The Accenture Business Intelligence Solution for Insurance

Every day, senior executives in the insurance industry must make complex, business-critical decisions that take into account a wide array of performance metrics and market intelligence. Facing rigorous regulation and complex information-rich value chains, insurance companies have an absolute need for detailed, granular knowledge of what is happening in their operations, together with an ability to analyze this information in real time to investigate specific events, emerging trends and future what-if scenarios.

In many cases, the difficulty of achieving world-class business intelligence (BI) in insurance is compounded by insurers’ legacy information assets. At the same time, ongoing change in consumers, competition and capabilities means insurance businesses face growing pressure to break down their traditional, rigid information silos.

Long Term Care Insurance and Planning

The statistics do not lie – nearly one in two over the age of 65 will need some form of long term care medical assistance. The average nursing home stay is approximately three years and the cost can be anywhere from $30,000 to $90,000 annually. A three year stay in a nursing home in an average priced facility could cost over $210,000. At the same time, the federal and state governments are enforcing recent law changes regarding Medicaid. These changes make it more difficult than ever to qualify for Medicaid benefits.

Relying on Medicaid is no Longer a Viable Solution for Most Estates The passing of the Deficit Reduction Act makes clear that government entitlement programs will no longer pay for fiscally able consumers. Individuals and families trying to avoid privately paying by giving away or hiding assets are unlikely to qualify for Medicaid. The look back period has increased from 36 to 60 months and gifting assets to family will only delay any Medicaid benefits you might receive therefore negating the gift itself. Medicaid only allows $500,000 in property value and will attach a lean to your property to recuperate its outlays.

How to Select a Health Insurance Plan

Health insurance is a necessary item for all individuals regardless of overall health. At any given time we as humans are susceptible to injury or illness and should the time come when we are in dire need of health care, we should not have to be faced with the choice of suffering through pain and discomfort because we cannot foot the bill for a trip to the emergency room or urgent care. However, it is also important to understand that not all health plans work in the same way.

Some insurance terms that you should understand:
Copay: A small fixed amount required by a health insurer to be paid by the insured for each outpatient visit or drug prescription. Copays differ in amount from policy to policy and the most common form of copayment is for an office visit to see the doctor. Copayments also apply for outpatient procedures like same-day surgeries, emergency room visits, and as mentioned above, prescriptions.

Indian Insurance from Underwriters perspective

Insurance companies in India are clearly divided into 2 part (again a British Legacy) – a) The Life Insurance, covering the Life of an individual or group. Any thing that does not fall into this category falls into b) Non-life Insurance. There is also a 3rd group or the so called a gray area, where both Life and Non-life Insurance Companies compete now. It is Health Insurance & Credit Insurance.

Underwriters of Insurance companies have traditionally ruled the market before
liberalization, since it was Seller’s Market. LIC for Life Insurance and 4 sisters from Non Life Companies (All Govt. owned) served the market for over 3 decades. It is amazing to see, how much the Indian Insurance canvas has changed now. In flat 6 years of active liberalization, we now have more than 30 Insurance Companies, competing and working hard over-time to garner, bigger share of growing USD 20.00 billion market. Interesting to see, that the lion share of the market is still with the past leader only i.e.

Indian Insurance from Customers perspective

Indian Insurance consumers are like Indian Voters, they are soft but when time is right and ripe, they demand and seek necessary changes. De-tariff of many Insurance Products are the reflection of changing aspirations and growing demand of Indian consumers.

For historical years, Indian consumers were at receiving end. Insurance Product was underwritten and was practically forced onto consumers on a “Take-it-As-it-basis”. All that got changed with passage of IRDA act in 1999. New insurance companies have come into existence leading to open competition and hence better products for customers.

Indian customers have become very sensitive to Coverage / Premium as well as the Products (read Risk Solution), that is given to them. There are not ready to accept any product, no matter even if that is coming from the market leader, should that product is not serving the purpose. A case in point is ULIP Product / Group Life and Credit Life in Life Insurance segment and Travel / Family Floater Health and Liability Insurance in the Non-life segment are new age Avatar.

Getting Health Insurance Before Leaving Your Job

One of the biggest concerns and stumbling blocks a lot of Future Retiries have and make is in the area of getting Health Insurance. Now, your needs will vary and change due to having a family or being single...

Although the cost of health insurance is continually rising, it is something that most individuals and families cannot afford to go without. So it’s important to understand the different types of health insurance that are available to you, so you can choose the right health insurance policy that fits your budget.