As state-owned insurance companies scramble to get their act together, third party administrators need to be more efficient to justify their existence
A few months ago three state-run insurance companies, who were making big losses on their health insurance scheme, ran a simple exercise. They collated data on the cost of hospitalisation for patients who had an insurance policy and those who did not, for 40 commonplace problems like cataract and knee joint replacement. The cost per claim of insured patients stood higher, anywhere between 15-40 percent. The bill for patients who had a policy from one of the state-run firms invariably stood at the higher end of this band.
(This story appears in the 27 August, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)