Page 29 - Insurance Times April 2023

transmission systems including being riskier to the driving pattern of a driver and ultimately quantifying the
passengers leading to crash events. The telematics data pattern in the form of a score. The score also acts a guardrail
may not only offer vehicle's acceleration at say one to for driver coaching to better driving skills.
two second intervals, but contextualization built into the
application, may also give useful insights such as the One of the challenges that confront Insurers, is the ability to
probable reasons that may have led to hard acceleration. make reasonable predictions of a risk materializing. By gaining
It is possible that a driver might have been trying to a better visibility of a fine-grained view of driving behavior of
avoid hitting an object or from being hit by an object. the driver along with contextual data, underwriters& risk
professionals can better price their customers. With data on
5. Idle time - Idle time refers to the time-period when a several factors determining driving behavior, they can get
vehicle's engine is running but vehicle is stationary rich insights on what to consider and what not to, to arrive at
without moving. Whilst certain occasions may warrant a suitable price which is more personalized per customer
idling a vehicle like stop signs, traffic, any incident along with added benefits of reduced frequency and severity
enroute or when a driver is on a long haul on a highway,
of claims. Many such applications also come with plug and
idling the vehicle too often leads to rapid fuel burn as
play interface enabling integration with Auto Insurers' IT
well as increase in maintenance and running costs over
systems.
short to long term. A Telematics application may not
only send alerts to user driver to stop the engine, with
Conclusion
intelligent contextualization built into it, but data from
Telematics as a data driven digital offering helps in informed
telematics can also offer rich insights on the idling time
over the total trip duration which can help in driver decision making, improves pricing accuracy, enhances driver
coaching. safety and reduces claim costs. As traffic resumes to pre-
pandemic levels coupled with renewal rates set to rise to
A typical Telematics application may use hard metrics like 8.4% across US in 2023 according to a recent report from
the ones above and may also overlay them with contextual Value Penguin, a usage-based Insurance product like
information like weather pattern, traffic / traffic congestion, Telematics offers a great value proposition to Auto-Insurers
road characteristics, accident hotspots etc. to determine the and customers alike.

ICICI Lombard Revolutionizes Health Insurance with 'Anywhere

Cashless' Feature, Providing Hassle-free Medical Treatment at

any Hospital
In an industry-first move, ICICI Lombard - one of India's leading private sector general insurance companies, has announced
the launch of its latest feature, "Anywhere Cashless" for their health insurance policyholders. This new feature allows
customers to avail cashless facilities at any hospital- even if it is not a part of ICICI Lombard’s current network of hospitals.
*Customers will not have to bear any out-of-pocket expenses.

The “Anywhere Cashless” feature is subject to the hospital's acceptance of the cashless facility. To use this feature
policyholders must inform the company 24 hours before their date of admission. They can then provide basic information
about the patient, policy details, hospital name, diagnosis, treating doctor etc. The feature can be accessed through the
IL TakeCare app under the ‘Service we offer’ section. This feature was initially launched as a pilot and now can be availed
through the IL TakeCare App across India.

Looking through the lens of the customers, the present-day hassles of deposits, paying all expenses, collecting all original
payment receipts and also coordinating with the insurance company to understand every minute detail, are eliminated
with the Anywhere cashless feature. It provides a hassle-free experience through all aspects of the journey- from
admission to discharge. It also lets customers choose a nearby or recommended hospital and focus on their family's well-
being instead of dealing with insurance details at the time of treatment.

26 April 2023 The Insurance Times