pharma and medtech companies to go after solutions that improve access and affordability to treatment for big diseases. And then finally, as these online-to-offline healthcare ecosystems emerge, making sure you find ways to cement yourselves at the center of it.