For the healthcare sector, the year 2020 has a challenge in every step. Right from fighting the pandemic, saving the medical fraternity all the while to the long-term effects that COVID-19 might have on surviving patients and the mental trauma that many had to face due to extended isolation periods. While people might have accepted the changes and are trying to live with it the challenges continue to evolve and nag the industry.
Medical Insurance sector also felt the effects. To start, many, including the insurers did not know what and how to cover the COVID-19 claims that came pouring in. The policyholders found themselves paying an exorbitant amount of money for treatment and the insurance providers were looking forward to the guidelines that could help them deal with it. Whether health insurance is being provided by public establishments or private players, it played another crucial role in the way insurance money was handled.
With the economic slowdown, it was tough for policyholders to pay their premiums in due time. So, policy providers had to quickly reshuffle the premium days giving extensions to handle the building capital pressure. The categorization of what is to be paid out and what not was another challenge. With no standardized cost of treatment and inclusion of novel items like PPE kits into mandatory and routine treatment, they had a hard time figuring out the payables from the non-payables.
On the brighter side, health insurance providers saw a surge in demand for policies. An increase in the number of queries also led to the development of new policies and products that could better cater to communicable diseases in the future. Taking a leaf out of the SARS pandemic that earlier caused havoc, this time around the providers actually had something to build on even though the current data was not sufficient enough. It also provided them with an opportunity to partner with hospitals and corporates for providing better health care benefits.
Overall, the medical insurance and the healthcare sector are set for a revamp even when the pandemic is curbed. There has to be a unison among the various parties involved in providing healthcare starting from patients, to the hospitals to the insurance providers. In this edition of Insights Care, we present 10 of the Best Healthcare Brands in 2020 who are now a part of this transformation. Being a part of the healthcare system, they have a deep understanding of how it functions and how it can be transformed for better without slowing down or taking a pause from the services being provided.