Global Insurers Expanding Healthcare and Big Data... South Korea Sighs Over Discriminatory Regulations (Comprehensive)

UK and Japan Flooded with Remote Medical Consultation Services
South Korea Only Allows Provision to Insurance Policyholders

Declared 'Korean New Deal' but
Healthcare Big Data Remains Useless

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] British life insurance company AIG started offering medical consultation services via video calls on its application in May, along with delivering personal prescriptions and medicines to life insurance policyholders. This innovation has attracted attention as a way to ensure customer safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, when social distancing has become crucial.

Naver's Japanese subsidiary Line not only sells products from major insurance companies but has also partnered with the online medical service provider M3 since the end of last year to offer remote health consultation services. For 2000 yen, users can chat online with a doctor for 30 minutes to discuss their health status or symptoms. They can also choose doctors specializing in internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, dermatology, and other fields. The Japanese government is promoting a plan to provide free remote medical health consultations to all citizens through Line.

The rise of 'Insurtech' (a combination of insurance and technology) is changing the global insurance industry's framework, leading to increasing calls for deregulation of domestic insurance companies.

Although healthcare management using IT technology and big data has emerged as a new growth area in the insurance industry, unlike overseas insurers, domestic companies face tight regulations that make it difficult to find opportunities in the insurtech market. Experts point out the need to relax related regulations such as the Insurance Business Act and Medical Service Act within limits that do not disrupt market order, to nurture this as a new blue ocean.

According to the insurance industry on the 10th, since the COVID-19 pandemic, 'non-face-to-face' and 'health management' have become social keywords, and insurance companies are setting healthcare as a major business model and introducing various services.

Amid market stagnation and the urgent need for growth engines, they plan to expand non-face-to-face healthcare services and secure market leadership.

Hanwha Life analyzes 10 years of health checkup information using its non-face-to-face health management application 'HELLO'. It calculates the biological age of customers based on their health level and offers benefits such as mobile coupons when health missions are achieved.

Kyobo Life also launched the 'Health Coaching Service' app, which provides one-on-one customized healthcare services. It evaluates physical health age through IoT-based exercise analysis and management of exercise, nutrition, stress, alcohol moderation, and smoking cessation. Customers can receive health consultations based on the results. Several insurance companies have introduced and operate healthcare services that offer insurance premium discounts or gift certificates based on step counts.

However, domestic insurtech services face difficulties in conducting proper business due to regulatory limitations. The government allowed health management services as ancillary business for insurance companies in July last year.

The problem is that these services are stipulated to be provided only to insurance policyholders. This means that non-policyholders cannot use them. This contrasts with health management apps like 'Cashwalk' that anyone can use. The industry argues that expanding the scope of permission is necessary to improve the quality of healthcare services.

In the big data sector, considered part of the 'Korean New Deal,' insurance companies are also blocked by regulations. Although the amendment of the 'Data 3 Act' has enabled industrial use of data, health and medical data remain unusable.

The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) provided de-identified patient data to insurance companies and the Korea Insurance Development Institute through the Health and Medical Big Data Center, but data provision was completely halted after being criticized during the 2017 National Assembly audit for providing data not for public interest.

Insurance companies claim that utilizing data would enable the development of new products tailored for patients with illnesses and the elderly, as well as economic benefits such as premium discounts through improved rating systems.

An insurance industry official said, "While discussions on big data utilization are active at the national level, the use of health and medical information by insurance companies remains unresolved," adding, "It is necessary to allow the use of de-identified patient data provided by the National Health Insurance Service and HIRA."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.