Global Insurance Accelerator (GIA) has announced its 2020 cohort, with a strong representation of MedTech startups aiming to change the life and health insurance space. A lot of innovation investment in life insurance (and, therefore, from life InsureTech startups), has focused on distribution and front-end interactions, but these MedTech startups are aiming to rethink the process from the back end out.
Claims is ripe for innovation in long-term care (LTC) and health insurance, and it represents an opportunity to improve stakeholder experience as well as outcomes in all segments. Caregiven is one such company from the GIA cohort tackling beneficiary engagement, offering a platform to guide families through end-of-life care for loved ones. Similarly, TCare is looking to reduce LTC claims by supporting caregivers and delaying placement in nursing homes.
MedTech also has potential applications in underwriting through data collection, AI, and improved health. This isn’t necessarily anything new; partnerships like the one between John Hancock and Vitality have incorporated wearables to collect data and incentivize healthy behavior. However, many of these initiatives have enhanced customer engagement more than they have improved or automated underwriting.
Yet MedTech startups provide monitoring and AI platforms to tackle underwriting more directly through disease detection or record review. Examples from the GIA cohort include Summary Medical, which uses AI to automate review of medical records to help speed up life insurance underwriting. UDoTest also has applications to underwriting, providing at-home disease testing software with the goal of “improving insurance outcomes.”
It’s encouraging to see organizations like the Global Insurance Accelerator insurers helping foster the growth of life and health-focused innovation in the industry. Insurers are certainly waking up to the value of InsureTech partnership, and MedTech provides yet another path through which life insurers could outsource some innovation. As life insurers contend with new market pressures, MedTech startups may be able to provide some relief in the form of value-added services and improved underwriting.
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