Mumbai:
ICICI Lombard General Insurance,has launched a `Wellness Index', India’s first ever and one of its kind barometer to capture the wellness quotient of the country.
As per a pan-India study commissioned by the general insurer, the Wellness Index of India is 58.3 out of 100, a fairly moderate score for the second-largest populated nation in the world.
The Wellness Index, measures the well-being and quantifies the current state of wellness among individuals or groups. While many studies are conducted to understand consumer attitude and implementation of Wellness, there is no study that measures Wellness aspect in specific areas and in a scientific manner, said ICICI Lombard General Insurance.
Bhargav Dasgupta, MD & CEO, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company said, “At ICICI Lombard, we have been focusing on the aspect of wellness over the last few years, given our emphasis on introducing best in class risk management and mitigation practices for our customers.Further, the launch of the wellness index will help us scientifically capture consumer preferences on this important aspect of wellness and thereby introduce relevant and innovative wellness focused solutions.
“We will definitely encourage our policyholders to score higher on the wellness index front, which has been launched by us today. We also plant to give some discount to the best policyholders , maybe at around 5 per cent. Please remember that if we give discount at some place, then we will also have to go for extra loading at other places, so as to strike a balance,'' he said..
According to Desgupta, the company has been able to bring down the claim ratio under individual health insurance within 100 per cent sometime back. At the same time, the claim ratio under group health insurance has also come close to 100 per cent. It was possible by withdrawing from loss incurring mass schemes like RSBY.
“Our health portfolio currently stands at Rs 2500 crore, which shows an increase of more than 20 per cent over previous fiscal. We were able to sell 2.5 lakh health insurance policies during the year gone by. We settled claim to the tune of RS 1200-1300 crore during last fiscal, which was less than that of the previous year's claims,'' he explained.
Daniel Kraft of USA, a well known physician-scientistsaid, “Globally, Wellness is fast gaining significant importance in consumer’s life. I clearly see a trend in developed economies like the US, in Europe where healthcare companies including insurers are increasingly focusing on playing a key role in keeping their customers healthy through risk mitigation practices.”
With lifestyle-related illnesses on the rise and a clear trend towards adopting Wellness by consumers at large, the ICICI Lombard Wellness Index will serve as a benchmark platform to capture trends and changing consumer needs in this all important area of Wellness.
For developing the Wellness Index, ICICI Lombard commissioned the study across 11 cities including Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and non-metros such as Ahmedabad, Indore, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Bhubaneshwar.
Overall around 2,350 consumers were interviewed, of which 1,175 respondents were among those who indulged in some form of wellness. The comprehensive research was conducted over 115 days.