[Become an Insurance Insider] Choose an Insurance Company If You Want Health Management

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[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyungil] JP Morgan and Amazon Berkshire Hathaway established the healthcare specialized company 'Haven,' entering a new industry combining finance, distribution, and telecommunications. China's Tencent is selling customized insurance products for diabetes patients in partnership with ZhongAn Insurance. Additionally, UnitedHealth Group in the U.S., Ping An Insurance in China, and Dai-ichi Life in Japan are operating healthcare platform services for the general public.

Financial companies worldwide are entering the healthcare industry. Korean insurance companies now have the opportunity to provide healthcare services not only to policyholders but also to the general public. Financial authorities are actively promoting the activation of healthcare services in the insurance sector to improve public health.

Until now, insurance companies have provided healthcare services in two ways: health management services and health promotion insurance products.

Health management services collect and analyze health activity information such as steps, meals, sleep, exercise, blood pressure, and blood sugar based on the Internet of Things (IoT), providing counseling, advice, and rewards. The products offer consumer-tailored coverage and benefits such as disease protection and premium discounts linked to individual health data of policyholders.

However, going forward, providing health management services to the general public will be allowed, and regulations will be revised to permit ownership of subsidiaries in related fields such as healthcare. The financial authorities are operating the 'Insurance Sector Healthcare Activation Task Force' and plan to promote improvements in subsidiary ownership regulations and the use of joint administrative information networks in the insurance sector through amendments to enforcement ordinances in the first half of next year.

Insurance companies are also accelerating their entry into the healthcare field. Shinhan Life Insurance reported health management services for the general public as an ancillary business, becoming the first domestic insurer to do so.

Furthermore, Shinhan Life launched the digital healthcare platform 'HowFIT,' which will provide AI home training services to non-policyholders as well. HowFIT offers exercise coaching by AI recognizing movements through mobile devices alone, without wearable equipment, during real-time lectures conducted by famous influencers.

Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance announced support for chronic disease management services for employees of corporate clients through cooperation with healthcare specialist company Huray Positive and Gangbuk Samsung Hospital. This program, introduced for the first time in Korea, is a mobile health management service targeting office workers.

Orange Life signed a strategic business partnership with Evidnet, a healthcare big data and AI specialized company. Orange Life plans to develop products and services that meet various customer needs by utilizing Evidnet's healthcare big data.

Since insurance analyzes and guarantees health as a financial product, insurance companies are evaluated to be ahead of other financial institutions in combining financial and health data. Various services are expected to emerge to capture the healthcare market.

In particular, with rapid aging and the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), non-face-to-face health management is becoming increasingly important.

An insurance industry official said, "Capturing the healthcare market means not only securing customers but also acquiring new growth engines," adding, "Competition among insurance companies in healthcare services will gradually intensify."

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